sunday evening / vision

The last two posts on the last post, were really good.
We do have some people starting to think in terms of possibilities.
see below:


Going back to the visionaries ideas, have any of you been to Atchison,KS, Weston,KS, or Parkville, MO? They are all small towns that have made a name for themselves by becoming a destination for antique/home goods/shopping for stuff that not everyone carries kind of people.

Excellent point
I still recall my trip through Arkansas City in 1991. or maybe it was 1992. We were into the antique business at the time, and bought several things here to take back to our store in South Carolina. We had a booth inside an antique mall. We were amazed at the low prices, and made a nice chunk of change from our stop here.
Seems that there were several antique stores on Summit then. But im not sure.

anyways, That could be done fairly easily.
This could also be part of re-branding the town. We also have the western heritage, landrush etc., to add to it to give it more flavor.

If we could get a Main St. Association going, I think it could help in that area.



They are all relatively close to Kansas City, but they by no means are easy to get to. Ark City could even think in that kind of direction and get people from Wichita/Ponca/Tulsa/OKC to come shop. I've heard comments from shop owners in the places mentioned above they even have people coming up from OKC to shop for the weekends. All 3 places also have converted some of their historic homes (which AC has quite a few of) into Bed and Breakfasts. The "quaint" factor goes along way with people looking for shopping out of town. Just some more to think about.


Again, great point.
Dealers love going to other towns to show at antique malls. You have a lot of stuff shifting around like that. I learned to hate dealers and quit being one, but ... it is still an interesting idea.

This is a great idea. Add a couple nice little restaurants, a coffee shop perhaps, couple bed and breakfast type places, and youre in business.
We have a couple antique malls already.
They have decent stuff in them. THey just need more customers.


Oh, and Parkville is next to a river, so they've done a lot of touristy things with that as well.


Imagine that :)

Comments on another post below




So what if the hike bike trails ended up as a simple recreational area with some really nice RV pads, hookups and bathrooms -like those at the lakes with showers etc. Then an open area - somewhere with a Bandshell or an outdoor stage?

Sounds good to me :)
just like where we had our concert.
Or the park across the street would probably work too
>>


With the intent to schedule a Summer concert series - bluegrass, rock n roll, christian and the season culmunating with:
Me in my lawn chair, strawhat, reebox, shorts, tank top and shades - eating a steak, brat or 1 inch pork chop with fries from a mobile vendor and a large glass of ice cold tea. While listening to the great sounds of the Wichita, Tulsa, or Kansas City Symphony on a warm afternoon/evening! A talent worthy of a great crowd of all ages!


Excellent !
Add this to the antique shop motif, some historical touristy things .. maybe a raft or canoe trip down the Arkansas River ... and you've got a tourist trap waiting to happen :)
ALSO
figure in the casinos as a drawing card.

So can you imagine the Ad for Arkansas City.

Small town charm between two rivers. Shop in our antique stores, eat at nice small restuarants, while you enjoy walks along the river and brick streets.
In the evening take in a concert on the river, and if that's too tame, just a couple miles south are casinos .

Maybe add a night club on Summit downtown.





Professional musicians in an outdoor setting - The acoustics of the Arkansas River - Priceless!

I am not sure you could afford or attract one of those talents - or that they would come!
But if one did?


I think we could.
Lots of times symphonies will send a few of their key musicians and pick up local musicians to fill in the gaps.
Very doable i think.
THere are also people in Arkansas City who have some money, who might be willing to help bring in such bands.

THIS IS GREAT THINKING
So how do we make it happen ??
That's the $50 question.

future considerations

There were a lot of good posts yesterday about the economy and local jobs.
The jobs are not of the high paying variety, most are at $10 an hour or less, many less.
Creekstone, Kanpack and Skyline (the place that makes mobile homes) are all looking for people. They have a couple of good paying jobs, but mostly its not higher end jobs.
So maybe we do need more Mexicans.

But the dollar does go further here. As editor of the paper, i make less here than i did in south carolina as a reporter. But the money goes further here. Had it not been for family situations, I would not have considered moving here.

Taxes are higher here, but everything else is less.

The trend on the blog is just like the trend in conversation at any gathering, or among city and county officials.
We need higher paying jobs, but to get them you have to have companies that can pay that. Those companies will not come here unless there is a labor force readily available.
So you have to have the people. Its a never ending circle.

This is why the bike trail is important. It is one piece of the puzzle that improves quality of life, which attracts people to move here, which in turn could help attract a business here...
The school bond issue is another. I don' want to pay more taxes any more than anyone else does, but ... I don't see any alternative.

Sounds kinda convoluted, but that is how it seems to work.

Then people get frustrated and quit cause its so hard to make happen, and nearly impossible if you are not offering very nice incentives to the company as well - they get those incentives everywhere else, so without them you are not even in the game.

There must be an answer to this.
Maybe the answer isnt more jobs?
Maybe the answer is in re-inventing the town.

What if we did become a place that people wanted to come to?

This is what was meant at the city meeting the other night when the re-branding of the town idea was mentioned. Now dont get excited about that. It was one of about 30 ideas mentioned, and was not even top 10 material.

I think im more interested in the idea than the city is.

But just think of the possibilities.

Tiny town of Helen, Ga., just a wide spot in the road, is now an alpine village with that whole theme running throughout the town. Its a tourist place now, and crowded even.
THere's many more examples. Branson, Mo. , Dollywood, Tenn.,

Would take some visionaries, but ...

politics and national debt

As of 2006 each man woman and child in the USA owed $35,000 on the Nation debt. (last I checked - which is a stealth tax).
>>>>

I really dont understand about "national debt"
I tend to think it is something that exists only on paper and is not a reality.
remember the clinton years.
We had this huge national debt, and it went away.
Of course, clinton took credit, and the republicans said no it was due to Reagan's economic policies that came to fruition during Clinton's term.

(same thing for the Carter years, and even the Eisenhower years, but before my time.)

whichever, but the thing is, it went away.
Now it is back.
When the economy improves it will go away again.
Most likely obama will take credit, and the republicans will say no it was due to Bush or Reagan or maybe Barbara Bush....

Is the national debt just politics ?
it does tend to fluctuate quiet a bit for no apparent reason.

Taxes kind of work that way too.
When the economy is going good there is a surplus so they cut taxes, then when it goes bad they run short and have to raise taxes.
Of course, both sides take credit and blame each other.

Anyone have any thoughts on the relationship between the economy and politics .. you do have to get beyond partisan politics.

Im not republican or democrat. if anything, im a-political.
Both sides are wrong :)

immigrants, schools

The allergies have calmed down some. I may try that buckwheat honey someone suggested. The only thing ive ever done that worked was get shots twice a week when i lived in south carolina.
When you move to a new place - Kansas - the stuff in the air etc., changes, so whats in the shots wont work anymore, and its kinda controversial in medical circles, so most insurances don't cover it.

Anyways, there have been a couple of interesting conversations on the blogs while I wasn't posting.
On immigration. I would just remind us all that we were all immigrants at one time. Most of us anyway.
While we are talking about ideas for Arkansas City, what if we made Arkansas City into a "little Mexico."
We could advertise in major Mexican cities, help them get here, offer various services. Several businesses could spring up as support services.
Could be a boom to the local economy.

I really don't think they are stealing jobs. I have heard that Creekstone buses Hispanics in from Wichita to work, I dont know if that is true, but I intend to find out. I want to know more about our employment situation.
Do we really have a shortage of workers?
Someone aught to check. Maybe the newspaper? :) :)

The school bond issue is becoming a big deal too.
Ive been looking around at the schools. We have good schools. They win awards. But the buildings are really not all that good. They look pretty bland to me, and even run down at times.

I know there is a lot of nostalgia for Curry Field, but ... its not a very nice facility. Im sure it was 50 years ago, but it doesn't compare with other facilities in the area.
Go to Derby, Wellington, or gads, even Winfield.

When I was a sports writer in carolina, I always of course, went to lots of athletic facilities. I couldnt help forming an opinion of variuos towns based on what I saw.
Even before Carolina, I was in Arkansas. I remember in Arkansas seeing a ladder up to the press box at once place, and decided that I wouldn't bother.
But athletic facilities do say something about a town or a city.
It speaks to quality of life.
and it speaks to pride of the people involved.

Im not for more taxes but we do need to do something for the schools.
I don't have any kids in the schools here, and wont.
But, at one point I was a kid in school, and someone paid taxes to pay for that.

Thats it for a Sunday night.

what's needed

The city work session lasted almost five hours last night. They talked about ideas for a long time.
Nothing really new, but at least some of the ideas got put on the table.
The development of an industrial park seems to be a big one. Exactly what that means is yet to be determined.
(They also had three private meetings - executive sessions - for various reasons, which took about 40 minutes when added up.)

The most interesting idea to me was developing a theme, or a branding, for the city. This didn't get talked about much, but maybe it will eventually.
With all the discussion lately, I was thinking about what the city really needs.
The thing is, it isn't ONE thing.
The Lowe's deal is not going to make or break the city. The bike path isn't going to make or break the city. Any idea isn't.
The answer to what we need is that we need everything.
Its like some of the commissioners have said, we need to work on everything at once.
We need ideas, and for those ideas to be explored.
Too often, like even happens here to some extent, people just shoot down anything that smells like a new idea. It might be better if people would at least think about new ideas.

We do need a new attitude, and of course, we need to refute the naysayers at every opportunity. (That means keep speaking the truth to shoot down their negativity.)
Maybe its better to ignore the naysayers, i'm not sure.
Anyway, one thing is not the answer. The answer is everything at once.

Another key component is public involvement. You can't just sit back and expect the city to do everything. Of course, we should be able to expect the city to make positive activities easier, or to pave the way to progress.

rolling on the river

When we think of the hike and bike trail and what it could mean, it seems thoughts go directly to a major development with restuarants, apartments, casinos, and many other things.
Then people say that wont work and the idea dies.
That is how things go in Arkansas City at times.
That is something I want to change.

if we get 20 ideas talked about, 3 developed, and one actually works, that is success in my estimation.
The trail is the first step. Next step is to get a few business, which might take a year or two.

Here is my story...

We need to try things.
You know we put on a nice outdoor music festival last fall by the old meat packing plant down by the levee. That is a huge field that is not being used for anything.
Now ill be the first to admit that i didnt know what i was doing, but somehow it managed to come off rather well.
( I had lots of friends come through and some divine intervention )

(This too is part of developing the rivers)

There were several reasons that it wouldnt work.
1. No one had done that before.
2. The weather is unpredictable in late October, could be bad weather.
3. There are sinkholes all over the place and new ones show up all the time.
4. There is no electricity. (a big problem)
5. The entrance is awkward and hard to see.
6. There are lots of stickers all over the ground.
7. I (we) didnt have any money.
8, It was a school night.
9. Right before Arkalalah, people are not into a concert out in the cold at night. Especially not a Christian music festival.
10. Most people were not even aware that the field existed.

Any one of those reasons would have been a legitimate excuse to not attempt such a thing. Most of those reasons were also relatively good reasons that it might not work.

I wasnt even dreaming big enough. I was thinking maybe 200-300 people might show up. We had way over 500.

Im really glad we did it and we are going to do it again.

But one thing I want to point out is, that I was willing for it to be a total disaster. That was the risk, but one worth taking.
I remember thinking a few days before the show, what if no one comes to hear this $2,000 band we have coming, and the other bands. I thought, i guess ill have a front row seat for sure then.

There's always reasons that things wont work.
Wasnt it Kennedy that said some people see things they way they are and ask why, while others see things that are not and ask why not?

So lets quit moaning about why things wont work and get to work building Ark City.

Weirder stuff has happened.
THe Giants just won the Super Bowl.

hike and bike trail

Theres been some great discussion on the blog. The hike and bike trail has come up.
I have a story in todays -saturdays - paper about it.

Here is the real deal.
The cost is $1.2 million.
A grant from KDOT will pay for a lot of it.
The city still has to come up with about $600,000.

Creekstone pays $300,000 per year in lieu of taxes. That lasts until 2011. At that time Creekstone is to start paying regular taxes.
10 percent is to go to the schools, and 10 percent to the police dept. That leaves 80 percent for the city - that money is earmarked for parks and recreation.
The feeling is that money could be used to pay the city's part.

The decision was made years ago, and a lot of progress has been made.
They have bought up property and rights of way they will need for the project. The design work - architects etc., which are not cheap - is nearly done. Design work is to be done by the end of March and that is submitted to KDOT.

The trail could be completed by late this year - late fall.

As I said, it has been in the works for years.
If the city does nothing at all from this point, it will be completed because the wheels are in motion.

It would take an ordinance, or a vote, to undo it. That would likely take the for of a vote to return the grant to KDOT, and then to do something else with the Creekstone money.

Ive talked with the commissioners. I believe it will survive.
McDonald, Hockenbury and Smith are for it.
Margolius said he is "not opposed" to it anymore, but he said he did not know how he would vote if it were to come to a vote.
Kuhn still seems somewhat opposed, but he wants to build softball fields instead with the Creekstone money.

Mayor Dotty Smith is going to bring it up Monday night at the work session.
Nothing has to be done though, to keep it rolling.

Also, as I have said, the path is not the point. The point is utilizing the rivers and developing them.

Here is an example.
For the past three years I have gone to Scottsdale Arizona for the Cowley Volleyball team at the national tournament.
Through the middle of town is a drainage ditch. I saw it the first two years. It wasn't particularly ugly, but was just a concrete ditch with water flowing.
This year i was surprised to find it is now the "Arizona Canal."
It has (fake) grass on each side with flowers and small trees that are real. There are restaurants alreeady, several park benches and it looks really nice.

Getting a hike and bike trail on the levee is the first step in getting us to that point, of making use of the rivers.

I wrote in the paper today, the trail is not the point. If it were anywhere else in town id say save the money. The point is developing the river.