Staff writer
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran stopped at the Marion Kiwanis Club meeting Tuesday at La Hacienda in Marion.
The appearance was planned at the last minute. Coming back to the U.S. early after visiting Afghanistan Sunday, Moran had time to put Marion into his schedule of cities he will visit during the current congressional break. Before arriving in Marion, he visited Hesston. After Marion, he drove to Beloit.
Moran said the reason for the visit was he knew Kiwanis met on Tuesdays and he had not been to Marion in six months.
“I appreciate the relationship I have with this community,” Moran said. “I miss the involvement I had in my home town. I needed a dose of middle America.”
Moran fielded questions from Marion business leaders about matters in Washington. Todd Heitschmidt asked Moran about the budget. Roger Hannaford III asked Moran about rising energy prices.
Moran also addressed issues regarding the U.S. in the world economy and American military progress in Afghanistan.
“Ninety-eight percent of the country is illiterate,” Moran said of Afghanistan. “The fun part was watching their enthusiasm in learning, but we’re training a military that is starting at the very basics.”
Moran also focused on issues much closer to residents in Marion.
“How do we keep a Main Street alive and well?” he asked. “To me, economic development is whether there is a grocery store in town.”
Being from Plainville, a town of about 2,000 people between Hays and Phillipsburg, Moran is worried about the survival of small towns, especially those without access to health care.
“Marion is working hard to have a future. Some towns aren’t,” Moran said. “I always see my job as trying to make it easier for local leaders to do their job.”
While he could not avoid addressing political matters, Moran did want to take in the small town atmosphere and charm that he missed.
Moran also had no problem joining in on Kiwanis songs like “My Old Grandfather’s clock,” as is Kiwanis tradition, members sand songs.
“Take a note of this,” Keith Collett joked. “Jerry Moran sang the first verse of ‘My Old Grandfather’s Clock’ without music; he knows it by heart.”