"To attract businesses you need good schools, housing, and retail shopping opportunities. He said homegrown businesses are great, but they do not pay the higher wages we need. We are doing some things to attract businesses, but you still have to have employees. It all works together, you have to be able to give businesses what they need."

He wants the city to do all it can to make the city a place businesses - like a Lowe's - would want to come.

The city itself does not have a formal plan, but has general principles it wants to follow to develop the city.

Each of the commissioners are also talking with outside businesses and industries to try to encourage them to locate here.

Margolius said there are still developers out there who are interested in moving businesses here, "and they don't need a TIF to do it."

Another opponent of the big box idea was Commissioner Mel Kuhn, who wants to see the city develop but believes there are better ways than giving incentives.

"We need to make Arkansas City a cool place to be," he said.

He said he has been talking to some people who own restaurants and "people are serious about moving here. There are some businesses that could give us restaurants and a nightlife downtown. They are looking at some buildings," he said.

Kuhn bristles at the idea that Arkansas City is drying up and blowing away.

"I can live anywhere I want to live and I chose to live here. The future looks pretty bright to me, and we don't have to cowtow to corporations for that," he said.

Kuhn said he wants to roll out the red carpet for businesses to come here. He does not want to give them financial incentives but he said he wants to make it as easy as possible for them to move here and do business.

Kuhn said he would like to have a big master plan for the city's growth.

"I don't know what the old plan was. There was nothing in place. We are laying the building blocks to design our future," he said.

He believes the answer lies in the attitudes of people who live here.

Mayor Dotty Smith also opposed the TIF district for Lowe's, and maintains that she had more people tell her to vote against the measure than to vote for it.

She would like to see Arkansas City work with Winfield, Strother Field and the county more.

She also wants to develop more small industries here, and perhaps develop a small industrial park.

She is also excited about the possibility of rail passenger service coming to Arkansas City.

She too believes Arkansas City has a lot going for it, and hopes that the recent furor created by the rejection of the big box proposal will get people more interested in being active in their city.

"There really is a lot going on. We have a lot going for us. If we can turn the negative energy into positive action, it will turn out good," she said.

The three who voted down the TIF district were later labeled the "three amigos," by critics.

Smith rather likes the label, noting that in the movie, where the name came from, "three amigos" went into a town, uniting them, and helped them overcome adversity.

Commissioner Joel Hockenbury was unavailable.