Mildred’s “the best kept secret in Allen County,” said Regina Lance, who owns and operates the historic Mildred Store and grocery/RV park with her husband, Loren.
For years, thanks to legendary sandwiches and service, the store, still known by locals as Charlie Brown’s, has served as a staple to the community.
“The store and the church … both of them are working hard to make Mildred come back,” said longtime resident, Sam Rife.
Tuesday night, Rife and the Lances gathered with a dozen fellow Mildred residents to discuss their ideas and dreams for the community. The turnout is impressive for a town with a population of 17.
The event was hosted by Thrive Allen County, a local nonprofit that focuses on health and wellness, economic development, education, recreation and a host of other issues.
Thrive’s goal is to make Allen the healthiest rural community in Kansas, and in recent years has helped raise Allen to number 38 in county health rankings. (Recall, Kansas has 105 counties.)
Some of the top topics for the evening’s conversation included: repairs to county roads, building an above-ground storm shelter, getting better internet/broadband service, cleaning up the town and creating recreational amenities like a campsite for cyclists.
Moving into specifics, Regina Lance pointed out that because the blacktop roads around Mildred are so well-traveled, there are many potholes in need of repair.
She also said a concern she’s heard over and over again is to “clean up the town,” which is more challenging than it seems because Mildred is no longer incorporated.
Whether a townsite is incorporated or not and recognized as officially existing affects what ordinances can be enforced.
Regarding internet access, Loren Lance pointed out how on “[m]usic night, we run a credit card machine here that’s run through the internet — you’ll have 150 people in here and that thing will go down.”
Every third Saturday of the month, the Mildred Store’s music venue is host to people from across Kansas. The events are one of the town’s primary sources of revenue and help residents meet new people as well as fellow residents.
“Ninety percent of our sales go through that machine,” said Loren, which is just one reason why Mildred sees boosting internet access as a priority.
Such differences in internet accessibility depending on region, economy and other factors is sometimes referred to as “the digital divide.”
According to Teresa Smith, “since the inception of the internet,” Mildred residents have been repeatedly told “there’s not enough people” to warrant installing additional infrastructure.
