Marion Economic Development Director
This report is submitted during some of the most exceptional national economic and political times experienced in the past few decades. With the Dow Jones Industrial at a five-year low, crude oil prices at the lowest level since 2006, government bailouts for private businesses and mega-corporations downsizing or folding, it’s hard to find much good to report.
Add to this the secondary housing market credit crisis and a complete shift in national government leadership, and the pundits could easily count-out a small community’s survival.
I am here to tell you although we are facing some challenges, our resourcefulness, our work ethic, our attitude, and our resiliency will provide this community with the staying power to persevere. With any challenge comes opportunity. With the challenges recently faced, we have multiple potential for opportunity.
Benchmarks
Since the beginning of 2008, the city has processed eight new residential home or major home improvement permits totaling $373,000. In addition, five commercial building or major commercial remodeling permits have been issued, demonstrating more than $1 million dollars of investment in this town.
Thus far this year, we have seen six businesses close in our community. There may be other ventures that have escaped my attention, but we also have experienced the opening of four new ventures. Obviously we have been affected in both small and large ways by these changes. A large loss to this community has been the closing of Golden Living Center. More will be explained in another section of this report.
Other changes to our town have been extremely beneficial. The addition of a new sports and aquatic center and a fine arts center, an investment of more than $12 million, showed a determination to provide outstanding athletic and educational facilities to our children. The addition of updated bathrooms and concessions at the baseball complex encourages athletic activity during summer months. These improvements provide the opportunity to host events which bring outside dollars and exposure to our community.
And speaking of events, the hosting of summer activities like Chingawassa Days, Art in the Park, and Old Settlers’ Day encourages longtime residents, returning friends, and even new visitors to explore our town while providing financial benefit to our local businesses.
Chingawassa Days now has an international draw and the economic benefit to our town, though hard to quantify, is in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Opportunities
Although there are several exciting possibilities on the horizon, I would like to highlight two.
On Oct. 15, the community was notified of the imminent closing of Golden Living Center. Shock and anger quickly followed with a sincere concern of residents and employees of the facility. Residents have been relocated to surrounding care facilities, and, to the best of my knowledge, many of the employees have found new positions. Unfortunately, most of these changes meant a great loss to our city.
In an effort to avoid the complete catastrophe of an empty building and an abandoned property in our town, efforts were expended in open discussions with Golden Living management as well as looking for compatible opportunities for facility usage. Uses such as a call center, housing, lodging, educational, and health services were considered. These efforts yielded results in finding several options for new users. Through exclusive, aggressive, and progressive action of the city economic development director, the city administrator, and the city council on behalf of the city, the facility was purchased at a price greatly below any measure of value — $4.29 per square foot.
For obvious reasons, some details still must remain confidential at this time. However, the City of Marion has secured the assurances from a new user of their intent to purchase and utilize this building. This transfer of property will more than recoup the price paid for the facility. A few select items will be put to city-use on behalf of the commonwealth of our citizens.
When this transaction is complete, we will have secured another viable use of the facility, saved this user hundreds of thousands of dollars in acquisition costs, maintained a similar employee-base in numbers and payroll, incurred no net public expenditure, and enhanced the service potential of this city.
Supposedly lost in this success is the consideration of the displaced residents of Golden Living Center. They are not lost in my mind. Efforts continue to secure a service provider which will build a new and fully modern facility in this town. Through the same aggressive hard work, we will have a skilled nursing and retirement center in this town.
I also would like to briefly discuss the awarding of our designation as an E-Community. It is a program through NetWork Kansas and Kansas Department of Commerce. Although the process may seem a little confusing, the potential is easily seen.
Through this process, the City of Marion with the management skills of Marion Economic Development, Inc. (MEDI), will have sequestered funds totaling more than $125,000 which are earmarked exclusively for our community. These funds are to be used for existing business expansion, small business start-up, and entrepreneurial activities.
I stress this program is designated for “for-profit” ventures. It will be utilized as a revolving fund providing no or low cost loans for qualifying ventures. Managed correctly, the opportunity for additional fund participation may eventually lead to more than $250,000 in a citywide foundation. This all occurs through donations of local, progressive citizens, recognizing the financial incentives provided by a 75 percent Kansas income tax credit.
The deadline for collecting these donations is Friday. For tax purposes, all donors must provide their addresses and tax filing identification numbers, for example, a Social Security number for individuals. Checks still can be delivered to Todd Heitschmidt at Central National Bank until Friday.
In summary, our town is strong and stable. You have competent, capable city staff working daily for the benefit of our town. In return, this town has dedicated citizens who are committed to the betterment of our families, town, and local community. We will face more challenges in the future, but it is my hope you can see these challenges can be used to forge new and even greater opportunities for the City of Marion.