The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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City commissioners would like other entities to join them in a retail development venture intended to link Emporia with national retail businesses mostly likely to find the city appealing.

The city conference room filled Wednesday morning with representatives from the Lyon County Commission, the Regional Development Association, Emporia Main Street, the Emporia Public Library and other interested parties, all ready to hear a proposal from Lisa Hill of the Buxton Group of Fort Worth, Texas.

The presentation was done during a commission study session. No action was taken on any of the agenda items.

Hill said that demographics are losing their value to many retailers. Instead, “psychographics” are gaining in importance.

Psychographics is the study of how and where people spend their time and money. Hill said the study is a key to whether a business can hope to be successful in a particular area.

A city can fit the old demographics of a women’s store, but still won’t have the psychographics to make the store a success.

“Is it Kohl’s or is it Ann Taylor?” Hill asked. “Who’s a good fit for you?”

In retail business, she said, “Hope is not a strategy.”

Buxton’s has spent $5 million amassing the psychographic information, she said, and has defined 66 psychographic segments of society. Buxton’s databases match communities’ psychographics with retailers.

“Buxton’s is offering you the information to bait your retail hook,” Hill said.

The cost would be $70,000 for the plan, which would last three or four years. Information could be “refreshed” when the plan lapsed, with additional prospects being provided, for $10,000.

City Manager Matt Zimmerman said that he would like for a variety of local entities to be involved in starting improvement projects.

The RDA had been designated to be in charge of the retail push, the Chamber of Commerce is leading the way for the upcoming Image Campaign, and Main Street is working on a master community-initiated development plan, he said. Emporia State University also has pledged money to draw retail stores to Emporia, in the hope that additional shops will be attractive to potential students.

“So, what I’m proposing is if the city commission is interested in pursuing this, come up with a joint funding,” Zimmerman said. “Then everybody who would participate could have access to this information.”

Commissioner Jeff Longbone said he favored the Buxton proposal.

“If we’re out chasing firms that we have no chance of landing here because our matches aren’t there,” he said. “With this information we can develop a plan to match our customers and recruit off of that” instead of recruiting haphazardly.

Mayor Julie Johnson described herself as the “most reluctant” of the commissioners regarding Buxton’s.

“I hope the information that we get would serve us better than the previous information that we got,” Johnson said. “Obviously, we did nothing with it. Nothing came out of that. ... I have serious reservations.”

Trash fees

Commissioners heard that the Department of Agriculture has complained about inequities in charges at the city landfill.

The commission were already working on restructuring trash collection rates and plans to close the landfill one day a week to eliminate one job.

The proposed rates would increase the minimum tipping fee at the transfer station from $2 for the first 100 pounds to $9.20 for the first 500 pounds. The rates for larger loads would change from $12 per ton to $50 for the first 500 pounds and 10 cents for every 10 pounds thereafter.

“This will also help the City cover its true cost of being open for small loads,” Zimmerman wrote in a memo to the commission.

Transfer station supervisor Keith Senn said that Hamm’s Quarry currently charges about $27 per ton to haul away trash from the landfill.

Under the proposal, all commercial, rolloff and polycart account rates — if the commission decides to include all of the categories in the increase — would rise 8 percent if based on 2006 or 6.5 percent if based on 2007 figures.

“Polycarts are the single biggest source of income we have,” Zimmerman said.

Johnson again asked that the commission consider offering smaller polycarts for Emporians who do not need the large 90-pound carts.

Zimmerman said that the city does not have a supply of smaller polycarts and would have to order them at a cost of $62 pluls shipping for a 35-gallon polycart and $66.85 plus shipping for a 60-gallon cart.

Johnson told him to have staff prepare information about the other sizes.

Other business

• Assistant City Manager Mark McAnarney and executive secretary Lori Andrews of the David Traylor Zoo of Emporia explained a proposed fee plan for renting shelters at city parks. McAnarney said that he had investigated park fees in a number of cities statewide and had found that user fees were common. Generally, costs ranged from $20 for two hours to up to $60 for an entire day.

• Alcohol sales at W.L. White Auditorium, also were on the agenda. The city currently allows renters to sell alcohol only if it is sold as part of the ticket prices. Allowing monitored alcohol sales could increase revenues from auditorium rentals for charitable fundraisers, wedding receptions and dances, and other events. Ed Rathke, who is in charge of the civic building, said that this week he had attended a conference of venue providers where such a plan was recommended.

• Commissioners discussed the possible purchase of a small street sweeper with funds saved from a $90,000 equipment repair that was budgeted but will not be made. Kayle Oney of Emporia Main Street said that her organization had discussed such a purchase in the past and may be willing to discuss donating its auction proceeds to help with the purchase.

• Potential boundaries were discussed for a new neighborhood revitalization program.