The City of Great Bend last week was forced to close its Front Door facility due to a positive COVID-19 case, City Administrator Kendal Francis said Monday night. This is the site of the city’s utility billing office.
While it will open to the public again at 8 a.m. this coming Monday, Francis advised the City Council there is also one of the city’s meter readers who is in quarantine. And as a result, they’re going to be a little behind on the second reading cycle, and there may be a lot of billing estimations.
“But, we have brought another employee in to help get us caught up,” he said. After about a week, they should be back to regular reading cycles. 
“In the meantime, we are still accepting payments,” he said. This can be done online or at drop boxes available at the Front Door, City Hall, and the 10th Street Dillons. 
As a result of this, he said the city is waiving late penalties and is discontinuing service cutoffs until Feb. 1. “We don’t want citizens to be alarmed, that their payment is going to be late and they’ll be somehow penalized.” 
Also, Francis said that if one has mailed a payment or put a payment in a drop box, the city has likely received it but doesn’t have staff right now to process them in a timely manner. “Give us just a little bit of time. We are working to get those processed as quickly as we can.”
Francis stressed the city still has service people available for new hookups. These can be handled over the phone. 

 Projects wrapping up

Several ongoing projects are nearing completion, Great Bend City Administrator told the City Council during his update Monday night.
• The Events Center. 
“We held our final walkthrough this last Friday,” he said. “We do have a short punch list, minor things that need to be addressed before we sign off on the substantial completion, but they’re pretty minor.”
The council has already been utilizing the facility for meetings for a little while. “You’ve been able to see the results of the remodel. So, it’s very close to actually being finalized.”
The council in May approved an over $500,000 renovation to a portion of the long-vacant office complex attached to the back of the venue. The project went to Brentwood Builders of Great Bend who tapped Moeder Plumbing, Heating and Air (Great Bend) and Haynes Electric (Larned) as the mechanical and electrical subcontractors.
Included in the renovation are 7,000 square feet on the office complex first floor. This leaves 21,000 square feet in the remainder of the building.
• Crack sealing project.
Shane Suchy Construction started this $67,600 project Monday. “The weather is favorable for that and hopefully we get a strong couple of weeks and get that wrapped up,” he said.
This is part of the city’s annual street maintenance. Included are streets in all four corners of Great Bend, covering about a quarter of the city.
• The Sunflower Rod and Custom Association dragstrip.
“That is another ongoing project that is progressing very well, and weather it’s been very beneficial for that,” Francis said. Suchy Construction of Great Bend has approximately 900 feet of concrete poured already.
They’re able to do about a 300-foot section per week, so it will take them about seven to eight more days to complete the work. “They’re moving, they’re moving quite well,” he said.
The $1,601,206.54 project is one of two cost-share projects the Kansas Department of Transportation approved for the city, the other being the resurfacing of a big stretch of 10th Street totaling $3.3 million.

10th Street resurfacing coming to Great Bend 

The project to overlay much of 10th Street is on the horizon, City Administrator Kendal Francis said. The bid opening for that is scheduled for Dec. 15. 
“So, we’re looking for some good competitive bids on that,” he said. That project probably won’t start until early spring.
Francis said the city’s match is 25% of the total project with the Kansas Department of Transportation paying 75%. KDOT awarded Great Bend a total of $3.3 million for the dragstrip and the resurfacing of 10th Street (U.S. 56). 
The state’s 10th Street portion comes to $1,461,028.
The city is responsible for 100% of the design and engineering charges.

Hayden gives eco devo ‘newsletter’

When Great Bend Economic Development Inc. President Sara Hayden gave her monthly report to the City Council Monday night, she called it her “end-of-the-year newsletter.” It was a recap of what has taken place since she took the post in August.
“Since I came, we have submitted eight total projects,” she said. Three of those are ones GBED identified through recruiting efforts targeting specific companies, and four are projects that were sent by the Kansas Department of Commerce. 
For two of those, Great Bend was selected for a group of 10-15 communities based on desirable traits.
She’ gotten feedback on most of the four and the companies would like to revisit in February. “I think that COVID, new year and everything has kind of pushed some of those back a little bit.”
One prospect, code named Project International, actually reached out to Great Bend specifically because of some of the things it offers such as the transload facility and available land next to the Great Bend Municipal Airport. She submitted two sites to them last week, and she is waiting to hear back, but there is no time line on when this may happen.
There is also Project 45. “Again we submitted two sites,” Hayden said.
This is similar to Project International. They liked the transload facility, train tracks and proximity to the airport, and are looking at making a decision in 30-60 days.
There are also local expansion projects in the works, she said. “Since August, we have been working with four different companies that are expanding in Great Bend or in Barton County, and have been helping to find them extra funding or incentives through the state.”
None of these are complete. “But, we have been able to identify some solutions that I’m hoping will work for some of them.”
She’s excited to see businesses growing substantially. 
She also noted there is one small new business coming to Great Bend. Hutchinson-based Hearing Healthcare opened an office on Washington Street in November. 

Project to gauge workforce needs

A short-term initiative on the Great Bend Economic Development website is intended to get a feel for what employers need in terms of employees. “I call it a workforce wish list,” GBED President Sara Hayden said. 
“This is a project that I put out because I want to see what our employers are really needing as far as workforce goes,” Hayden said. “I’m hoping that my findings will be able to lead to a larger effort to look at our workforce and our overall recruitment efforts.”
She wants to see what the city can do with GBED to streamline that process. “Hopefully, give us a good workforce pipeline that we’ll be able to continue to offer to our community.”
This involves a short survey for employers. The wish list falls under the “Local Resources” tab at gbedinc.com.

Program to develop young entrepreneurs 

Great Bend Economic Development Inc. is part of a coalition aiming to develop young business leaders locally through the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, GBED President Sara Hayden said. 
This is a program through Network Kansas and GBED is also partnering with the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a challenge, a competition, that will be offered to all Barton County high school students and it takes place in March.”
They received grant funding from Network Kansas. So they get to offer cash prizes – $1,000 for first, $750 for second and $500 for third. 
“It’s a really cool tool created to foster entrepreneurship within our youth population,” Hayden said. “And it will also encourage mentorship through our community businesses as well.”
As this continues, they would like to get community mentors involved with the students to be able to help them to refine their business plan. “The overall basis of this challenge is that these kids get to create a business plan, and then present it for a group of judges.”
Whether they continue and actually build that business or not is up to them. “But we’re excited to hear about the creativity and some of the things that they see that would be a benefit to our community.”
 

Economic development surveys taking shape

 
The Barton County Young Professionals recently wrapped up its community survey, Great Bend Economic Development Inc. President Sara Hayden told the City Council Monday night.
“We got about 25 surveys returned and that is not as many as we would have liked,” she said. But there were some great findings.
“At the moment, we’re going to leave those until Downtown Strategies really starts their overall fact finding mission so we can combine those,” Hayden said. Results showed many of the city’s young professionals want a gathering place, a destination where they can take their families. They will look how to change downtown into a destination.
In November, the council approved a proposal from Gruen and Gruen Associates for $9,500 and a proposal from Downtown Strategies for $30,000 for a total cost of $39,500. These involve a data and strategy study for GBEC.
“So we’ll combine those two efforts and I think that’ll be really successful,” she said. 
Downtown Strategies is working on its market analysis and that should take all of December. After that, Gruen and Gruen will complete their work, which outlines potential “next steps” in the economic development research and business retention, expansion, and recruitment program formation and implementation, which will last into the spring.

GBED gets chance to talk up city 

Great Bend Economic Development Inc. has been asked to participate in a site-selectors call with state officials next Wednesday, GBED President Sara Hayden said. Great Bend is one of five communities chosen to be a part of this.
On the call will be Gov. Laura Kelly, Commerce Secretary David Toland, Deputy Commerce Secretary Phil Murphy and the south central Kansas KDOC representative. 

“I will have five to 10 minutes to talk about our community and what would make us desirable for these site selectors,” she said. “We are very excited about that and hoping that we’ll get to participate in more of these as time goes on.”