ELLY GRIMM

    • Leader & Times

There has been much work going on in the community in regard to economic development and Tuesday, the Liberal City Commission got to hear an update about some of that work.

“I’m sure everyone is aware by now, there’s been just a little work going on in town, and one of the big things is the BLOCK grant,” Seward County Development Corporation (SCDC) Executive Director Eli Svaty said. “I just want to make sure everyone understands this would not have been a possibility without the city's leadership on a Comprehensive Plan, a downtown development plan, or the discussions with the furniture store that were in place before this thing happened to even come into existence. We would not have even had a chance, so, it's an amazing amount of luck that put all of those things in place. And then this grant happened to just fall into place on that, so there needs to be a lot of kudos given to city leadership and everyone for putting everything in place. There have been multiple times in the past  when opportunities have arisen and we're not prepared, and this recent series of events shows what happens when we are, so here we are now with the BLOCK grant, and it has been a flurry of activity.”

Svaty then talked more about the grant process.

“The purpose of the grant is a two-week construction window. We know that is how the funding came out. That happens at the very end of this grant which will be from Dec.1 to Dec. 15. We even have leadership coming down from the state that wants to be here for that ribbon cutting and unveiling on the 15th,” Svaty said. “Within the grant parameters, we are given the right to do demolition to prepare for that. The grant physically would not be possible without that. If you go down Kansas Ave., you can see all of that activity happening right now. It has been two things – one, it's been almost impossible for me to get work done, and two, it has been awesome to see what gets uncovered. A big question we keep asking ourselves is why 60 years ago did anyone think ‘Let's cover up these buildings with these metal façades?’ But as we're seeing those come down, we're learning about what's existing underneath, and we're learning about the structural integrity of those buildings, which is teaching us a lot about what steps need to happen. What everyone will be seeing over the next couple of days is the storefronts being demolished underneath three of those buildings, and some temporary construction is going up that will eventually be removed, but all of that had to take place so we could get proper measurements, get the glass prepared. And all of the new storefronts ordered above, everyone will be seeing those façades come down as well, even the stucco.”

So far, Svaty said, the work is going well.

“The French Construction crews are chipping away at everything, and everything's falling off in big chunks, so, so far so good on that,” Svaty said. “But again, there are really two projects at work in this. One is the city's project there with the former Downtown Brown’s Furniture store that will eventually become this outdoor space that was able to be tied into this BLOCK grant that gives us the funding to revitalize the storefronts on the three properties adjacent to that. The actual construction will not begin until that December window, but what everyone is seeing right now is a significant amount of demolition that has to take place and then some temporary construction to make sure those storefronts are walled in and safe. We've also been doing some anecdotal research on traffic flow and so far so good. We're seeing good results when trains are there, and I even had  emergency management vehicles come through a few days ago to see what's happening with traffic when we reduce lanes there. So far, traffic flow seems to be moving naturally – if there's a train, people find other routes or they wait.” 

Liberal Mayor Jeff Parsons then asked about documentation of all the work.

“Have we started doing documentation of what's started, like with a time lapse or something like that?” Parsons asked.

“As far as doing a time lapse, we don't have that equipment installed yet,” Svaty said. “FAM Digital Marketing is the support entity that helps the Seward County Development Corporation on the marketing side, and they're doing drone capture footage every morning and every evening, so they're doing a slow fly-by panoramic. It's worth a walk by if you haven't been down there yet, just to see what's been uncovered. We’ve found multiple old historical plaques that say when these buildings were made, which is a lot of cool history.”

And the BLOCK grant work is not the only work going on, svaty continued.

“As the commission knows, we partner with Network Kansas to do small business loans. To give some idea of numbers, since 2022, we have dispersed 42 loans. None of those are local funds, Those are all through Network Kansas,” Svaty said. “We serve in a twofold role – one, we're the organization that works with those businesses to get them loan ready, and then two, we have a local review board that evaluates business plans and business model, and then determines whether or not that business should receive funding. Then, all of that funding comes through Network Kansas, and those aforementioned 42 loans dispersed a total of $1,289,375.73. So far, what's exciting is we're hitting a point now where we're starting to get paid in full, and we have five of those loans that are now paid in full. Throughout the next calendar year, we should have another seven to 10 that become paid in full. It's exciting to see those entrepreneurs go from that early stage who said ‘Yes, we think we can take on this loan’ to now wiping that off their books and now they can move forward as a successful small business. There was a dip in the summer months in terms of loan activity. We did not see a lot of new business startup loans, at least through our office, and in talking to some of the other organizations around the state, they saw similar dips as well, but we have seen an increase in the last few weeks of either businesses interested in loans or even loans going to review for our own board. In terms of our client interaction log, during the last two quarters, we've had about 114 clients served in about 180 different interactions. 31 of those were more of a initial discovery meeting where they came in and said ‘I've got an idea and I want to do this business’ and we walk them through that process. Then, we had  about 39 clients in need of some sort of a financial assistance, whether it concerned loan readiness, credit recovery, or advice on how to financially manage a business. A lot of times, we see businesses that have been in operation but don't understand how to run their books and how to improve cash flow. So, we're seeing more of that.”

And the work of the SCDC staff shows no sign of slowing down, Svaty continued.

“In terms of projects ongoing now outside of BLOCK grant, we are working with planning and zoning for the city to update some of the terminology within our existing code. I know Keith Bridenstine has said it was only within the last maybe year that telegraph operators were removed from our zoning code,” Svaty said. I don't know if anybody's still trying to do that on the side, but it's no longer eligible within our code to do that. But it’s important to make sure we have the terminology that's appropriate for 2026 as we see new industries coming in. We're getting prepared for what could potentially come in the future. We're still working with the state on a lot of components, especially on the Taiwan side. We are running into some challenges with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so we're using our leverage on the state government to kind of put pressure on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan to release the funding they set aside for US expansion. They had put aside a huge pot of money, but they are reluctant to release that, so we're going to use our leverage at the state government level to pressure that organization to get that money out the door, which will then help fund more companies planning to come here.”

In other new business, the commission also approved Ordinance No. 4660, which increases the total line of the KPWSLF Project No. 3077 by $1.5 million and allows the project funding phase to close and full repayment schedule to start as well as Resolution No. 2467, which allows the application of the 2028 Section 5311 Transportation Programs Grant. The commission also approved the  purchase of F3 Foam Concentrate from Conrad Fire Equipment in the amount of $14,356 for the Liberal Fire Department and the appointment of Landon Sallaska to the Liberal Youth Council.