Take a drive around Iola’s downtown business district and you’ll find about a dozen store fronts, in one manner or another, no longer harbor commercial businesses.
A handful of reasons are to blame, including the success of our relatively new Walmart store, which is an important component in that it draws folks to town, provides scores of jobs and generates a ton of sales tax revenue for Iola and Allen County. Orscheln and others outside downtown also play big roles in our commercial well-being.
A bright spot on the horizon is the new G&W Grocery store that apparently will open in the spring, taking the lion’s share of the old Allen County Hospital footprint. An apartment complex to the north is being completed in a sprint — before we know it residents will be moving in.
The $64,000 question is what to do about downtown. If there were a silver bullet, it would have been triggered long ago.
Thanks to purchases and restoration efforts by David and Beth Toland several buildings have been put back in the merchandising mix. They can’t do it alone, nor could anyone else.
We need a concentrated effort from a broad spectrum — Ryan Sparks surely is another who needs included — of Iolans to sit down together often and come up with a plan for recruitment, and to ensure those merchants now on board that help is available in any and all ways.
Commercial enterprise has been changed by the mammoth discount stores, but it seems likely that there are enough niche markets bathed in personalized service, and some traditional stores, that can make a go of it.
Innovative approaches to marketing, adjustment of hours and cooperative efforts are a few things that come to mind. And, some of our merchants have been doing those things.
We also have been blessed by owners who have put forth great efforts to enhance appearances of their buildings, but we need more than cosmetics.
Nothing is more depressing than to drive through town at the height of business hours and find far too many parking spaces available.
Perhaps our new city administrator, Sid Fleming, will have some ideas that escaped notice locally. Perhaps we need to send out a team to see what other towns do.
Let’s leave no stone unturned.
— Bob Johnson
