CAMP ALDRICH — Great Bend’s Chamber of Commerce’s After Hours is a great time to catch up with neighbors and learn about local businesses in the community.
Thursday’s event, hosted Barton Community College at its Camp Aldrich conference center, offered a significant spread of chili, cinnamon rolls and beverages, with prizes to boot.
The original program was to feature the camp and its year-round amenities for events such as weddings, summer camps, business retreats, and recreational opportunities.
On short notice, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran stopped by the event Thursday evening. He and his Wichita office staffer Tyler York circulated through the sizeable crowd sharing stories, recollections and listening to constituent concerns.
“I was born in Great Bend, in Barton County; my dad was a pumper for Skelly and we lived on a couple of leases near Susank. I appreciate the chance to join you in celebration of good things happening. Thank you for the opportunity of working on your behalf and thank you for making me feel loved in this county,” he said.
In advance of the mid-term election Nov. 8, Sen. Moran has been traveling the state as a champion for veterans’ issues, rural health-care access, manufacturing opportunities and the Kansas way of life.
Sen. Moran shared three points of concern during his visit, regarding the Biden administration’s recent release of oil from the nation’s Strategic Oil Reserve, growing food deserts in the state, and the United States Postal Service:
Reserve release
Sen. Moran questioned the validity of the President’s plan to release oil from the reserve, noting that it wouldn’t solve the current price problem.
“This is not politics,” Moran said. “I am troubled, deeply troubled, by what this administration is doing. For the last year and a half, maybe longer, we’ve been trying to get this administration to change their policies and support all energy, including fossil fuels.
“That’s one issue. They go shopping around the world trying to get somebody else to give us our oil; we need to encourage American production — create the jobs, increase the supply and bring down the price to the farmer.
“What troubles me even more today is the release of the strategic petroleum reserves, which won’t make a dent in the price but will leave us in the position when difficult times come, there’s a national security challenge, we don’t have the supplies that we need,” he said. “We’re frittering away our national security for purposes of looking like we’re doing something to solve the problem, when the solution is not to drain the petroleum reserve but to increase production in the United States.
“Kansas does have the ability to do that. The independent producers in Kansas are interested, but reluctant, not knowing what the next policy is going to be. Do they invest a bunch of money trying to find more oil only to find that the administration is doing something to make it more difficult for them to succeed or survive?”
Food deserts
Sen. Moran was made aware of the state’s recent addition to its food desert situation with the closure of the La Crosse grocery store in August. After meeting with local officials, a solution may be forthcoming, he said.
“I came to La Crosse a month ago and met with community leaders to determine whether there was something I could do and get an understanding of the problem,” he said. “It appears they have a local couple who have purchased the grocery store with the capabilities of potentially keeping it open. We are looking for grants for Rush County to help fund that purchase and make this a viable store. It’s often one community, one grocery store at a time, but Kansas State University has a program that tries to help communities save their grocery stores.
“The Rural Development within USDA might have a grant. We are trying to find solutions to a significant problem.”
The problem is not a recent one, he noted.
“For as long as I’ve been in Washington, D.C., I’ve explained to my colleagues that economic development can be whether or not there is a grocery store in town. Almost no one understands why that’s an issue,” he said. “When I became a Senator I discovered that there are these problems in the middle of Wichita and in the middle of Kansas City, Kansas. It is not just a rural thing; it is a statewide problem. We have introduced legislation to create grant programs to help communities that are willing to help themselves keep a grocery store.”
On a recent visit to Greensburg, Sen. Moran discussed the 2007 tornado that leveled the town. “I noted that one of the most important issues that people called me about after the tornado was whether Dillons ‘was going to stay in business here. Because if it’s not, we’re planning on moving if we don’t have a grocery store.’
“That same thing is true in communities across Kansas, whether it’s a small town or in the middle of a city that loses their grocery store, people are going to find someplace else to live. We then lose young families coming and we lose senior citizens who have the difficulty of trying to find groceries someplace else – maybe they move where their kids are. That makes it an issue of whether that community has a future.”
USPS
“The Post Office is important to places everywhere, but especially in places where we have so many seniors who depend upon it for their prescriptions. The Post Office itself is a gathering place for the people of the community,” he said.
“The Postal service is mentioned in the United States Constitution. It’s an important function, but we have the attitude that if it can’t make money, it won’t be giving service.
“The places where they can make money help subsidize where they can’t and still allow the mail to get from one place to another.
“We have passed the most significant reform of the Postal Service, certainly within my time in Congress. It changes the nature by which pension funds are funded. It allows the Postal Service to do more things to make revenue. I think the Postal Service is getting in better financial shape.
“The problem is the attitude that the key to success is by cutting services. I’ve tried to explain to the Postmaster General — about three of them now in a row — that if the goal to survive is to cut services, you’re going to lose all your customers. There has to be service in the Postal Service. The closing of these service centers slow downs the delivery of the mail.
“We passed legislation prohibiting closure of service centers, but they’ve already closed the ones in Kansas before we got the bill passed. We’re trying to reverse the process.”
