On Sunday, the Great Bend Tribune ran a story about a new Holiday Inn Express that is coming to town. It will feature 80 rooms, modern decor, contemporary features and meeting rooms.
New construction in Great Bend? A much-needed new business? One would think this would be greeted as good news for our community.
However, judging from the postings on the Tribune’s Facebook page regarding the story, there is a lot of negativity. And that is unfortunate.
Below are unedited samplings of those comments:
• “If your are going to add more hotels (that are not needed) add more stores as in target, SAMs, kohls etc. That way when people stay here they have something to do other than Walmart or driving 2 hours to shop!!! Walmart is not cutting it!”
• “Give it a year and it’ll be run down like the others. Not like Holiday Inn hasn’t been here before.”
• “Ok...lets have a nice hotel....who pray tell is going to patronize it....the street in front of it connects to major smaller hiways going thru the state...I will give you that one....attractions ..cheyenne bottoms....tea it might create a few jobs...that will pay minimum wage. They want something a little nicer so the city can promote the convention center that they now own....and charge too much for to rent ..so yea...I guess there is something positive coming out of a town that has walmart....dillons and about any fast food you may want....and cheyenne bottoms....come rent a room....go bird watch and eat at applebees....maybe watch a movie....that’s progress. .come on folks...oh yea and banks...we have tons of banks too....give it a chance...maybe we will get surprised....uummm...yea.....maybe.”
But,, there was this one comment:
“Good grief! You are all a bunch of nay sayers! This is awesome for Great Bend! When was last time you saw any construction here??? Growth, competition bring more business to town. Give it a chance!”
We can all only hope that such sentiments are the majority and the rest come from that vocal minority that always seems to get its voice heard.
Dale Hogg