The Post Podcast

Forward Ever: Radio show host Mike Cooper

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with radio show host Mike Cooper.

Ellis County’s largest employers continue to help drive local economy

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares insights from recent tours of Ellis County's largest employers.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Few of the largest enterprises in Ellis County have a significant impact on the area economy. Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to share some of those insights on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Fort Hays State is the crown jewel of western Kansas, we got to tour the three new buildings to three, three newest buildings on campus. I was just blown away by what all they have down there, and how nice and just effective and what a wonderful resource those buildings are. To the art department, the technology department and the Center for Student Success and just amazing buildings. You just go in and you don't feel like you're in hate, you know, you feel like gosh, I shouldn't be in a metropolitan area, or huge university someplace, but it's right here and it's impressive. Yeah,
 
James Bell 
yeah, I really like about all of the construction they've done because I was I was on campus there when they started with the with Hammond Hall, and kind of that whole process. I love that the new buildings the the the consensus, the goal is to make them look like they're part of the old campus. You know, there's an aesthetic there that I just I can't think of another college and I've ever been on to that really does that.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well they've done a terrific job of maintaining the limestone construction, you know, the same building materials and and the look and feel with with some modernization. And of course, the art area, they use the old power plant and being a lifer here in Hayes. I remember that powerplant, my granddad used to work there. And I used to go down there when I was a kid, and walk through there with him. And that was longer ago than I'd like to think. But they, they were able to restore that building, at least the exterior structure and things keep the bill brick and that kind of thing is really cool how they did that. So it they have done an amazing job. And we can be very proud of, of what we have there. And what a wonderful asset it is to western Kansas and to Ellis County in particular, to have that type of an institution there. It's it's just tremendous.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, I love then it's and I know, it's not a haze, exclusive thing, but there seems to be just such an undercurrent here of people wanting to reutilize those historic structures, those old buildings and I love that we do that in Fort Hays is done that I think is in modern history, at least has absolutely much as they can.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
They have, you know, as I said, the old power plant they use for that the library's the next project with the grant that they recently received a $17 million grant, I believe it was, and they're going to be renovating the library, but I don't think they're going to be changing a whole lot on the exterior. I say that they probably aren't going to do a fair amount to it, but but they're going to maintain the spot they're going to maintain some of the the structure and things and so they'll continue that look and feel and and you know, really the only other a couple buildings on campus that aren't of the limestone, I think domanick Hall is, is maybe non limestone and things but I tell people this all the time I would I would compare our campus to any other anywhere really, in terms of the look and quality of a campus is is just really second to none. And I mean even big schools and, and division one schools and it's just an amazing place.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And I love talking for hates, everybody knows I went for Hayes and big champion of everything they do down there. Well, I
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
went there to just not the whole ride. I got sidetracked along the way college algebra. As I told the group the other day, college algebra ended my college career. And however I told them in the Center for Student Success, they have an area for tutoring, and they bring in tutors. And it's a great spot where kids can come in and get the help they need. I'm sure something like that was probably available when I was there, but I didn't find it. And if I were to go back, I might have gotten through college algebra and continued my college career path. But that didn't happen. So kids have a much better opportunity today to utilize those resources.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. Hey, and I'll share this with you Doug. If you keep it between you and me. College Algebra. I took it six times six before I finally got
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
through sixth time's the charm.
 
James Bell 
Everybody knows to I was in college forever. I was there for dang decade. It was amazing. Probably why I love it so much. Why
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
ever leave? Yeah, exactly.
 
James Bell 
But, you know, four days, you know, and that's it. That's a showcase piece. And it's easy to point to that but you had some opportunity here in the last week to go through some of the large employers here in Hays and, and really kind of see what they do as well, right? We did
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
yesterday, Scott, the plant manager at EnerSys was good enough to give us a tour of intercepts and I had never been in there. That's one of the really cool things about this job I have is that I get to go in some places that I've never been. You know, I mentioned I've lived here all my life. I remember very well when it was traveling all and you know it was our Our largest employer at that point in time, but I was never in the physical plant. I've been in the front offices. So yesterday, we got to take a tour of the entire place. And wow, it's it's an impressive place as well in a different kind of way. Because it's hardcore manufacturing going on in there, you know, plant floor and Fire, fire deals, melting lead, and pouring lead into forms and then turning it into batteries, ultimately, big batteries and things. But what an impressive place and just shows we've got a lot going on here. I've had tours of brands, I've had tours of Glassman, we have some really impressive has. We had some really impressive businesses here that are doing some amazing things right under our noses. And I don't think we realize it sometimes just how impressive these things are.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, absolutely. I was even I had a conversation with my wife not too long ago. And matter of fact, we were talking to nurses, we knew they make batteries, but like what they actually do, we don't know. And it is it's so easy to overlook those those major employers Hays med is another one here in Ellis County that really helped drive our economy, but they're kind of you know, you don't think about a lot of them frequently, maybe his med is a bad example. Because you do. Most people out there though
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
maybe higher profile in the community. But you know, in our system, we talked about this yesterday, they're kind of on the edge of town. And so you drive by that building all the time, but you don't really think about what goes on in there unless you have some reason to either know, somebody that works there or having worked there before. But it's an impressive operation. And they, they produce some amazing products to get used all over the world. I mean, these batteries, these are not your car batteries. These are industrial type batteries that are used for backups of telecom systems and computer data centers and that type of thing. Even utility companies use them nuclear power plants use them for their backup, because they want to have backup power if they have to shut down the plant for some reason or another. So these products are used everywhere. And they're made some I mean, they have multiple plants but least these are made right here in Hays America.
 
James Bell 
I love that are we're literally, you know, building the things that are driving the world.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, at some level we are, you know, I know tronics makes parts for the the auto industry and for General Motors and the big car manufacturers and cross Of course, I'm not sure exactly what all they make products for, but their products are used all over I know. And RANS my gosh, he's, he's got airplanes all over the world. And he's been at it a long time out there, Randy and his crew and they do a terrific job as well. So pretty special stuff goes on here.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. You know, from a truly economic standpoint, I wonder, you know, how much of our economy is driven by those large employers? And I don't know where you draw the line on large. But, you know, those are the ones who are most talking about
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
the end. You're right. The definition of large is always interesting. When I was back into computer business and working with IBM, they called small businesses, anything under 1000 employees. Those were small businesses. Well, they're not small to us. But those employers are critically important to our local economy, and they contribute a lot. You know, Fort Hays, state Hays med EnerSys has Glassman RANS, all of those cross, they all contribute a lot of dollars in employment to our community. Unfortunately, they're all facing the same problem right now is finding people. That's that's the real challenge. The biggest challenge that they face, you know, I'm talking with the Scott at an intercessor. He also talked about supply chain issues, you know, they have been challenged with supply chain issues and trying to get products and, and it's a process. So when you lose one piece of the chain of manufacturing something, it gums up the whole work. So it is some challenges, some challenges, but I think employer employees are their biggest challenge to find good qualified employees.
 
James Bell 
You know, and that's something we talk about quite a bit. And one of the driving factors on that is housing here in the area. And from what I understand there was a reason how recent housing study done by the city of Hayes, I wonder if you want to share some of the insights from that? Well,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
there was the city page recently completed a housing study. The document Institute did a housing study forum and in a company called rd G did a supplemental study. And it showed us basically kind of what we already know that we have a shortage that we have under built for quite some time. And it's put us in the hole in terms of available housing and thus our ability to recruit the workforce is challenging, because we don't have any place for him to live, whether it be a very white collar person that's looking at our community health care provider or a college professor, school team. Teacher, or somebody that's got a skilled laborer that's looking to go to work for one of these manufacturers that we're talking about, they have to live someplace. And we have not built enough homes over the last 10 years to meet the need. And then if we want to take advantage of this urban migration that's taking place over the next five to 10 years, we're gonna have to really ramp it up. So we have some real challenges ahead of us if we expect to continue to have any growth and do better than we have done.
 
James Bell 
On that same note, though, there are some positive actions going on here in Ellis County that are designed to alleviate some of those shortages, right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, we're obviously the heart of America development out and Tallgrass is 36 homes that will be added to the market. The Ellis Estates is adding 42 units to the market out there. And there's other projects that are in at least a conceptual stage. So absolutely, we're looking at solutions and trying to get new housing going. We couldn't have picked a worse time to try and build things. Because the construction industry has labor shortages as well, costs are higher than they've ever been escalating interest rates mean, we could talk all day about the challenges really doesn't matter. We've got to figure out solutions, because we've got to provide housing for people that might want to move into this area. So we're just going to have to do
 
James Bell 
You know, as we heard earlier from again, from the city leaders here on our City Commission recap on the show. There's another IRH ID that they approved to hear. But I guess yesterday
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
last night, yes, I didn't mention that in terms of stuff under construction. But Mike Graham is going to build 33 or 36 units at the corner of fourth and fort. That will add obviously 36 units, by my estimation, we're probably four to 500 units short, in our current housing supply. I say that because our vacancy rate is virtually non existent right now. And, you know, we've got about 9000 units in our community, a healthy vacancy rate would be five or more. So if you do the math, you come up with, you know, anywhere from three to 500 units that we could use. And it also would help other landlords be a little bit more motivated to upgrade what they have. Because there's no motivation to fix things, or to upgrade properties, or even to possibly knock down properties and put something new up, so long as you have a rental market where everything rents. And so if we can add properties to the market, we'll see some of that kind of thing take place. And that's a good thing that's healthy for a community to to go through that process. It's not healthy, to not have places for people to live when people want to move here. That's not a good situation. We need to resolve that.
 
James Bell 
You know, we've talked about this so much. But I wonder if you want to put kind of a timeline on it. And I know that we we both frequently say this, it never moves as fast as you want. But I'm wondering at what point do you see that here in Ellis County, we might get past that kind of crisis point in the housing and move into that place where we're in a, at least a stable and positive looking outcome.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
I think even if all the projects we have on the board would occur, we're still two or three years away from getting to the point where we have adequate inventory maybe longer simply because it takes to a couple of years to take a project from concept to reality or longer to get things built. So we're still two or three years away from having any hope of resolving some housing issues. So it's going to be an ongoing thing for quite some time. Oh, we're gonna get there. We absolutely are.

Help keep school age children safe with these tips

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Fire Department Deputy Chief Shane Preston stops by to share safety tips for the school year.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Keeping children safe as they go back to school this August is up to the entire community his Fire Department Deputy Chief Shane Preston stops by to share some safety tips on this episode of the post podcast
 
Shane Preston 
are some parents are excited for school to start back up just in a matter of time of their hair and get back to the activities maybe it'll slow down a little bit. But, you know, school is coming just right around the corner. So some of the things we want to kind of talk about today some school stuff remember, you know, the school zones and you know, with increased traffic in those areas, obey the traffic, flashing signals and, and speed limits in those areas. And in those areas, just remember the kids are gonna be walking, riding their bikes or skateboards or, you know, whatever it may be, may not always be in the car with the parents. And just make sure you plan ahead all that extra time. You know, plan for it to be crazy. I know it is and I'm not a big fan of doing the whole drop off and pickup thing myself but if I can do it everybody else can do so just remember when you are picking up your child or dropping them off parking in the emergency vehicle areas Please do not do that that is that is for us if there is an issue there usually there'll be a sign there that says you know no parking emergency vehicles or it'll be a curb will be painted red in that area. So you know, there are designated pickup pickup drop off areas at the schools. But we also have kind of our own little spot where you know, if something bad did happen, we have a place to go.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, and you might think well I'm only going to be there for a minute but in an emergency holy smokes that minute might be life and death for somebody and you don't want to be the one that's in
 
Shane Preston 
the way and then you know everybody else trying to get out of the you know out of the way it just if you if you've ever done this school pickup stuff you know the traffic is kind of insane it's something you know everybody wants to get going and everything and then you throw an emergency in there and it just you know raises the stress levels up a little bit more and then people are trying to you know, get their kid but yeah, get out of the way and it's it it gets a little cumbersome. So just park where you should Yes. Remember we have crossing guards signals remember there's crossing guards that that do that the just like over here to a Laughlin we do have crossing guards there and and make sure you allow enough time you see them stop ahead you know let's get his kids moving so phones in the school zones you know if you don't need to be on it don't and if you do you know there's so many options now going hands free with your cell phone and you know things like that use those options if you need to be on it you know in the vehicle just good general practice to do that.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I think I'd heard and correct me if I'm wrong I mean we may know may not but someone somewhere I'd seen that distracted driving so cell phone usage is now the number one killer or the number one cause of traffic acts fatal traffic accidents over drunk driving.
 
Shane Preston 
I don't I haven't seen that but it couldn't be wrong no I think I think it's right up there with it if it's not you know if it hasn't been taken over that that stat yet but you know the whole texting and driving and it's just even you know if you're talking on and you got it up to your you know your ear you're you're involved in the conversation and you're just going through the motions of driving instead of you know I need to be driving and be defensive and looking for things and all that so it really does take take take you away from where you need to be when you're driving
 
James Bell 
and when you got little kiddos running around I mean it's they just pop up out and they do I ended up my my daughter almost got hit coming out school not not in haste This was back in when our previous location but thank goodness that driver was paying attention because she caught it like, right just this kid was popping under our wheels. I didn't know what she was doing. But she immediately took her back to our house and said you guys should have a talk with your daughter. And we did we did but you know had she been on a cell phone or been distracted at all it may have been a very different
 
Shane Preston 
and also remember to we have young teenage drivers out there for high school who are going to be you know now driving, talk with them. If you have a teenager in the home, you know just work with them and you know make sure hey put the Phone down when you're driving, it's not that important. If it's not important and pull over Park, then use the phone you don't, you know, it's one of those. Because, you know, as a young driver, you don't want to be involved in an accident and might hurt another small child too. So but anyway, school buses. Now remember, you know, the school bus has its flashing lights on and the stop signs out. That means traffic stops both sides, both
 
James Bell 
sides. Oh, so that's something that I learned recently, and probably you that taught me this. The segment's but yeah, both ways, you can't just stop if you're behind it, it should be a complete stop. That's
 
Shane Preston 
correct. And, and the reason is, is because when the kids get off, they get out the passenger side of the of the bus, now they may need to go to cross the street. Well, that stop sign the flashing lights provides basically, you know, a school crossing guard type thing provides a safe zone for them to be able to get off the bus and go, you know, walk around in front of the bus and go across the street and get on the sidewalk and meet their parents or go home from there. Now, a lot of times, the kids just get off the bus, and they just go they don't pay attention to the, you know, the cars, traffic, they get snacks, a TV, video game, they want to go play or you know, whatever it may be. And so yeah, just be aware of that. And we do have, you know, not just school buses out in the rural communities, but we have school buses here in town in Hays that do drop offs, pickups and drop offs. So just remember, if you do have a school bus, stop in your area, make sure you plan around that to know where those are at. But teach the kid teacher if you have a kid that does ride the school bus teach him to play it safe. Stay five steps away from the curb. Always wait until the bus comes to complete stop and the bus driver signals for you to board the bus. So, you know, you know there's, the kids want to hurry up, jump on well, you know, the driver doesn't even have the door open and they're trying to get on you know, so wait wait for the vehicle to come to complete stop. And then face forward, you know, after finding the seat sit in your seat, you know, when I was in school, the school buses did not have seat belts. So you know, we were just we just wrote along. But we still had the same rules you sit down you face for you know you don't jump up over the seat to talk to your friend that's behind you or anything like that. So and then when exiting the bus, wait till it stops. Make sure you look in make sure you talk to your child about looking both ways across the street even though the bus may have its lights on the stop sign out and there may be some a drivers that stopped each year we do have an incident with a driver not yielding to the stop sign of a school bus. And you know, sometimes people get hurt and sometimes they don't. But let's just be aware of that and, and help help everybody be safe. And just reminder, the kids to be courteous to this to the bus driver and listen to their directions and and because the drivers there, they just want to we want to make sure the kids get home safely get to school safely. So that's that's their big push there. And lastly, I know we usually talk about it every time but we still have our smoke detector program. So if you do have any questions about a smoke detector or even a carbon monoxide detector, let us know and we will assist you in any way we can.
 
James Bell 
Very good. Well, all righty, Shane, any other last thoughts or anything you want to touch on before we go? No, I
 
Shane Preston 
just want to say it's a beautiful day out. I know it's a little cloudy or foggy but the temperature is great.
 
James Bell 
It looks like 70 degrees, the little chart saying here and yeah,
 
Shane Preston 
usually that's around you know, like two o'clock in the morning. 830 in the morning so everybody's going to enjoy the nice little weather we have here.

Extension district wheat test plot results released

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Cottonwood Extension District agent Stacy Campbell shares updates from the district. 
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
We plot test results from the Cottonwood Extension District have been released agent Stacy Campbell stops by to share with us the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Stacy Campbell 
Monique Koerner just started yesterday as our new family community wellness agent here in haste. And she just started yesterday. So yeah, you know, you want to invite people to swing in and meet her or give her a call. But yeah, Monique Kerner is our new family community wellness agents that started just yesterday here in the Hayes office for the cottonwood district. And then there's, you know, a search on for two more agents for four H Youth Development agent and horticulture agents. So stay tuned.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. When she gets settled in you tell her to swing on by. Okay. We'll do Yeah, we could still hit it. Oh, good. Great, great. We get some important things we're gonna talk about today. You, we just had the harvest got over. And then the fair, you had some results from the wheat, right?
 
Stacy Campbell 
Yeah, yeah, we cut our you know, little little, I can say little, our wheat demonstration test plot that was south and west of town. And we've got those results up on our website. So if you just go to triple w.cottonwood.ksu.edu, click onto the crops and livestock tab, there's kind of some tabs over to the left, if you click onto that. And then under hot topics, I believe is where that's at. And that's a lot to remember. So one of the things I just kind of tell people anymore, if I'm if you just type in Cottonwood extension, and put comma KSU should be able to get our website to pull up and then just click on to the crops and livestock section. And you'll see should see the local wheat demonstration plot results there and also have some other decision aid tools there. There's a publication that extension, you know, updates annually, puts quite a bit of time and effort into it. Called they renamed it now. But in the past, it's been called the wheat variety, disease and insect publication and I forget what they renamed it. But that's that's useful to look at different ratings of wheat varieties for disease resistance, insect resistance. So that's always been updated, it's on there on the website as well. And then one other kind of cool tool that is out there that actually Colorado State University has, and I've got the link to it under the hot topics on the website is a decision tool to where you can do head to head comparisons of two different varieties of wheat. You can look at different locations. And and they basically have compiled all of the different Experiment Station results of wheat variety plots in the Great Plains that includes Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, they've got all that data in there. And then they've got just a real simple decision tool, or like I say, you can do a head to head comparison of two different varieties and see which one, you know and it'll say, like variety X, you know, out yield a variety Why 55% of the time in 12 different trials. So it's a pretty cool little tool put out by Colorado State University. And the link is on the website there to look at that. And then you know, of course, we're We're hot and we're dry. We're probably in a drought. So was talking to our veterinarian, one of our veterinarians last week at the fair and he said yeah, cool cows are coming into the sale barn. So you know, guys are getting rid of some some cows, probably going to be some early weaning. And then I would encourage guys to also do preg checking, you know, early when they take them off of pasture here in the fall and get rid of those opens. And then one other thing just to throw out there. If they when they do cut their hay and I know the hay is not growing a lot because of the drought, but if they do swath and put it down, the tendency is to put that cutting bar pretty low two inches off the ground give or take a little bit, or nitrates accumulate in that lower stem of the plant. Because of stress and drought stress is often how we get nitrates. So if you can raise that cutter cutting bar up from say two inches to six inches that can really help Keith harmony, the range scientist at the experiment station one year and drop in a dry year went out there and did some hand clipping of you know, sorghum Sudan and and He clipped at two inches versus six inches. And I believe I'm just kind of going from memory that there was almost a 50% reduction in nitrates from two to six inches cutting height. So that's that's an impact. It's pretty significant. So and you know, this year, I think he's going to be short. So every bits going to count. So I know your tendency is to lower that to keep that cutting bar low. You're gonna pick up probably not pick up that much more tonnage, if you raise it up, you know, two to four inches and could sure reduce the amount of nitrates significantly.
 
James Bell 
You know, and for us lay people that are out in the fields. Like what what benefit does that give you know long term I know we hear about nitrates quite a bit especially in water supplies and then right your drainage ponds, things like that.
 
Stacy Campbell 
So high nitrates and forages can can actually kill lactating cattle. So it just just causes kind of a, it basically, gosh, hadn't thought about this for a while, but it kind of reduces the amount of of oxygen in the blood. So it can kill your lactating cows, if it doesn't kill them, sometimes it'll cause them to abort. So just trying to reduce those nitrates in our, in our feed is is very important. And like I say, nitrates accumulate in the lower part in the stem of plants, when there's a stress and oftentimes in our part of the world, it's because of drought stress, they're just the plants just really kind of shutting down if you will, and it's not really metabolized and what nitrates and has an in pushing them up for growth because there's not enough moisture there. It's hot, it's dry, they're just trying to survive. So they just kind of in a matter of speaking almost, you know, kind of kick into a hibernation mode if you will, and they're just not metabolizing those nitrates and utilizing them and so they're accumulating in that lower stem. So anything we can do to raise that cutting height on those drought stress plants can help reduce those those nitrates, you know, and, and cause cause fewer headaches down the road. I mean, you know, you lose a cow or two because of that that can pretty much you know, definitely dips into the profit or maybe wipes out any potential profit there was for the year. Thanks. Yeah, yeah, so and then one other little kicker our always mentioned soil sampling, you know, before you plant your next wheat crop, it'd be beneficial to go out and take a soil sample we sampled where we're going to put our wheat plant back in again this year and need quite a bit of nitrogen you know, we've we were able to fortunately have some good yields this year again. And so wheat definitely uses nitrogen. It's a it's a user a consumer of nitrogen. So if you've had some good yields, probably be beneficial to go out there and take two foot if you can get down there, profile soil sample for your nitrogen and see how much you're gonna need for the next for the next crop, whether it be wheat or grain sorghum, if it's grain sorghum, you can wait till you know next spring to sample for that. I guess that's the other thing is whatever its buys to sample kind of consistently at the same time of year. So for wheat, you know, you may be tight pulling samples in August 1 part of September, and then for your summer crops, maybe sample those in the in the spring. You kind of do that consistently. When you do take samples, you know the same time of year for those particular props. It's advisable

Hays to host full-scale tornado strike exercise

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Ellis County Emergency Manager Lyle Pantle shares information about an upcoming training exercise in Hays.

Area leaders tour FHSU campus

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger, shares details of the 2022 Community Cruise.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Area officials will tour Fort Hays State University campus this week from the Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger stops by to share the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So for many people, they may not know what the community cruises and we're calling this one community cruise for today's edition, because we're doing it a little bit different format. So the community Cruise is usually when the downtown Hays Development Corporation grow haze, the haze Convention and Visitor's Bureau and the chamber and haze, of course, get together to take our elected officials and community leaders across town. And we show them all the different projects and things going on. Because there's been so much growth and development on the Fort Hays State University campus over the past several years, we thought how cool would it be to kind of re think that I did just a little bit this year. So we're inviting those folks onto campus today. And we'll have some presentations from our partnering agency directors that I just named, and talk about what things are going on within our organizations and some of the projects we've been working on. And then we'll also give folks an opportunity to just kind of visit with one another but such a neat event.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I love that. You know, and we were kind of joking. Some of us here in the office the other day about about these events, because it's kind of it seems like on the surface, you know, Hayes's let's be real. It's not the smallest of towns, but it's a small town. And like, what else could there be deceived? But then you think about and you actually get in on these things, and you get driving around. And absolutely, there's so much going on that you don't even recognize and you're absolutely right for his campus, holy smokes, talk about some work that they've done. It's like that's like a whole new campus from when I went
 
Sarah Wasinger 
there. I know, I don't barely recognize that myself anymore. I'm like, this would have been really cool when I was going to school. So. But I'm so excited that our students in our community and those who come to visit us from out of state, really have such a wonderful campus to enjoy. So they do a great job, just highlighting everything. And Jason Willoughby has been wonderful to work with. And a big shout out to Melissa Dixon. She's kind of taken the reins for organizing this year's cruise with him. Lunch will be provided by the Fort Hays State University Foundation, so people will be treated to that. It is kind of an invitation event. So we do have I believe media invited as well to cover that. So I'm not sure if there will be a Post story about that. I do believe there will be well, there'll be a guy named James Bell.
 
James Bell 
No, it's not me. I'm going to be here. I wish I could. I love going to those things. But you guys, you planned it too early. So next year, keep that in mind. early afternoon works better for me. Okay. Duly noted. That's the most important thing. It's can James go, can James. No. But there will be a haze poster story up there. Christina Janie, who's doing news for us this morning here on the eagle morning show. I'm sure we'll be getting that up maybe tomorrow or Thursday. So it'd be great to see
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Perfect. Well, we look forward to seeing her. One thing I do enjoy. And what people should know is, you know, our elected officials work really hard to do a good job representing us. This gives them an opportunity to kind of be in the same room together. And there's something to be said about breaking bread with your fellow community leaders and elected officials and just making sure that everybody has a good idea of what things are going on in Hayes, I think when we can all be on the same page, and we can kind of get our gears turning in the same direction we can achieve more together.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And you know, I think there's something to be said too, about the informal events. You know, when you're when you're only interact in these settings where you know, you've got business to do there's something on the agenda. You don't get to, you know, have fun and enjoy those people. And once you make those connections, and you have that ability, I think it you know, it serves the community better when those leaders are and maybe not friends but friendly.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Yes, absolutely. Well, ironically enough, I've been with the Chamber now full time since July of 2019. We were we usually do this event in April. And so I've not had a community cruise in my capacity yet. So this is my first one. Oh, I'm Melissa Dixon and I were both talking. She's like this might be the first one I remember. She said maybe I was a part of one. And I just don't remember, it was just so long ago. And I think this thing could be said for Doug Williams too. So we're definitely excited. So to our community leaders if we, you know, put our feet or miles or do something differently than what you're accustomed to give us just a little bit of grace as this is our first time putting this together.
 
James Bell 
Well, and maybe maybe it's time for a little change, do a little different. Get some new ideas in
 
Sarah Wasinger 
there. Maybe next year, we'll bring the best back and get the band back together and go tour.
 
James Bell 
There you go. There you go. Well, Sara, before we run out of time, we got to talk about some of the events because you got a lot going on this week. As always, you always busy down at the chamber but there's some really cool stuff going on this week. Yes, this
 
Sarah Wasinger 
week is jam packed with a wonderful selection of events for people to participate in should they choose Wednesday, July 27 at 4:30pm are hazy and professionals member development committee will be meeting at defiance this downtown location so definitely come and check that out. Thursday, July 28 at 1pm. We talked about this last week in greater detail but higher pass On the LS county educators roundtable we'll be going on. That's just a great way for educators to learn about higher pas and how they might be able to utilize that programming in their classroom. But event is free to attend. And it will be at brief space in the basement conference room. So if you plan on attending that, please be sure to park in front of the brief space location. And then we're going to be doing the same type of event at 3pm. That same day, July 28. But that will be a higher pass Ellis County Business Roundtable. So business owners can figure out how they can utilize higher pass to attract workforce, which obviously is something that everybody is struggling with right now. And it may not provide immediate relief, but it's definitely something that people can add to their toolkit to help them be successful. Yeah.
 
James Bell 
And I would think anything you can get in that toolkit right now is helpful.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely. Any visibility is usually good visibility, as they say, in marketing. And then Friday, July 29, at 9am. We'll be having our ribbon cutting and chamber chat with the fhsu inaugural TGIF, so Tiger year on Friday Partner of the Year, and we will be hosting that at the sunflower bank North location. So please be sure to join us for that. And then since it is last week of the month, we'll of course be having our membership lunch on Friday, July 29, as well, that will be held at noon at Smoky Hill Country Club that will be sponsored by sunflower bank. And um to kind of round the week out for folks who maybe can't attend those roundtables. Kristin Brighton, who will be our featured guest speaker at those roundtable, higher pass discussions will actually be talking about hire pas in general and kind of sharing some videos with those in attendance. And they're really cool. They're called those Colker videos that we talked about last week. So be sure to register for that. Yesterday was technically the deadline, but I'm sure if you treat the staff really nicely today and call in before noon, they'd be able to get you in, um, RSVP.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Yeah. And that's, um, if you're interested, don't miss it. Because what it what a powerful and helpful tool for the community.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely. Well, all right, sir.
 
James Bell 
Anything else before we go,
 
Sarah Wasinger 
you know, just want to remind folks that that chamber blew up Kansas, we still have that survey window open. And this week is the last week for the survey for the childcare business survey that we have going on. So if you have not already participated in those and are interested in doing so, we would encourage you to visit our website to check those out.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely no cost associated with either of those now, correct, right. Correct. But the chamber thing we've talked about this so many times, so I like talking about it, because it's what a cool benefit for the community. And but you need the people that have the interest, even if you're just maybe like, I don't know, get signed up for one of these sessions and do the survey and all that now, right? Yes, so
 
Sarah Wasinger 
a little foreshadowing into next week. So next week, Friday, our chamber chat will be at the Welcome Center. We'll be talking about chamber blue of Kansas. So if you weren't able to check out the breakfast or lunch that we had to learn more about that. Come check that out and join us to learn more next Friday. Next Friday.
 
James Bell 
Okay, good. 90 calendars. Interesting. Yep. Yep. And plus the Welcome Center. You go down there, it's a you know, every time I go in there, it's very welcoming, which I suppose is the point but everybody is always so happy when you walk in that building. I love it. Well, we're
 
Sarah Wasinger 
going to have cathedral holding roast coffee there for folks as well as McDonald's breakfast burritos and sausage McMuffins. So even if you don't, per se feel like you want to learn more about insurance or you're good there. You should just come for a good meal and good conversation because we have a lot of interesting people that attend them.

Hays Community Theatre Presents ‘Wizard of Oz’ this weekend

On this episode of the Post Podcast, From the Hays Community Theatre, The Wizard of Oz director Wendy Richmeier shares information about the upcoming show.

Low area unemployment continues to impact economies

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the impact of continued low unemployment rates across northwest Kansas.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Low unemployment rates across Northwestern Kansas continue to be a significant factor in area economies from Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
workforce, it's probably our primary challenge that we face, because of the low numbers. Any business that wants to come here or wants to grow, or even continuing to operate struggling, finding employees?
 
James Bell 
Yeah, and this has been, since I think, you know, we came back from the pandemic, we've seen these low numbers continue. But even before that, that the situation the unemployment numbers here, the rates were still under what we'd really like to see Weren't they
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
they were with or any number of years, and well, before the pandemic, all right, levels were below 3%, which is kind of when you have 3%, unemployment, the experts, that's that's low. You don't ever want anything less than that. Our number in May was 1.7. The month before that was 1.3%. And so very, very low numbers. And they were a little lower now than they were pre pandemic, but not appreciably.
 
James Bell 
So I guess my first question is, what's causing it the follow up? How do we fix it? Well,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
two great questions. And I wish I had the answers. It reminds me of a quote I heard the other day. Guy says, For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple and wrong. And that's what we see so much of today, I guess. I call it political speak. Everybody's got this easy answer. They say that, Oh, well, it's it's because the government gave out all this money. And people are sitting home and drawing all this money from the government. But that that's simply not what we see locally at all. It's a combination of things. So I think it's the pandemic did cause lots of people to say, Well, now's maybe a good time to retire. So we lost a lot of people out of the workforce to retirement more than normal. In our local situation, you know, we have 40, students have always provided a percentage of our workforce, the on campus students. And since the pandemic and even a little bit before, we've had a steady decline in on campus enrollment, so fewer kids on campus, and so fewer kids to work, because in spite of what many people think most students do work in one job or another. Childcare is a is a significant issue. We don't have enough childcare in our community. We've talked about that before. And I know you and Sarah watching her talk about that. And, and they they did a survey and they identified I believe 180 or something like that people who indicated if they had affordable and readily available childcare, they would reenter the workforce, or they would enter the workforce. So that's a challenge that we have. Our our lack of housing has caused us to not be able to have people move here, which could potentially enter the workforce. And, you know, when you take all that, and take the fact that now, the many workers who were doing maybe a primary level job or something like that have had opportunities to move up, it leaves a lot of openings in entry level jobs. And so as as the quote I gave said, this is complex, and there are no easy and simple solutions to it. It's multifaceted, and we have to kind of address all of them as best we can.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, and it sounds like to me, you know, all these things you mentioned, the Sarah and the childcare Task Force. You know, we've talked about the housing quite a bit here, you know, all of these problems, I think, are on the radar and kind of everybody's working on the individual aspects of it to move that forward and kind of fix up the road
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
that we are there's there's a lot of people working in a lot of these areas. The challenge is none of these have quick and easy fixes. You know, it takes time to build housing. You don't do that overnight. It's a process of, at a minimum months and most likely years to deal with housing shortages. Same with childcare, you know, to find providers, and that's, that's a business that, you know, the business model is really broken, particularly with the wage increases that were that are occurring, and what people can charge for childcare. And at the end of the day, what people can pay for childcare, they don't match up. You know, somebody who's trying to operate a daycare center, if they've had to take their employees from whatever it is $10 $11 An hour or 214 15 $16 an hour. It was barely working before and it doesn't work at that. So that's a challenge. So lots of lots of challenges. Are all of them taking a fair amount of time to resolve? You know, we'd love to get more students on campus. But that isn't quickly resolved either. So it's just going to take some time to work through some of this.
 
James Bell 
You know, I wonder if you want to speak to you in not so much maybe in Hays, but in kind of the greater Northwest Kansas region, the average age seems to be going up as well. And I think that's you mentioned, you know, pandemic, a lot of folks, they took that opportunity to go ahead and move out of the workforce retire, and, and they're not going to come back. But I wonder how much that plays into it and, and what we can do to help bring in that younger workforce that can, you know, contribute 20 3040 years still into the economic pool? Well, we
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
certainly have an aging population in Northwest Kansas, not quite as much in Ellis County, but in Northwest Kansas, we absolutely do. And yes, those people are leaving the workforce there, in some cases, leaving the area. And so we have to address that part of how we hope to address that is provide some retiree friendly type housing, that would cause them to move here and have Hayes as a potential destination. But that doesn't help the rural areas out in Northwest Kansas. And you know that one of the things I was going to mention on the unemployment rates, I've had people tell me, well, we you know, we just need people to, to drive into Hayes to work, lots of people do. But the unemployment rates in other areas in Northwest Kansas are just as low as they are here. And so it's not like there's a workforce out there someplace close, that's just waiting to go to work and wants to drive in. And then if you look at the cost of transportation today, you're not going to drive from 60 miles away, to take a nine or $10 an hour job, that doesn't make any sense, economically. And that's the same situation with childcare, you can't go to work for $10 An hour and pay $210 A week or $200 a week or whatever it is to have your child looked after, it just makes more sense to stay home. So more and more families, I think, have made that choice that one of us will stay home. And we'll just have to sacrifice some things. But we can't afford any other way. So it's not an easy situation.
 
James Bell 
You know, one of the other things that you've talked about with us here on the show is the number of the opportunity, I guess I should say that we have here in Hays and Ellis County with remote work, people can now choose in a lot of ways wherever they want to live and still do their job. How much do you think impact is that having on the local economy, people that have found, you know, I don't want to say better. But maybe the higher paying jobs are something that works better with their schedule online, and are just not in the local workforce, because of
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
that absolutely has made a difference. And we benefit from that some to from the standpoint that some people are relocating here that work remotely. But it doesn't really help our job force, you know, our workforce. They're here, they're spending money, they're buying houses, they're buying cars, groceries, but they're not a part of our actual workforce locally. So yes, there are people who have, in addition to who have left the workforce because of retirement, they have left the workforce because of opportunities that exist to work remotely for companies that that they don't have to go into the office every day. So again, another another contributing factor to this hugely complex problem.
 
James Bell 
You know, and the other thing that I wonder about this is, is is there a way that we can spend our way out of this, you know, can I've spoken to a number of especially restaurant owners and managers in the area that have had the by default had to raise those rates to do and get staff in there? Can we continue to raise that and work out of this problem? Or is that just going to in the long run make it worse?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, I think the the power, if you will, that has always been in the hands of the employer has shifted a great deal to the employee. And I don't know that that's going to change anytime soon. If somebody says they can't find a job right now, they're not trying very hard. There's plenty of jobs available and good jobs. Yes, some of them take some skills, if you're going to be a nurse, you don't just walk in and you're not a nurse or a health care provider, day one, but there's good jobs available. And it is going to it is going to be an ongoing challenge, particularly at the entry level. There just got to pay more. And, you know, when, when somebody can, I've seen all kinds of signs around, you know, like Walmart to somebody who wants to stock shelves and that kind of thing. $16 an hour. That makes it difficult for that restaurant owner or somebody who's traditionally hired people that if not minimum wage, someplace close to it. That's just that opportunity doesn't exist anymore. So their business model does change quite a bit.
 
James Bell 
You know, and I think about those folks, too, that are you Maybe not, you know, a highly lucrative career. You know, I can think of several examples where money isn't the factor that people would go into the job for other reasons. But when you see numbers like that, I wonder if if people are actively disengaging, and they're saying, Well, I don't want to do my job, because I could go flip burgers for the same pay rate. Do you see any of that going on?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
I think there's some of that going on. Sure. I think, today more than ever, you know, and money as you say, money isn't always the only factor. It's never the only factor in a job, but it's a big factor. But employers are going to have to have a, a workplace where people enjoy been, and, and treat them well. And you know, the, as I say, the the power of the, the whole situation has shifted to the worker. And so they're gonna have to be treated better. And I think people who treat their employees well and give them a good work environment and a situation where people enjoy going to work are going to have a whole lot easier time attracting personnel than then people who don't. And so that has to be part of any business strategy is that we've got to figure out how we make this a good work environment and take care of these people, because they really are the greatest asset these businesses have.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, and I wonder, too, do you see that? It's the same kind of impact, or the same thinking from the hometown, the local owned businesses and the big box retailers and restaurant chains? Or are they tackling the problems separately, or differently, I
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
think it's the same problem, I just think the larger organizations may have some advantages, because they have more resources, and can make these changes, and not have the impact, the dramatic impact that it has on a small business person. By the same token, I think most people would prefer to work for a local organization and have a little bit more flexibility, maybe a little bit better workforce, not all the the rules and those type of things that maybe sometimes come with a large organization.
 
James Bell 
You know, in my experience, it's been about half and half as Yeah, some people really enjoy the structure of like a large chain, anything that comes from my background, everybody knows, I think I spent a good chunk of my adult years in restaurant management. And that's, that was interesting to me, because that's how I always felt, you know, like I'd much rather work for, you know, a guy, right in some major Fortune 500 company, and I've done both,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
right, just to kind of depends on the individual, but certainly, larger organizations have more resources and can, in many cases offer better benefits and more money, in some cases, at least if they need to. Whereas the small business owner, many times, every two weeks, when they make payroll, they're they're sweating, whether they've got the cash flow this month to make payroll, and that's so if you increase your, your largest expense, which is always your people cost, when you increase that 1015 20 30% It creates some strain on the small business person.
 
James Bell 
For sure. Uh, you know, we've got just about a minute or so Doug left, I wonder if you want to talk about before we go is there is are we getting close to a breaking point where things are gonna get worse? Or does it look like you know, in the next, man, again, I know and recognize it's not a quick solution, but things are gonna get better over the next year or two.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
You know, that's, that's a hard question to answer. They say the first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is a problem. And we definitely have done that we definitely have a lot of good people that are working on solutions. So I'm going to say it's going to get better. I'm an optimist by nature. So I believe we are going to see an easing of some of this. I think we do have a new normal, you know, the new normal is going to be that business owners have to treat employees much differently or in some cases they expect to keep up. But I think I think at the end of the day, we're gonna some of this is going to ease a little bit and find new ways to do things innovate. Overcome

Hays Arts Council plans Summer Shakedown art sale

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Arts Council executive director Brenda Meder shares details about the upcoming Summer Shakedown new and recycled art sale.

Forward Ever: Hays city manager Toby Dougherty

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Hays city manager Toby Dougherty.

Area economic updates from Grow Hays

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares area economic updates.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
 
doug071522
Fri, 7/15 4:54PM • 13:54
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
businesses, community, recruitment, situation, haze, ellis county, people, building, housing, recruit, downtown, square foot, couple, challenges, find, dealt, pretty, cost, workforce, area
SPEAKERS
James Bell, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
 
James Bell 
Business Development and recruitment is an ongoing process in Ellis County. From Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams shares with us some of the latest developments here in the area, on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
We're at kind of in the dog days of summer here where everybody's just trying to figure out how to stay cool. We continue to work on different things and have different projects going whether it be our, our microfactory, or housing development, or our you know, our retail recruitment efforts.
 
James Bell 
Yet, I want to talk about that. Because one of the big things that's happened I think down to your organization this year, as you've brought extra staff in, you've got a couple of people now working for you that that's kind of their whole thing is is bringing in or analyzing and trying to recruit some of these businesses that hazing the the greater Ellis County region neat.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
It is we brought on two people this year, David Klingon came on in January. And his his focus is business recruitment, as well as retaining the businesses we have. And in James Robin joined us in June. And he's focused on business development, which is primarily entrepreneurship, starting up new businesses, as well as special projects, because we've got a couple of, you know, the microfactory, and housing developments and things that we're, we're working on, and we were stretched pretty thin. So we've got more resource now. And it's been really, it's been really good, we've, we've got a lot of things going. I wish I could point my finger at a couple of things say they're all done. But there are a lot of things in the works. So now we've got adequate resource to dedicate towards getting some things like that done.
 
James Bell 
Love it. And as I say we've we've seen some businesses come into a haze in Ellis County into the last or in the last six months or so. And you know, that development seems to continue. One of the things we were chit chatting about before we got on was the need for space, though, which I thought was really interesting, because you brought up a good point, when you really come down to it, there's not a lot of available properties for a large big box retailer to come in.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, there really isn't, you know, and one of the things that large big box retailers look for particularly in small markets as they look for a second or third generation facility. Because the cost of constructing a new facility is just way too much in a community like ours. land prices on North vine are are quite high. And construction cost. Obviously we all know how high those are. And so the ability to come in build a new location and start up from scratch is a much different financial equation than it is to find a 20 3040 year old building and occupy it considerably different. My daughter in law who was from Pittsburgh, Kansas, she sent me a text last night and she said that Pittsburgh, Kansas is getting the marshals and then we'd love to have marshals in Hays. But they're going in at old goodies store, which is 2030 years old.
 
James Bell 
And for those maybe younger folks goodies sold music, I think right? I think that's right. Yeah, I barely remember they kind
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
of like Hastings was here. Yeah. You know, an entertainment type store selling, renting out DVDs and selling what used to be the music the way we used to buy CDs or veers oldest may vinyl, or eight tracks, but they when they're going in that location and and just to give an example of the difference in what the rental situation might be those those buildings rent by the square foot, typically on an annual basis. So if you've got, let's just say 10,000 square feet, and it rents for $4 a square foot that's 40 $40,000 a year. Well, a new a new build would cost $20 A square foot or $200,000 a year. So it's considerably different. And so in some ways, we're we're victims of our own success and the fact that we don't have many empty buildings. And as a consequence it it's a different game we have to play to recruit people into the community.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, absolutely. I know. This was one of the things that we talked about with the downtown Howie's Development Corporation. As they were working to kind of rebuild downtown and get more businesses that they had the same problem, they're virtually full.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
They are it's it's almost impossible to find a spot downtown. I know. We had a lady in the office here a few weeks ago that's going to be open in another business downtown. And it was not easy for her to find a spot. I mean, she had to look and and there's only one or two spots and one of them I think has some major structural issues that have to be dealt with. So that kind of takes that
 
James Bell 
out of you.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
That's that's no fun when you hover the mouse and dealing with that. So until those are dealt with that that location is not going to work. So space is a big issue and building it does not Not an easy thing to do, it's not a lot unlike housing, you know, the cost to build housing right now is so high that it becomes a challenge to construct homes that are affordable. And that can fall into the right price range to meet a workforces needs.
 
James Bell 
And it's not like somebody can just put up a building and have a business come in, because that cost of that piece is going to get in the way, even if someone else is trying to do that as a commercial venture. Right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Pretty, you rarely see speculative construction of retail space, from the standpoint of a large building. Now we do have some space in front of the Hilton Garden Inn that is yet to be occupied, I know there's at least two or three different things going on there. And I think we'll see some activity in that spot pretty quick, with a couple of those slots being filled. But 2030 40,000 square feet, that's a that's a pretty risky venture to go out there and just put up a building, when you're going to pay anywhere from seven to $20 a square foot for the land. So if you equate that into the cost per acre, that's 300,000 to 800,000 per acre for commercial land, and then you put up a building that's going to cost 100 $250 A square foot, it just nobody's going to do that. On a if you build it, they will come situation in today's environment.
 
James Bell 
So I'm curious, you know, what do you guys do down there grow haze to help alleviate the situation?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, we we try and work with existing property owners as well as the local government entities to find incentives that can bridge that gap. You know, the CID, which is a community investment incentive district allows a retailer to add sales tax to the current rate, and that that extra one to 2% that they charge can go back towards their costs associated with building a building or doing that kind of thing. So there's one at the mall, a 1%. Cid, so everything that you buy at the mall, has 1% added to it, which goes, you know, they've agreed to put towards the facility parking lot, interior improvements and that kind of thing. Same thing can be done with a new construction project. And that helps bridge that gap. But it's difficult, you know that those it's a challenging situation, there's only so many tools in the tools in the toolkit and, and it's a challenge to kind of make that all work. And that's, that's why retail development is pretty slow. Not to mention, the challenges that retail has overall. With online being so prevalent, and bricks and mortar being so expensive. The business models for retailers is changing considerably. And so that presents challenges to there just aren't that many that are looking to expand.
 
James Bell 
You know, from a buyer perspective, if you want to support local, and you're in that situation where you can't find what you need. There isn't a retail shop locally that does that. What's the best option? How do people, you know, make the best decision for the local community? Well, or is there a good solution?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
It's a difficult solution. I mean, they if you can't find what you need or want locally, your choices are to go someplace else and get it or open up Amazon and order
 
James Bell 
We all know Amazon is you know, in terms of community support, not it's not a community partner there. They don't do they rarely pay taxes, they're just starting to get to where they're forced to do that. So that's kind of the bigger pieces like how do those how do we find businesses that support what we're trying to do here in Hays, Kansas or anybody ever in our listening area?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, we certainly feel that there are certain businesses where there is a sufficient market here that they could do well here. You know, I mentioned Marshalls in Pittsburgh, I think Marshalls or TJ Maxx, something like that would do would do well here. So we have to, and we're talking to these people all the time. And I think a lot of people think well, you just call them up and they just come here, that's that's really not the case. They know a great deal about our community already. And they have certain communities on their radar for expansion. And if you mitt meet these criteria, which are population numbers, the moderate income numbers, you know, all of those pull factor, which we have a very good pull factor, we have a wide trade area. They know all that. So they can plug that in and they can they can pretty much nail it on what their sales are going to be in a market like ours. So then it comes to what are our operating expenses going to be can we get our operating expenses to a level that make it work for us in that market. And then the last piece of the puzzle, which is a serious problem is workforce. Somebody comes down they need 100 workers. That's, that's a tough nut to crack because they aren't available. And so where are they going to come from? You're going to steal them from those existing businesses. And that's a difficult situation as well. So lots of challenges out there right now. But you just got to keep plugging.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, and I know we you mentioned, we do talk about this quite a bit that the housing piece of this, there is some activity there that is looking to help that situation, at least in the immediate future, right, we've got some apartment buildings that are kind of plans are coming together? Well, there are,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
we've got an apartment complex, it's been approved at the corner of fourth and Fort 36 units over the next couple of years. We've had, we had a couple of developers in town this week, that are considering apartment complexes in the community, and we and we need them. We've got single family homes, obviously, in the Tallgrass addition, that are going up. And that's, that helps. So the more inventory we can build, the better. We really believe that, you know, it is the old saying, If you build it, they will come. We believe that our community has so much going for it. And if we can resolve the housing situation, a lot of people will choose to locate here. And that will obviously bolster the workforce and help us recruit some other businesses.
 
James Bell 
You know, I know there's no magic lever on any of this. And it's not like you're down there like, oh, we need a little bit more housing a little bit more retail, a little bit more restaurants. There's no way to do that. But you know, I'm curious, like, how do you how do you come to the conclusions? Or the numbers, I guess, is the real question to kind of keep it all in check. Because you know, you don't want too many workers to move into haze, you don't want to too few, you need to right spot for the business recruitment and all that. And it all kind of seems like it works together quite a bit.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Where it is all a balancing act, you know, I think we don't have the issues that some communities have associated with growth. We have had growth, but it's been slow, it's been steady, some of that is limited by our water capacity. You know, there are certain types of industry that we can't recruit because of the water capacity. That's a blessing in some ways and a curse in others. It just depends. But it is a fine balance. And it's never, ever going to be in sync, you know, there's always going to be parts that are that are doing well at a given time and in parts that aren't doing well. But a lot of a lot of what we are involved with now, I believe is not necessarily the recruitment of business. Yes, we do that. But the recruitment of people is just as important. There are literally millions of Americans that are looking to migrate away from metropolitan areas. They're expensive. We think housing is expensive here, we have no clue, no clue whatsoever. And there are millions of people that are looking to get out of the rat race, the traffic, the costs, the crime and that kind of thing. And we think we've got a great story. But we have to tell them, you know, they have to know about us. And that's part of what our imagined Ellis County group is, is to get this word out. We've got a initiative going on where we are getting our message out to the eastern slope of Colorado, we think that's a great area to prospect in and we've got the videos that we're showing them about people testimonials, basically talking about the quality of life here and that kind of thing. So recruiting people is just as important to us as pretty business at this point.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And I'm sure you're gonna continue to help out with that.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
We'll do everything we can

Backpack for Kids donation event planned Friday

On this episode of the Post Podcast Nex-Tech Wireless brand manger Tasha Eichman and Hays Chamber vice president of membership, Rhonda Meyerhoff share details about the upcoming Backpacks for Kids donation event.
 

Forward Ever: Kansas Food Bank President and CEO Brian Walker

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Kansas Food Bank President and CEO Brian Walker.

Insights from 2022 FHSU Pilot Award winner Ken Windholz

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Fort Hays State University Alumni Association engagement strategist, Carolyn Tatro and psycology instructor, sports announcer and recipient of the 2022 FHSU Pilot Award Ken Windholz speak about connection and community.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
A big part of the Fort Hays State University culture is celebrating successes of students, faculty and alumni from the Alumni Association, Carolyn Tatro joins us with pilot award winner Ken Windholz, on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Carolyn Tatro 
Couple of reasons that I invited Ken to be here with us. First of all he is well, he's a very well known voice around here, as I think many people who are listening might pick up on. But Ken was actually our pilot award recipient this year. So one of our commencement award recipients we selected, our committee selected Ken to be our outstanding faculty member of the year. And so we were just very excited to be able to talk about his story, his time at Fort Hays, and one of the things that I like to think, you know, when I in the time that I've been in this office, I've met a lot of alums and one of the most common threads among each individual alum that I've talked to is, everybody can pick out an a professor and instructor, an advisor, who kind of helped shape their time at Fort Hays. And so that's really why we like to honor our faculty in the ways that we do because they really helped shape the our students into outstanding alums. And so I'm really excited to be here. Ken is a instructor in the Department of Psychology. He's also as I mentioned, our PA announcer for football, basketball larks games, a well known voice around here. So thank you so much for being here with us. It's
 
Ken Windholz 
great pleasure. Thank you, Carolyn. And, James, thank you for taking the time to visit with us this morning.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, absolutely. It was great to get to hear a little bit about your story. And I'm excited to talk to you today. And congratulations on winning that pilot award. That's a big deal. Right
 
Ken Windholz 
knocked me over with a feather. I'll tell you what, it was the most interesting thing because it's not one of those awards that you seek. I, I was in awe of the folks over the years since the 1970s, when the award was conceived and brought forward very impressed with some of the people who had wanted over the years, some of those people were my instructors and mentors, and teachers, and I held them in enormous esteem. And so it's not something that you strive for, and say, Well, one day, I didn't even dare to dream it. But it was a step by step process of being nominated. And I think that's one of the greatest privileges of being nominated by the students themselves. And it's a very humbling experience, to know that people value what you do, and that they take it to heart. And it puts even greater emphasis, I guess, on on the role that good instructors and educators serve in our society, and particularly here in our community. So I just I had hoped that I would be a good reflection of all of the incredible people who had, who had given their time and their passion to me over all of those years and, and that I would be somehow able to play that forward to today's students. And what it feels good to know that among people who are so, so caring, and so advanced, and who in fact, teach me in many ways, far more than I think I ever teach any of them. It's a real privilege.
 
James Bell 
It's very cool. And I love that you talk about the you know, the continuity of it, you studied with award winners, and now you're bringing that legacy and who knows maybe one of your students 2030 years down the road, they're getting their own toy
 
Ken Windholz 
would not surprise me in the slightest, because one of the great things that being an instructor at the university affords is to meet some of the most gifted people on the planet. I mean, these are folks who are curious, who want to know how life works and who keep people like me on our toes. I have a saying and I and it guides me every day that I walk into the classroom or certainly into the office and I mentioned it at the at the presentation ceremony back in May. And it is it's a quote that I don't really know who the who the author is several different people are attributed with the same with the same sentiment but it but it goes like this. A good educator teaches you where to look, but doesn't tell you what to see. That works for me. I can show people the things that I've been privileged to understand and recognize in my own education, my own career and how life works for me, and pass that along to folks But, but the real education comes when we enter that journey of our own self discovery and informational discovery and how that works for us. The only thing I ask in addition to something like you know, I can't tell you what to see is when you do see what you're looking at, tell me play it back so that I can learn. Also, from that standpoint, a good educators also a good student, we want to know, we're as curious as anybody else that we ever encountered in the classroom.
 
James Bell 
I love that. And and as a journalist, I feel that, that that curiosity, it's hard to keep it. And I think for a good educator to really to be able to carry that through the career is a hallmark of what makes them you know, remembered and someone like yourself,
 
Ken Windholz 
well, thank you. I mean, it's, it's a matter of, of how do I explore this life? I'm given the privilege the opportunity of this lifetime, how do I use it? Shall I use it in service? Shall I use it in gaining something of a material sort? Of? What should be? What should be? How should my lifetime be spent here? And I think a lifetime spent in, in service and in giving and playing forward is a life well lived?
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, I wonder Ken, if you might be able to share with us a story or two some of the accomplishments or something maybe that sticks out to you over your career as an instructor down at Fort Hays?
 
Ken Windholz 
Oh, I you know, every day if I thought about this, you know what it is that I love about this place? And about this profession? This the opportunities I alluded to just a few moments ago to meet people who are as curious as I am, but who have a perspective that maybe I don't have who can share that with me also. That's the excitement I feel every single day walking into the classroom. Yes, you know, 689 weeks into the school year into the semester, things become kind of a grind, and you're facing people who, who may or may not be highly enthusiastic about being there. So the challenge is to go back to that bedrock, what's our motivation for being here, and to continue the process and knowing that this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. It's piece after piece. And this is the way life works. It's the way it works in the classroom also, but we look for a continuity, or at least I do, from moving from the overall perspective, here's why we're here. And these are the elements that that help animate that purpose. And so that's the piece that excites me every day of the challenge, how am I going to make this work? You know, I've gone through a number of phases in my life and in terms of how I've viewed the things that, that come my way things from which I can learn, and ultimately, I'll be able to pass along to students, this is more than just standing around lecturing and telling people what to think. But it's a mutual discovery processes. As I as I think we're understanding here. I used to view problems as problems. And then I evolved slightly to understanding them more as challenges because the idea of, of a problem was a little bit daunting. A challenge met, okay, am I up to meeting this requirement? What resources of mine can I bring forward to meet this challenge? I, I have found a way I think, thanks to the students that I know and have met and who, who, whose hearts and minds are open to next steps in their lives. That rather than it being a problem, rather than being a challenge, we look at it as an opportunity. So things that are set in front of us are really our opportunities to grow. How do we take advantage of that? That made all the difference for me as a game changer when I started understanding problems in my life as opportunities. I see students do James at our university, who in in some cases work full time, jobs in addition to carrying full loads that's incomprehensible to me, and lots of instil, make up the class and still do well still put in the time and the effort. In fact, I'm thinking there may be as many as six or maybe even 70% of our students who work in parallel with their class time. So the concept or That or the notion that we have students who are just privileged and sitting around all day long and living off of someone else's money or the or, you know, not earning their way in in kind is really a fallacy. At least it is a Fort Hays State. And I think it probably isn't many other places. These are hardworking folks. And it shows in their classroom and in their discipline, and it shows in their accomplishments, and so many of them do it in such quiet ways. In unrecognizable ways, I think one of my greatest joys in the classroom, is seeing a student and experiencing with a student, the occasion when they find their voice, when they move from that invisible. Don't look at me sitting in the corner kind of individual just let me get through this too, challenging themselves to moving into that difficult territory where they're able to voice an understanding and share a view and, and play it forward. For people like me. That's a that's a thrill that connects it all for me.
 
James Bell 
That's very neat. Thanks for sharing that sir. We've got just just about a minute or so left, I wonder if we want to maybe wrap this up with the the way that alumni kind of feed into that same thought and as they go out. And we talked about this in the segment a lot how the Fort Hays alumni get out into the world and kind of share that attitude and those ethics with everyone.
 
Ken Windholz 
Right? I you know, I'm local. I was born and raised here. I went down to the university when I was 10 years old and watched Fort Hays basketball in the Old Snake Pit the Coliseum and, and never had an intention of attending school anywhere else. But for Hayes. I don't know how common that is. But what I would encourage you I'm very familiar with with the plates and with the the policies and the grounds and all of those things. What I encourage alumni to do is come down, come and visit us take part in this process. Yes, we appreciate any generosity that you can offer to us, whether that be materially but but your own time. Come down and see what we do. Visit, walk through the campus see this beautiful place. It's an oasis of sort here in western Kansas and be a part of the university to the extent that your time and your resources allow. We want our alumni to come back and see what they have helped develop and be a part of the process as we're moving forward. They're vital to that
 

Water usage rights play big role in area economies

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FHSU to host job fair

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Forward Ever: Former FHSU President Ed Hammond

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McCracken Rodeo begins Thursday

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Fireworks risk decreased with common sense measures

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