Web posted
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Kuhn: make city a 'cool' place
By JAMES JORDAN
Traveler Editor
* This is the second in a series of articles on the vision for Arkansas City as held by city commissioners.
Commissioner Mell Kuhn doesn't buy into the negative idea that Arkansas City is fading away into obscurity.
He believes the future "looks bright," for Arkansas City, and he believes a lot of new things can be done to make it even better.
"We need to make Arkansas City a cool place to be," he said.
He has also been talking up an idea for "Olympic games" in Arkansas City. This would be a series of competitions of many kinds in sort of a festival-type atmosphere. He hopes to bring it together this summer.
He was one who voted against the big box development, and he hasn't changed his mind at all, believing that it was a bad deal.
"We need to promote the opening of more small businesses, bring them to town. " He said he has had some conversations with people who could open restaurants in town, which would " help make the town more attractive and then the big stores will find us," he said.
He would also like to work more with Winfield and the county, and to develop more of an area-wide attitude.
"People were upset that Winfield might get the big box store if we didn't. We can't have that attitude. We all need to work together."
In the meantime, he is hopeful that some restaurants will open downtown, and that this will create a night life of sorts in town.
"If you get that going, and a few businesses to stay open, you will give people a reason to come downtown. Right now there's not much of a reason," he added.
Kuhn believes the city should roll out the red carpet for small businesses.
"We need to help them get through any red tape. We need to make it easy for them to start a business," he said, adding that he would have done that for the big box store if he had thought it was a good deal for the city.
"Ninety percent of the economy are small businesses. We need to promote small businesses to keep money here. We don't need to cow-tow to big corporations," he said.
Kuhn said his vision for Arkansas City is to make it into a place that is inviting, by encouraging small businesses and helping new ones open.
He wants to put more money into infrastructure such as water and sewer, as well as street repairs.
"We have to make ourselves desirable as a location for a business, or for people to move to," he said.
He also believes attitudes need to change in the city. There is a lot of negativity, and he believes the city would do better if people would develop an attitude of success.
"Good things are contagious just like negativity is. If you wake up in the morning and get ready to go, you see the world in front of you. There is no reason you cannot be successful," he said.
As a commissioner he would like the city to develop a master grand plan for development.
"I don't know what the old plan was. Nothing was in place (when elected) so we are laying the building blocks to design a future," he said.
|
