June Jaunt is less than a week away. This event, which showcases communities from Tribune to Great Bend along K-96, is a chance for these towns to shine.

The jaunt is a joint effort of all the communities along the route. It involves chambers of commerce, convention and visitors bureaus, economic development groups and city governments pulling together.

Changing gears, the Great Bend CVB has put much work into promoting the community. This is also a priority for Barton and Stafford counties to attract tourists to the area.

These are both examples of what it takes to make the place we call home attractive to the outside world. We know what we have. Others don’t get it and it is up to us to make them understand.

What brings this up now? One just has to take a bike ride or slow drive down any highway or road in Barton County, or other counties as well, to see that a lot of work remains to be done.

Apparently, not everyone got the memo that we are trying to make a good impression.

There are a lot of, well, idiots out there who don’t have the common decency to keep their messes to themselves. Instead, they hurl objects out of their windows as they speed down the road or otherwise scatter trash in their wakes.

Take a look and one can see bottles, cans, boxes, jugs, fast food wrappers, syringes and even bags of garbage littering the countryside. Seriously?

Forget the fact that such acts are illegal, what sort of message are we sending to travelers? Do we even care about how our county appears or is perceived?

So much is going right in putting central Kansas on the map in a positive way. But, these efforts can’t stop at the top. 

From special events to baseball and softball tournaments to the new Boom pro baseball team, we will have a lot of folks pass through. 

It takes all of us to take pride in where we live. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.  

Dale Hogg