A 13-month-old proposal to put the Regional Development Association in charge of promoting commercial development is back on the front burner.
At Wednesday’s meeting, three of Emporia’s five city commissioners said they were ready to act on the measure next week. Commissioners Jim Kessler, Jeff Longbine and Bobbie Agler each said they favored making the RDA the “point agency” for retail development just as it is for industries.
Longbine, the outgoing RDA president, said the idea was to have the agency work on the bigger or more complicated projects, such as those involving a national chain or a multiple-store development.
“I don’t think the RDA needs to pursue individual stores,” Longbine said. “We have groups that do that and do it well. I don’t want to compete with the chamber’s efforts. I don’t want to compete with the mall’s efforts or Main Street’s.”
But Commissioner Kevin Nelson said that Emporia Main Street deserved to be at the forefront as well. He called for the RDA to add a Main Street representative before he would support the plan.
Longbine wondered what kind of precedent it would set to add Main Street to the mix.
“I agree that Main Street needs to be an influential part of this,” Longbine said. “But what if the mall association asks to join? What if the car dealers decide they make up 20 percent of the retail and they want to be represented?”
Mayor Julie Johnson suggested holding a study session with the original task force to discuss the report and whether to expand the RDA board. But Kessler, Longbine and Agler said they were ready to move ahead.
“I’d like to see this brought forward next week to approve as is,” Kessler said.
“We need to move forward, I agree,” Nelson said. “But with how it’s stated, I disagree.”
The issue will come to the commission at its 7 p.m. May 16 meeting.
Overtime
The city’s police department is still within federal overtime rules, city officials said, responding to a statement by County Attorney Marc Goodman.
Goodman, at a recent law-enforcement consolidation meeting, had called police expense figures “inflated, misleading and a joke.” He wanted the numbers looked at to see if some supervisors were improperly eligible for overtime pay instead of being listed as exempt.
Larry Bucklinger, the city’s director of administrative services, said none of the police department’s sergeants or lieutenants count as “exempt” employees. Among other things, all of them spend less than 50 percent of their time supervising other workers, which is one of the federal thresholds.
jc1968 (anonymous) says...
City politics at it's finest. Everyone wants their pet projects so we are going to spend more time talking. We need action not talk.
May 10, 2007 at 6:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
noel_stanton (anonymous) says...
It would help Emporia greatly if the resolution of the town's pictures in Google Earth were legible. If some non-local company or person wants to become familiar with Emporia via Google Earth all they can see is a blurry image, no matter what zoom level used.
RDA or the city should intercede with Google to get improvement, or if need be, could pay some satellite service to have good photos provided to Google. In either case, I think it would be a most valuable investment for the future.
n. stanton
May 12, 2007 at 7:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
UserName (anonymous) says...
Emporia doesn't NEED retail (yet). Emporia NEEDS manufacturing and/or industrial development.
A great many people living in Emporia can barely make ends meet after paying for necessities such as housing, utilities, food, and healthcare. By the time they pay for the necessities, there is nothing LEFT to support retail development.
We need good jobs that pay a living wage. How many people have been left unemployed by Modine closing? Lenze? How many people were laid off by Birch Telecom? Tyson?
What kind of jobs have come in to replace those lost jobs? Sure there is going to be a new electric company. It will employ half a dozen people. The new bio-diesel factory will employ 30-40 people. What about the rest?
I've read a lot in the paper about "Support Emporia Main Street"; shop the local grocery stores before going to WalMart, etc., etc., but the truth is, if people have to choose between buying three day's worth of groceries at the local store, or buying a week's worth of groceries at WalMart for the same price, most people will shop WalMart.
Personally, I would LOVE to support local business. But if I have to choose between feeding my family or supporting local business, I think my family will win out every time.
Our leaders need to do what they can to attract manufacturing FIRST so that people can earn enough money to pay for the necessities. When we can do that, THEN people might have enough left over to support retail and shop local businesses.
If our leaders continue focusing on attracting retail, I'd be willing to bet that all they will end up with is a lot of empty buildings.
May 13, 2007 at 3:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )