Web posted
Saturday, January 26, 2008
McDonald: Work on everything
By JAMES JORDAN
Traveler Editor
* This is the fourth in a series of articles on the vision for Arkansas City as held by city commissioners.
City Commissioner Patrick McDonald believes there are many components to development in Arkansas City. While some may debate which one - such as industry or retail or housing - should be worked on first, McDonald believes all of them should be worked on at the same time.
"It all works together. To attract businesses you need good schools, housing and retail," he said. "Economic development is really a quality of life issue. It is the ability to afford the things you need and want."
He would like to see more better paying jobs, more housing and more variety of retail in the city, and those are the things that attract business and industry.
McDonald was disappointed when the big box store was voted down. He believed the move set the city back because that was a development that could have helped raise the level of shopping, which would attract people to the city.
He believes the city should continue to develop infrastructure that will make the city more attractive, both for businesses and for people who could live here.
"We should try to make it look better and to be what businesses need. That creates a selling point. When they look for a place they look to see where they can get what they need. We need to be sure we can meet those needs," he said.
McDonald noted that we already have good schools, which yearly win state and national recognition. More needs to be done as far as the appearance of the city.
He pointed out that there is not a lot of housing available. Most younger families want new houses.
"If we ha a new company come in here with 500 employees, they would have to live some where else. They could shop here, but they would still have to out of town for some shopping," he said.
So we have to work on both the things businesses need, as well as things that would attract people, while we are recruiting businesses and industry to come to town, he explained.
McDonald said he is all for the smaller businesses that other commissioners have advocated.
"The problem is, most of the time they do not pay as well because they are just starting up. We need more higher paying jobs," he said.
"It would be great to have more smaller businesses. But we also need larger businesses. They won't look at us unless we can provide what they need," he said.
He said the biggest problem Arkansas City has in this regard is a lack of employees and there is not much going on that would draw more people to move here so that employees would be available.
He wants the city to be in a position to be able to offer things that would make people want to move to Arkansas City, and to also be able to offer business and industry what it needs to be interested in moving here.
"It is all a big circle. If you don't have all these things I don't see how we can get industry in here either," he said.
McDonald has also done his part in trying to develop some businesses. He started a book store and now also has a vacuum store in the same building. Since starting the book store he has helped start a computer store and a party rental business.
He said he is now thinking about trying to start a home security business.
At the same time he wants to try to bring in larger businesses such as a Lowe's.
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