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Featured Project Comprehensive Development Project – Solomon The celebration showcased the results of a $2,770,456 investment in a community that had a vision of what it wished to become. That vision did not spring forth over night, but was the product of long discussions involving numerous stakeholders. Once articulated, the vision attracted the attention of entities like the Kansas Department of Commerce, which granted the city $1,123,093 (Note that Kansas Department of Commerce has since removed the Comprehensive Development Program from its offerings), leveraging other private and public sources that contributed the remaining $1,647,362. That which follows provides an overview of just how the city achieved the success it realized and celebrated. Project Beginnings Organized discussions began in September 2002 concerning the downtown area, entrances to the downtown, and plans for the future as representatives of the Solomon State Bank and Solomon Corporation met to discuss their options with representatives of the North Central Regional Planning Commission. Shortly thereafter a steering committee was identified. It was first convened on October 4, 2002, with Mike Nusbaum, Mayor; Dennis Riordan, V-P, Solomon State Bank; Don Hellwig, General Manager, DS&O Rural Electric; Katie Platten and Joe Hemmer, officers of the Solomon Corporation; and Doug McKinney and John Cyr, North Central Regional Planning Commission being present. Over the course of a year more than 15 meetings were held. People reflected on the fact Solomon was first organized in 1871 and that quite a lot had happened in and around the community since then. However, at the end of the day, Solomon largely remained structured around the 133-year old dream first platted out by the Buchanan Town Company. Aas participants began to devise a dream of their own, they identified the following issues and problems that needed to be addressed for their dream to become a reality. Problem 1: Obsolescence of Legacy Infrastructure Increased mobility and awareness of neighboring communities in the 1960s suddenly impacted the town’s central business district. The proximity of Abilene (8 miles away) and Salina (14 miles away) became a magnet to Solomon shoppers, especially those who sought and found jobs in those locations. It was also a decade of major disruptions in the regional status quo. Nearby Salina lost Schilling Air Force Base, introducing the impetus that made Salina a regional retail center as the city turned its attention to accessing other markets in which to sell its goods and services. It was a time when shopping malls also made their move out of major urban centers and into places like Salina, further enhancing that community’s retail attraction at the regional level. This was a decade that also saw the completion of the Interstate highway system. In Solomon’s case that meant US-40, a major east – west thoroughfare through the heart of the city, suddenly became little more than a back road to both Abilene and Salina for local residents. Solomon thus lost its market for retail trade at the same time it became geographically isolated from outside traffic flow. It was at that point the 133-year old vision held by the Buchanan Town Company truly lost its validity. Since the 1960s wholesale change in the social and economic fabric of the community occurred. By 2002 agriculture accounted for but 2.0% of the workers while more than 24.0% of the workforce was employed in manufacturing and another 30.7 % in service. Businesses that existed along Main Street in 2002 were no longer involved in retail trade targeting the surrounding ag market. Rather, they provided services and/or manufactured products to markets largely external to Solomon and its environs. Vacant dilapidated buildings were prevalent. Those not vacant remained quiet to the eye, since the activity taking place behind their “retail” facades did not rely on walk-in traffic for purposes of productivity. As a result the “facility” that once constituted “downtown” no longer served its original purpose. More importantly, it had become a poor reflection of the true character of the community. Problem 2: Visual Image In 2002 Solomon Corporation believed the visual image presented by Solomon hindered its corporate ability to develop long-term contractual arrangements with potential clients like Commonwealth Edison of Chicago and Houston Public Power. The image suggested the company itself was struggling and incapable of offering the professional services large electrical companies required when the opposite was true. Subsequently, Solomon Corporation, the city’s largest employer, asked Solomon to improve that image by addressing the following:
The downtown area which presented conflicting imagery, since it obviously was meant to function as a retail center but retail activity no longer existed. Businesses like the Solomon State Bank and US Post Office were service oriented while Solomon Corporation and DS&O Rural Electric Cooperative served clientele outside of Solomon. The Bar & Grill that had recently opened was available only in the evening after the other businesses had closed operations for the day. And the only true retail, Bush’s Market, a grocery store, was located on 4th & Chestnut, two blocks north and one west of “downtown.” As such, Main Street echoed the past and belied the activity taking place along the existing streetscape. Problem 3: Drainage The position selected by Solomon’s original founders was seen to be ideal, but it was a location that had since subjected the community to periodic flooding. Railroads had chosen the flat river valleys for their course as they moved west, leading towns to form in those same valleys. In Solomon’s case the danger was exacerbated by the fact it lay at the confluence of two rivers, which subjected it to flooding from two different directions – the north and southwest. While a rare event, flooding had limited the city’s growth while adding to the overall visual as well as mental image of blight within the community. Water, when it comes, courses through an intermittent stream channel in western Solomon and then into the downtown area, following Main Street as it moves east. That presented a particular problem to businesses prior to the project, for that street was originally constructed with a high crown in the center which displaced water towards the edges and against the buildings. Residents had grown used to that circumstance since they knew how to deal with rising water when it came, but the disruption it caused to existing business and industry operations was an issue. Problem 4: Business Growth in Non-traditional Settings During the 1970s a major change had been introduced to Solomon with the advent of Solomon Corporation, a company that provided service to rural electric cooperatives. Its founders selected Solomon for location because the city was central to Kansas, a state known to have a large number of rural electric cooperatives. When setting up operations, the company chose to utilize available buildings in the southeast corner of the downtown area and had since grown to employ more than 250 people in that location alone. Its original footprint had also been expanded through the demolition of existing buildings and the erection of others to create additional manufacturing space in what would have been the area immediately behind the former retail section. Although it possessed over 60% of the property in downtown Solomon, the company still needed to expand its operation even more if it was to remain competitive in the marketplace. The property identified for this expansion adjoined downtown Solomon on the east. DS&O Rural Electric too had centered its operations in downtown Solomon, assuming control over another 30% of the property. This business employed more than 40 people from this location while addressing the electricity needs of businesses and residents alike in 10 counties. Problem 5: Aged, Substandard Housing During the planning process, residents learned that real estate agents saw Solomon as a prime location for starter families seeking affordable housing. However, realtors avoided bringing prospects to town in from the west along 4th street, since they did not want the potential buyers to see Solomon for the first time from that direction. Their fear was people not familiar with Solomon would develop a negative first impression, since housing units along 4th Street were some of the oldest in the community. A significant percentage was constructed before 1950 and very little new construction had occurred in the area since that time, for it had been an area subject to flooding prior to the construction of I-70. Consequently, poor housing was adding to the city’s image plight. How the Problems Identified were Interrelated After a year of meetings and after all the stakeholders had been heard, public and private alike, Solomon residents concluded the problems described above hindered the future growth of Solomon for the following reasons:
Sources of Funds Everyone knew this was going to be an expensive project, but they also knew there was strong commitment from all stakeholders involved and strong interest in the project coming out of the Kansas Department of Commerce. Subsequently, when it came to financing the overall project, the following was planned for a proposed $2.4 Million project.
Solution Achieved
The solution proposed was to address all of the major points outlined above with the anticipated impact on the community being the reestablishment of Solomon, setting it off on a course different from that set at the time of its creation more than 100 years ago. While other communities continue to struggle with the changing times, Solomon decided to take advantage of that change, enabling it to achieve the following solutions to the problems it faced.
Conversion of Downtown from Retail Trade Center to Business Park The immediate impact of the conversion is seen not only in the physical expansion of Solomon Corporation, but also in the increased effort that company is making to penetrate other Electrical Utility Markets. That effort has introduced increased business, employment opportunities, and further growth potential to North Central Kansas as a result of Solomon Corporation moving into additional markets. The world Solomon Corporation operates in consists of three Electrical Utility markets, these being:
Of Solomon Corporation’s sales in 2002, 90% were housed in the REC and MUNI market with 10% in IOU. The company wanted to further crack the IOU market and believed this to be a realistic goal. The obstacles laid out earlier were a major concern, so the project was important for these reasons.
The company employed 302 full-time workers in 2002, 70 of them living in Solomon, 99 in Salina, 63 in Abilene and another 70 in surrounding rural areas. The plant expansion and physical improvements associated with the project promised to address Reasons 2 and 3, as well as require the company to hire a minimum of 10 additional employees. (That number actually became closer to 100, since unforeseen opportunities arose during the project.) Reason 1 was addressed by the project, for it improved not only the appearance of Solomon Corporation’s facilities, it also improved the setting in which the facilities are located. Up until that point, the company had been reluctant to invite representatives of outside markets (i.e., Commonwealth Edison of Chicago and Houston Public Power) to Solomon given all of the problems described and the negative image those representatives would have undoubtedly carried away. The project eliminated that concern and further exposed not only Solomon Corporation and Solomon to those external markets, but Kansas as well. The business park today presents an inviting setting to other businesses as growth along the I-70 corridor between Manhattan and Salina intensifies in the future. DS&O REC has already established a working relationship with Hughes which has stationed one employee in Solomon. Subsequently, Solomon today believes it can market itself to companies seeking a location along I-70. The community’s proximity to Salina, I-70 and recreational outlets (i.e., Milford Lake, Rolling Hills Zoo, Abilene and its historical amenities, etc.) and its quality school further enable it to be competitive as a location. Visual Image Drainage Main Street was lowered to accommodate a greater volume of water and remove the displacement against the buildings. Today, the slope is away from the business structures and towards the center of the street; the opposite of what it was prior to 2002. This is an environment more controlled and less damaging to both the business and residential environments. One aspect of its historical past Solomon could not remove was its proximity to two rivers. It could only address certain aspects of the threat they pose and this project provided measures to mitigate that threat. Business Growth in Non-Traditional Settings Gone. The setting is now one supportive of the businesses that exist there and reflective of their capabilities. It further invites other business offices to consider Solomon as a place for their operation. Aged, Substandard Housing Improved. Fourteen substandard units were brought up to HQS and Section 8 standard, ensuring their continued functionality for another 20 years. And since these units are now occupied by LMI individuals and are considered to be affordable units, this not only improved the quality of life enjoyed by the present occupants, but it offers prospective LMI families access to quality housing in the future. For more information, contact John Cyr, Special Programs Manager at the NCRPC at 785-738-2218 or by email at jcyr@nckcn.com.
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Solomon officially celebrated completion of its comprehensive development project on Thursday, September 11, 2008. The outside event took full advantage of the radically changed structure and context of what had been the town’s central business district, as people gathered at the new gazebo pocket park to reminisce about just how far the community had come in such a short amount of time. Attending representatives of the media and neighboring communities further heard the city describe the housing rehabilitation work that was performed along Old US Hwy 40 in conjunction with the downtown renovation. That work extended the useful life of fourteen (14) houses by another 20 years, impacting the lives of not only the families living in those units but the surrounding households as well.
Solomon was already seen by many as a small town in which to raise children. Documentation provided by the school and Post Office at the time spoke to the fact the community was growing. That fact, however, was lost in the perception of decay, however, even though Solomon had grown from 936 people in 1990 to 1,072 in 2000. That was a reversal of the downward population spiral of previous decades to the point it even exceeded the 1980 population of 1,017 persons. So, again, the described improvements elevated the community’s overall image.  |
Updated
2/25/09
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