Dear Chamber Supporters:
Happy early Veterans Day! Thank you to all those who have served, our country would not be the same without you. Whether you’re a veteran or not, you’re invited downtown for all the festivities. There will be a ceremony at the war memorial on 4th and Main at 10:30am, the parade will immediately follow. We always have one of the best Veterans Day Parades around, easily one of the longest! With City Park all dressed up, flags down Main all the way to 15th, and banners of our local veterans on the light poles, the scene is set for a patriotic Veterans Day.
Election Recap
For those who didn’t vote early, Tuesday was election day. I spoke at length about the candidates after we did our Candidates Forum in October. If you missed that and want to take a look back, click here. Here is a great picture of all the results from the County Clerk’s office. The City of Ottawa had three incumbents running for three spots, with that being said, there was still a little something up for grabs. The award for first and second place, Zach Clayton and Eric Crowley respectively, means that they will serve a four-year term, while third place, Sara Caylor, and those who were not up for reelection this year (Mike Skidmore and Emily Graves) will be up for reelection in 2025.
USD290 Board of Education had four at-large spots open and five candidates. This results in Diedre Altic, Harold Wingert, Julie Dandreo, and Malydia Payne all getting spots. This is also the order they ranked in the polls. This will be Diedre’s first appearance on the board, while the other three are all incumbents. Congrats to all, I look forward to seeing leadership from both groups elevate our community.
The other big news from this election is the results from the Franklin County proposition to remove the 30% food tax on our businesses that serve alcohol. This was indeed approved to be removed, by a rather comprehensive win with almost 75% voting yes.
Empowering Tomorrow's Leaders
Yesterday morning the Franklin County Development Council’s annual Career Day took place here in Ottawa (picture here of the start). Not without the resounding support and coordination from the Franklin County School districts involved. This year the event had three sessions that rotated an equal amount of high school juniors (from all four schools mixed together) around Ottawa High.
One session took place in the gymnasium that held over 50 different employers (picture here). This looked like surrounding colleges, military, City and County departments and everything else in between. Large local industry was involved, as well as some smaller 1-2 employee sized businesses as well. To incentivize having conversations at all the booths, each student received a passport that could be filled with stickers from the businesses they interacted with. The more stickers, the higher the chance to win prizes (the prizes were graciously donated by the different businesses in attendance).
The second session entailed a health panel with three local groups speaking about their respective types of healthcare (picture here). This included Bill Pfizenmaier with AdventHealth Ottawa Sports Medicine Rehabilitation, Rock Creek of Ottawa’s Stephanie Anderson, and Leslie Bjork with the Elizabeth Layton Center. Craig Evans with COF was there moderating that panel as well.
In the third breakout session, we had the Performing Arts Center lobby filled with civic groups and nonprofits (pictures here). Half the group in this session would start with the opportunity to talk to these booths to discuss these organization’s missions/volunteer opportunities and the other half of the group met in the upper PAC with me to discuss civic engagement. After halfway through the time in the session they would switch to make sure everyone made the rounds. My challenge to all these high school juniors was to take a step back and see the needs that exist in their area of influence and find what skills and interests they have to make a difference. The hardest part about getting involved, whether in a community organization or even just to get out of one's comfort zone, is taking that first step. I encouraged them to use the Chamber as a resource for knowing the opportunities that exist to get plugged into. A morning that went by very fast, but hopefully planted a lot of really useful seeds in these high schoolers!
Keep Your Giving in Franklin County this Holiday Season
Tis the season to give! Your Chamber wants to help you be able to keep your giving here in Franklin County. We do that through our Chamber Currency program. Much like a gift card, Chamber Currency can be used at Chamber businesses in Franklin County, giving a selection from over 40 businesses to choose from. Options like food, décor, antiques, liquor, automotive needs, and more. The best bit is unlike when buying a gift card to a chain business, this money is guaranteed to stay here in the community. So if you want to give a gift to a friend or family member, or maybe your business wants to recognize its staff with Christmas bonuses, talk to us about how Chamber Currency would be an effective option. This program has successfully run for many years and has been a great benefit to our member businesses. One of the aspects of this program that I think is worth mentioning, is our Chamber does not make a profit when currency is purchased or redeemed. If you buy $20 worth, you’ll pay $20. If a business brings in $20 worth to redeem, they receive $20. No cutting in from us on either end, just a really great benefit for all involved. For more information and to submit an order, check out our website here. If you’re not sure you’re on the back of this green currency, reach out and confirm that with us, it’s a great time to hop on the back if you’re not already on there.
Remodel, Rebrand, Ribbon Cutting
This morning Chamber members gathered at the newly remodeled and rebranded Tractor Supply on the southside of Ottawa (pictures here). This store will be one of the 2,200 Tractor Supplies (TS) in the US, specifically one of the 81 stores that were acquired from Orschelns. Because so many TS stores across the nation are in more urban areas, this location is actually one of the biggest stores in Tractor Supply’s fleet (going off of square footage). This comes with some challenges in itself, but the staff here locally have been able to work well with those they report to on finding ways to overcome those. With this transition comes some new additions as well. You might have seen some of it being constructed if you’ve driven south on South Princeton, a brand-new garden section on the west side of the building. Inside, there is plenty to check out, and more still to come! Along with the remodel and the rebrand, TS is continuing to find new ways to get involved in the community. One neat way was through the donation of $500 to all four of our local school districts’ FFA chapters, as well as our animal shelter Prairie Paws. I know that will go a long way to supporting those groups.
Cody Sanders, the new General Manager, shared that this change almost exclusively means more benefits without losing any of the things you loved about Orschelns before. Cody has been with the organization since 2018, and through this acquisition has had the opportunity to sit at the helm. A Franklin County resident from birth and actually graduated from Ottawa University as well, we're glad to have him here in this role. Cody was also able to introduce a good chunk of his staff (pictures here). It was incredible to hear about the longevity some of these individuals have worked in this store, many upwards of 15+ years! These fantastic retention rates are an obvious testament to the culture of the organization, and Cody believes that won’t change a bit. If you’re coming to Tractor Supply, you’re going to have the same care and attention to detail that you had before the switch. We also had a District Manager, Dwight Isringhausen, who was formerly with Orschelns and now transitioned with TS with the move. He oversees 12 stores in our region, about 10 or so of those stores have already had their grand opening event, and he said our store had the biggest turnout he’s seen by far. I love to see those up I-35 paying attention to all the great things happening in our community. We have such an engaging business community, it’s easy to feel blessed!
I always seem to say that our area doesn't get much of a fall season, it often goes faster than it came. That hasn't been the case this year, how beautiful is Ottawa and Franklin County right now?! Looks like we have at least another week of it as well, no complaints here. Hope to see you out and about this weekend. Take care,
Ryland Miller
President/CEO
Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce
ryland@ottawakansas.org
785-242-1000
