The Emporia Gazette

January 8, 2009

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Representative Don Hill brought a piece of good news to the Eggs & Issues forum Saturday morning at the Sauder Alumni Center.

The State of Kansas will be sending money to Lyon County, to help compensate for the funds lost when certain machinery and equipment were removed two years ago from the local property tax rolls.

“Lyon County is going to receive something just over $343,000, and that check will be delivered before the end of February,” Hill said.

Eggs and Issues meetings, co-sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters, usually are opportunities for elected officials to update the community on happenings at the state capitol and for citizens to present questions and comments to those leaders.

Saturday’s meeting, however, followed an unexpected announcement Friday afternoon that Tyson Fresh Meats would end its slaughter operations in Emporia by March 25. The second shift processing operation also will be eliminated.

The announcement estimated that 1,500 of the current 2,400 workers would lose their jobs, leaving a work force of about 900 people.

Questions and comments about that circumstance became a primary topic for discussion. By meeting time, residents were coming to grips with the ramifications of losing 1,500 Tyson workers and their family members.

One woman said that on Friday evening, she had talked to a friend who owns 15 apartments. Twelve of those apartments were rented to Tyson employees who had lost their jobs. The landlord now faces significant loss of income, too.

With more than 60 percent of the jobs at Tyson scheduled to disappear in two months, the Emporia community will not be the only area to feel its effect; it will ripple on to state government in lost income and sales taxes, and other revenues. Hill said that he already had looked at the potential effect on his own business.

“The topic on all of our hearts and all of our minds this morning concerns Tyson,” Sen. Jim Barnett said. “… This is a time for Emporia to come together with an attitude that we can do, we can come together and solve this problem.

“There’s been a lot of things in this community that have just been sitting on the back burner.”

Barnett said that Emporia now is under new leadership and a blueprint for success has just been put in place by the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with other official entities.

Barnett anticipated that the Flint Hills Technical College and Emporia State University will play a large role in retraining displaced workers; the health department and mental health center also will be busy.

“All of those people are in place and ready to help this community come together and move forward,” Barnett said.

He mentioned several issues that have needed attention for some time that now could be considered to help the city and its residents: use of the fairgrounds; a longer runway at the airport; road construction and property available for development west of town.

“(N)ow is the time for us to move forward,” Barnett said. “… Right now, it’s a mess … but the opportunities are there for growth and development and jobs.”

Audience member Nick Laurent asked if the new REG energy plant under construction would be affected, since there had been talk of using the byproduct tallow from Tyson as fuel at the plant.

City Commissioner Jeff Longbine said that the plan primarily would use soybean oil, and that he did not anticipate that REG’s plans would be harmed by the Tyson decision.

Kitty Frank of the local Girl Scout Council asked if there were any estimates of the number of children involved in the 1,500 families.

No estimates were yet available, Barnett said.

“Certainly it’s going to have a huge impact on the school district,” he said, mentioning budgets, long-term plans, and jobs within the district.

“There are cushions within the state statutes that allow for a declining enrollment,” he said.

Sarah Wyrick asked if the closing would affect the school district’s plans to build an addition at Village School, as well as make other major changes there over a period of several years.

“That’s the kind of question I don’t think everybody’s prepared to answer today,” Hill said.

Hill mentioned a human factor that would need to be considered as the community works through the upheaval brought on by the Tyson closing. Hill said that he had talked Friday with a slaughter supervisor who had worked at the plant for about 33 years. There are families in the area who have 10 or 12 extended family members employed at Tyson.

“There are scores of people like that in our community,” said Hill.

At William Allen White School, he said, perhaps 50 percent of the students are family members of Tyson workers.

“And it’s not going to impact just Emporia. This is a statewide event, as witnessed by the media attention it got yesterday,” Hill said. “It’s a big deal. And it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to muster the resources that are here.”

Unemployment benefits will be available for the Tyson workers who have lost their jobs and choose not to move to one of four other Tyson plants; extended benefits also should be available because of the circumstances.

The university and the technical college will have opportunities to create programs to develop workforce re-training.

Hill said that Wolf Creek Nuclear Plant may offer an opportunity for an economic boost, if Westar chooses to construct the second nuclear reactor that was provided for in the original plans for the plant. The state’s current energy suppliers are short on baseload capacity, for example, and because of that cannot take advantage of the potential to harvest wind energy in southwest Kansas.

“Baseload capacity doesn’t come from solar or wind,” he said. “It comes from uranium, coal, and gas, and it’s not going to keep up with the growing demand.”

Discussion turned to immigration and the need for workers in the United States.

“Economists and business leaders say without more workers, we don’t have an economy,” Hill said. “We certainly don’t have a world-leading economy in the U.S. … We’re going to be like Western Europe which, if you haven’t noticed, is sliding pretty fast in the grand scheme of things.”

Wyrick said that she has received calls from telemarketers, asking her opinion on topics such as immigration. She asked the representatives to remember that respondents did not have to be against immigration to rate the topic as very important.

Hill and Barnett said that the federal government has not enacted a plan to strengthen borders against illegal immigration.

“I don’t know many people who are anti-immigration,” Barnett said. “I know a lot of people who are anti-illegal immigration.”

Barnett said the federal government needs to first deal with security the nation’s borders to prevent illegal immigration.

“We can’t take 12 million people in our country and round them up and move them out,” he said.

Kansas’ “real ID” driver’s license plan is expected to result in 50,000 fewer driver’s licenses issued in the state over the next six years.

“And that tells you there’s a lot of folks who were not here legally,” Barnett said.

Pru Schmidt asked what consideration would be given to illegal immigrants and their families, who have been in this area many years, worked their jobs, and paid their bills. While parents may be illegally in the U.S., their children born here are American citizens with the right to stay in the country.

“Some families are being split,” Schmidt said. “Then they leave families who are subject to welfare.”

Barnett said that so far nothing has been done.

“When we finally solve the problem, we’re going to have to deal with that. … It’s not going to benefit us if we split families, if we put more people on welfare,” he said.

Barnett said that the immigration situation has had “a huge impact on education in many different ways.”

Children and their parents come to this country with little or no education, unable to speak the language, and are expected to meet mandated requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. Without meeting those requirements, districts are at-risk of losing funds. And, Barnett said, districts also are at-risk of losing teachers.

Some of the Emporia district’s teachers are counting the days to retirement.

“So we’re losing some of our very best teachers. What’s it doing to the quality of our education?” he asked. “… President Bush had the opportunity to be one of the greatest education presidents” before the terrorists’ attacks in Washington, D.C., and New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent war in Iraq.

Now, Barnett said, education nationwide is coping with NCLB.

He said the bill was unrealistic, and “it’s probably causing more harm than it is good.”

Craig Barbee said that one seventh-grade class in Emporia is made up of 11 non-English students and 7 English students.

“The teacher has to break up her speaking to allow the translator to keep up,” Barbee said.

Rep. Peggy Mast was unable to attend the meeting Saturday morning because of her involvement in Kansas Day activities in Topeka.

The next Eggs & Issues forum will begin with refreshments at 8 a.m., Feb. 16, at Presbyterian Manor.

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