Grant County Leadership Coalition Narrows Down Priorities To Two

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The newly formed Grant County Leadership Coalition hosted its third official meeting July 1, and narrowed its list to two items for the working group to research before its next meeting.

Members of the USD 214 Board of Trustees, Grant County Economic Development, Grant County Commission, Grant County Chamber of Commerce and Ulysses City Council gathered in the meeting room at Bear Creek Coffee, and heard initially from Grant Economic Development Director Bob Dale, who provided an update on the potential for a Brewery in Ulysses, as discussed at the June 3 meeting. Liberal-based Tortuga Brewery expressed an interest in expanding to Ulysses after setting up shop at the Farmer’s and Maker's Market last month.

“Last time, the brewery was kind of what we all decided was the first topic, and we would all move forward on that one,” said Ulysses City Councilman Caleb Woods. “So, we kind of gave the working group some stuff to work on for that, so I figured it would be a good update.”

Dale said there was a twist to the idea. Originally, the brewery was looking at a Main Street location.

“I was approached by the folks here who own Good Dogs and Bear Creek Coffee," Dale said. "They were wanting to talk to the brewery about co-locating in this building with them (Bear Creek Coffee at Grant Avenue and Baughman Street). They thought the combination of Good Dogs and brewery open here in the evening would be a good combination, it’s just a matter of working out the details of who’s going to pay for what and how it's all going to work, and all those things.”

The operators of the brewery looked at both locations July 1, and said they were considering their options. Dale said he thought co-locating with Good Dogs/Bear Creek was a good option.

“It brings a lot of synergy to all three of them,” Dale added. “I think it’ll do well for all three parties involved.”

Each entity was given time to express what they are interested in, with USD 214 saying it still has not approved a resolution supporting the coalition, with trustee Chad McCormick saying they didn’t have the language to make an official resolution, with the plan to talk about that at the next school board meeting.

McCormick said whatever the topic is – golf course, brewery, whatever – “Our goal is the education of the kids, and the school buildings, the facilities.”

“That’s our focus," he added. "I don’t think we should be here if that’s not our focus.”

McCormick said the trustees would block out time and focus on the goals of the coalition, “We’re committing to talking about this and as things come, we’ll bring it to this group,” McCormick said.

County Commission Chairman John Martin brought up the topic of the swimming pool. Why can’t the community have a free swimming pool?

“At the end of the day when you think about it, the swimming pool gets kids out, gets them active, gets them off the Playstation,” Martin said. “You can drop kids off at the pool and they’re in a safe environment, you don’t have to worry about them, and you can go do what you need to do.

“That would benefit the city, the county and the school system.”

Martin said the city, the county and the school district could come up with the money to offer free swimming.

“That’s a place where this committee can make a difference identifying different things we can do to improve the quality of life,” Martin added. “What can we do to make Ulysses stand out? To be a good place, to be a place people want to live. Those are the things we need to be identifying.”

Quality of life is key to making Ulysses a destination.

“We can grow this town to be a town in Southwest Kansas people want to come to,” Martin said, adding housing will happen but, “We just don’t need to stand in the way of letting it happen, that’s a big problem we’ve had in the past.”

Grimes mentioned a splash pad, which is a part of the proposed Frazier Park improvement plan.

“I definitely see an investment in the pool from the city as a way cheaper option to making a publicly available water effect,” Grimes said.

There is room north of the pool for such a feature, Martin said.

“It may not take as much money for a splash pad there, which would relieve some of the pressure inside the pool, Martin added.

Many Ulysses residents take their kids to Liberal or Garden City  because it’s cheaper, said City Councilman Mark Diaz.

“We’re not telling the Rec. Commission, this is all on you,” Martin said. “We’re going to all work together to try to make some of this stuff happen if we, as a group, decide that’s what we want.”

Robin Leonard with the Chamber of Commerce said their focus is quality of events.

“We want to get people out, we want to get them on Main Street,” Leonard said, adding Main Street is a good place to be for families.

Grimes said his focus has been on the city’s aesthetic, spending money to make Ulysses a more premium place to be.

“I really don’t think we should underestimate the importance of things like the aesthetics of a business,” Grimes said. “We can have 20 great businesses downtown and if they all look like crap, nobody’s going to come downtown.”

Grimes said the city is still pursuing a housing partnership for affordable housing for the plot on South Main Street.

The group ultimately decided to pursue pool improvements and seek out a grant writer to pursue different grants which could benefit the community.