Group works to develop business, housing

The secret to economic development is to keep on trying, according to Larry Manes.
“You have to crack a lot of oysters to find a pearl,” Manes told Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning. Manes, as a member of the Allen County Economic Development Group, said some of those elusive pearls were on the horizon and others were anticipated.
He divided his presentation into three levels, industrial, retail and services and medical health care.
Opportunities for new or expanded industries come along frequently, Manes said, but few reach fruition.
“We have followed up on three references from the state Department of Commerce, four inquiries from companies looking to potentially move to southeast Kansas, two companies rumored to be looking at Kansas and two local small companies considering expansion to larger facilities,” Manes recited from a prepared text.
The development group also has contacted owners of Gates Corporation, Russell Stover Candies and Herff Jones, three of Iola’s main industries and employers, about ways it could be helpful.
Gates is expected soon to announce an expansion that may not mean many additional employees, but a substantial increase in plant size; 70,000 square feet of floor space was mentioned by Manes and Iola Administrator Carl Slaugh. Slaugh reported the city installed a new $500,000 transformer near the Gates plant to increase power capacity.
A feather in the development group’s hat was keeping Catalyst in the county, with its move from Humboldt to substantially larger quarters in the old Haldex Brake plant.
“That’s one of our successes,” Manes said, adding that Catalyst is increasing capacity and employment. The company, which manufactures oilfield equipment, “expects to fill the Haldex building within five years.”
The developers also have talked with B&W, Humboldt, Columbia Metal in Riverside Park and Ray Maloney, who has started an oilfield equipment manufacturing firm in the old Klein Tools plant north of Moran.
“Our concern is finding good workers,” Manes continued. “Unemployment in the county is 4.9 percent, lower than elsewhere in southeast Kansas.”
Manes said a delegation would be sent to job fairs that Amazon planned in Coffeyville. The closing of an Amazon distribution center, as well as one operated by Pepsi in the Coffeyville area affected about 1,000 workers, he said.
“We know people have been driving to Coffeyville to work from the south” — such as the Tulsa area — “aren’t likely to have an interest in driving another 70 miles to Allen County, but we may be able to interest some who live in Erie, Chanute, Parsons, Cherryvale, Fredonia and Neodesha,” Manes said. “We think we have a shot at them.”
Housing is another obstacle to attracting workers to Iola, Moran and Humboldt, he said, both for those who would move here initially and others who might want to live close to their jobs later on.
“We’re going to do housing surveys in Iola, Moran and Humboldt, and maybe Gas and LaHarpe,” Manes said.
A concern, he added, is that builders often talk in terms of three-bedroom, two-bath houses that sell for $100,000 to $125,000. “We’d like to find someone willing to build smaller homes” — those often referred to as starters — “with two bedrooms and a bath that could be built to sell in the range of $60,000 to $70,000.” The smaller homes would be more likely to fit the budgets of people working for local industries.
Apartments also may be an answer.

IN THE RETAIL and services sector, Manes had more to crow about.
The developers worked with Loren Lance to reopen the grocery store at Mildred and currently is trying to match a potential buyer with Stub’s Market in Moran, although “we haven’t had any success there yet,” Manes said.
He pointed out keeping a retail grocery outlet in Moran was important to its residents, particularly senior citizens who don’t have the wherewithal to drive to Iola’s Walmart whenever a simple need, such as a gallon of milk, crops up.
Bringing broadband Internet service to Iola is another goal, initially to serve schools, industrial parks, government offices and downtown merchants. Wireless features being promoted by LaHarpe Communications’ New Wave Broadband service is a first step.
Slaugh earlier commented on communications upgrade, noting water storage towers in Iola would be made available for wireless towers.
Several service business — Casey’s, McDonald’s and Dollar General were noted — have been contacted about expanding or updating stores in Iola.
“We worked for several months with G&W Foods to bring a second grocery to Iola without success,” Manes said; a suitable location could not be found at a price G&W found attractive. “Currently we are working with another grocery chain that looks very favorable.”
A Daylight Donuts store is being readied at the east edge of Iola and “a new restaurant looks almost certain near Super 8” motel, northwest of the intersection of highways 54 and 169, Manes said.
A motel project at Humboldt currently is on hold.

A VETERANS Administration clinic in conjunction with Allen County Regional Hospital “is going to happen,” Manes continued, starting with sleep disorder treatment and cataract surgery. There also is the “possibility of increased services with a potential full clinic in two or three years.”
The development group has made contact with 14 physicians and has a verbal agreement for two medical doctors to move here next summer, one to practice immediately. The two are married and the wife plans to be a stay-at-home mom until their children are older and then resume her practice, Manes said.
The older hospital has been toured several times and two parties continue to show interest, he said.
Finally, Manes said two senior housing home-plus care facilities were on the cusp of being announced for Allen County. One near Iola is expected to have 12 units, the other east of Moran, 10. He described home-plus care as a step up from assisted living.