Thursday afternoon, Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis asked middle school students to share their ideas for making Great Bend better. A second skate park on the west side of town, a trampoline park, and an “alien museum” for folks interested in extraterrestrial life and weird, unusual things were some of the suggestions.
Other ideas were a small amusement park, indoor skydiving, go-karts, an aquarium, indoor rock climbing and an area for food trucks, along with making the Wetlands Waterpark bigger and better.
The “idea exchange” is the final stop at the Great Bend Youth Academy, an all-day activity offered every summer to seventh and eighth graders. Approximately 80 students will attend this year; half were in Thursday’s group and the rest will attend this coming Thursday, July 1.
Francis also asked the students what kind of new businesses they’d like to see, and restaurant chains Chipotle, Chick-fil-A and IHOP were suggested. However, Francis said enticing a company to open a restaurant isn’t something a city can easily do.
“It’s a lot easier to find funding to build a skate park,” he said. However, Great Bend does have an Economic Development office that exists to attract new companies (and retain existing ones), and he promised to pass along the ideas.
To the student who said Great Bend needs an arcade, Francis suggested, “Maybe you can become an entrepreneur and start your own.”
Past ideas that have come from the Youth Academy include the hike and bike path, the skate park, the disc golf course at Veterans Park and the aquatic center. But not all ideas are for something new, Francis said. “Good ideas can include taking care of what you have.”
The annual Youth Academy is a behind-the-scenes glance at the different city departments and a hands-on learning experience for what it takes to keep those departments running. The day started and ended at the Great Bend Events Center. Students rode the Great Bend USD 428 Panther Activity Bus to various locations.
At the Wastewater Treatment Plant, they learned what it takes to clean the water and make it usable for drinking, cooking, bathing and swimming. One of the students would later ask why Great Bend doesn’t have a water tower like other area communities. Francis explained that Great Bend does not need a water tower to maintain water pressure or for storage, those being the most common reasons for a tower. The City of Great Bend obtains its water from a groundwater supply through deep wells. On average the city’s wells pump 600 to 700 million gallons of water a year.
At the Great Bend Police Department range, students saw police cars and bicycles, and watched a demonstration of the GBPD drone. They also visited the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo and the Wetlands Waterpark, where they learned what it takes to maintain the pool and the training it takes to become a lifeguard.
After lunch at the Events Center, they visited the Street Department. They got to take home custom decals with their names, made the same way as street signs. They were told not to put the decals on anything without their parents’ permission.
The last stop before the idea exchange was the Great Bend Fire Department’s Station 2, where they could spray water through a firehose, check out the trucks and EMT equipment, and cool off with a water balloon fight. Several students listed that as their favorite part of the day.
The city will have sponsored 52 Youth Academy groups by the end of next week. That represents almost 1,800 student participants over the past 21 years. Sponsors say the success of the Youth Academy is shown by the number of former participants who are returning to Great Bend to live and work after they have graduated from college.
