AND NOW Emporia has another empty industrial building.
The closing of the Lenze Power Transmission plant in Industrial Park III comes as a nasty surprise. Lenze was far from the city’s largest employer, but the business was just the sort of operation the city has depended upon to form a diversified industrial base.
With the disappearance of Modine and now Lenze, that diversification seems to be fading.
Most of the recent discussions about Emporia’s growth — or lack of it — have focused on attracting new retail businesses. Nothing wrong with that, but retailers are not likely to be interested in a community that cannot provide stable jobs for its population.
There was, we know, no way the city could have kept Modine from closing. We assume the same is true for Lenze. In this illusory economic boom that Washington assures us is sweeping the nation, companies survive as best they can. Often, survival requires companies to shrink or to send jobs overseas.
In business as in the rest of life, there are no guarantees. The new industry that puts the bloom back in the city’s cheeks today may be tomorrow’s disappointment.
How happy would Emporia have been 40 years ago to hear that one of the Big Three automakers had decided to built a manufacturing plant on the prairie west of town? If that had happened, those high-paying manufacturing jobs would now be going or gone. The economy has changed.
That is not an argument for giving up the effort to find new businesses and new jobs for Emporia. Just the opposite. Because the national economy has changed and continues to change, the city’s efforts to recruit new industries and help old ones grow must be increased.
In the industrial sector, the community seems to be taking more steps back than forward.
Retail development is nice, but retail jobs don’t pay that much. What Emporia needs is more factory or office jobs that pay a solid living wage.
And it needs to fill those empty buildings.
Phil_Dillon (anonymous) says...
The news isn't good at all. The trends are all bad. Low household incomes, high poverty rates, good jobs leaving Emporia, payday loan shops becoming too much of a fixture. All this and our city government keeps focusing on big box retail.
You're right Mr. Kelley, our economy has changed. About the only place youy and I differ is in the types of jobs. While I think that some manufacturing is good for this city, consolidation, the use of robotics, and the pressure to send manufacturing jobs overseas has depressed wages in this sector and has made jobs in this sector low skill, low wage. What we need is a sea change. America's role in the global economy should be leadership, with small nimble businesses in areas like high tech, bio-tech, bio-fuels, information techonolgy, etc.
Some say that rural communities like Emporia can't compete. I say they're wrong. And, it's not just me. The governor has said that rural Kansas can compete. The Kansas City branch of the Federal Reserve recently said in a white paper that rural Kansas can compete in the global economy and needs to shift its focus from manufacturing to the areas I wrote about above.
Big box retail situated west of town isn't going to change Emporia either. We need to revitalize downtown, partner with ESU in downtown development, We need an infusion of entrepreneurs, like the folks who started Prairie Rose up a few years ago or the folks who started Nell Nill in Atchison. They were folks who understood the uniqueness of what they were doing and found their niche. The end result was success. We need more of that and city government that encourages and supports it.
We have two opportunites ahead of us. In a generation some Emporian may be in the unfortunate position of having to turn out the last light on a dead city. Or we could begin the long, hard road to revitilization and move toward a brighter future. It won't be easy, but things worth having usually aren't. I believe Emporia's worth it. That's why I'm running for City Commission.
February 16, 2007 at 6:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )