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Eco Devo Rents all properties but one, 412 W. Halveson, Macksville still needs a tenant

Stafford County Economic Development has been working hard the last 2 years to complete 10 houses that are in St. John, Stafford, Hudson, and Macksville respectively. These houses have government requirements for income and age and meet the need of a critical group in our community. We are now looking for a lucky person or family to move into the last house in Macksville. The 412 W. Halveson house has a large yard and has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. The other houses in the county are now called for. The house on First and Monroe in St. John was recently filled and the house in Hudson has someone moving into it starting in November. If you or someone you know needs housing in Macksville please contact Housing Opportunities Incorporated (HOI) our partner who manages the houses. Reach out to HOI by phone (620) 792-3299.

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Partnership formed between Grays Photo Studio and Stafford County Economic Development to aid in renovation efforts

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By Beccy Tanner

St. John’s century-old photo studio, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, is about to get an interior make-over.

The board at the W.R. Gray Photo Studio at 116 N. Main has created a partnership with Stafford County’s Economic Development office to help finish the building’s interior.

 The building was constructed at the turn of the 20th century.

“We’ve signed an agreement with Eco-Devo to complete the restoration of the building,” said Carol Long, president of the Gray Studio Restoration Board. “Basically, it is just for that. It’s not a longtime administration agreement. It’s just to complete the building.”

Ryan Russell, executive director of Stafford Count’s Economic Development, said his office would help write grants.

“We are an administrative and fiscal sponsor,” Russell says. “So, what that means, is that we will help them find the money to do the project.”

For years, the building sat vacant and neglected until Long and others within the community began a concentrated effort in trying to save it.

That’s when it was listed on the national register and a new roof was installed. Then, the building’s exterior was painted: windows were repaired on the structure’s iconic northern skylight and, the interior was essentially taken down to the studs and beams.

Now, it is time to finish the rest of the work.

“They need help with the finishing projects,” Russell said. “And, we are going to be looking at selling some tax credits and obtaining grants.”

Long said the goal for the building will be turn a portion of the space into a residential artist apartment.

However, the bulk of space will be utilized for a classroom and special events.

“This is not some favor to Gray Studio,” Long said of the help provided by Eco-Devo.

“They are getting compensation for their work … The reason this has happened is that we need somebody to have their mind on Gray Studio all the time – somebody skilled and with connections to grant writing and organizations that build the grants,” she said.

“We needed people in the know.”

Long said that for the past decade, the members of the Gray Studio board have been working on getting the building completed.

“We want to do programs when the building is done,” she said. “The building will house a workspace for classes and maybe a place for a resident artist to work. It will have a little retail space and museum.”

The reason the photo studio is so important to Stafford County is because it documented the early families who lived in the area.

The Gray family took photos in Stafford County for 76 years.

The type of photography that the family used was glass plate photography, started in the 1850s and used up until the 1930s when Kodak’s Brownie camera and film became more accessible to most families.

William Gray moved to St. John in 1905 from Fall River. He operated the studio until his death in 1947. His daughter Jessie took over the business until her retirement in 1981.

In 1986, she donated the glass negatives to the Stafford County museum.

 No one knew what they really had until Stafford County Museum curator and project director Michael Hathaway brought the 30,000 glass plate negatives up from the basement of the town’s old bank building and moved them into the museum’s library next to his office.

That was in 2004.

Gray had kept 11 ledgers dutifully noting each of the 30,000 photos.

Those business ledgers indicate his clients came from all over Kansas. Many of the photos include portrait sittings but also street scenes, crime scenes, festivals and, of course, who can’t resist a picture of oversized produce?

Now, with this new partnership, the building can be completed and it’s legacy can continue as an important landmark of Stafford County.

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Stafford County’s Fair will have a new look next year as 70-year-old building is replaced

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By Beccy Tanner

In its day, the old Quonset-style fair building on the Stafford County Fairgrounds was state-of-the-art.

It had an enclosed space, concrete floor, showers in the restrooms and giant electric fans that kept the air moving as fair-goers perused hundreds of 4-H projects.

That was more than 70 years ago.

In recent years as the steel framed-round top community building began to leak and rain water dripped on projects, the Stafford County Fair Board re-evaluated what they could do.

“The building’s roof had begun leaking and during heavy rains, it rained on photography exhibits and stuff like that,” said Billy Milton, fair board president. “We started looking into fixing the roof and got back an estimate that was going to cost between $30,000 to $40,000 to fix and that in 10 to 20 years, we’d have to do it again.

“We did not feel like that was the right area to pursue. It doesn’t make sense for us to be spend that much money. Our budget just is not that big to operate like that.”

A few weeks ago, the old 50 by 120-foot community building was removed from the fairgrounds.

And the ground has been prepared to receive a new building – a little bigger, 60 by 120-foot.

The construction will be more of a Morton-esque-style building.

The biggest hope and feature for it will be air conditioning, Milton said, and a more comfortable space for people to gather.

Using $250,000 in funds that was available to Stafford County to help stimulate the economy after the Covid pandemic, Milton said, the fair board was able to begin the process of replacing the old building. The money was awarded by Stafford County Commissioners with the stipulation it be spent by the summer of 2024.

“That led us to deciding to go ahead and replace the building,” he said. “It will suit our fair and the community a lot better than what we currently had … I have been on the fair board for the last six years and we’ve always kind of talked about wanting a new building – even back in the 1990s, there was talk about it.”

Milton said the fair board has partnered with Stafford County Economic Development to raise an additional $275,000 to pay for the building’s amenities – such as heating and air conditioning, a concession stand area with stove and refrigerator and install showers in the restrooms.

“The rest of it will be open for meetings, wedding receptions and reunions,” Milton said. “We entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with Stafford County Eco-Devo because our organization is not a 501-C nonprofit so that when people donate, they can still get the tax breaks and save a little bit of money with sales tax, also.”

The partnership allows for a tax-favored option.

People wanting to donate to the new building fund can do so by sending a check to the Stafford County Economic Development Office at P.O Box 233 at St. John, KS, 67576 or by calling 620-549-3527.

The checks can be made to Stafford County Eco-Devo with the words “Community Fair Building” in the memo portion of the check.

Donation levels include: Grand Champion level at $80,000 and up; Reserve Champion, $50,000 to $80,000; Champion, $20,000 to $49,000; Reserve, $10,000 to $19,000; Purple, $2,000 to $9,999; Blue, $500 to $1,999; Other and Add a Brick, $200 to $350.

A 4 x 8 brick with no clipart has three lines with 20 characters per line; the same size of brick with clipart has an equal number of lines with 15 characters per line; an 8 x 8 brick with no clipart has three lines with 20 characters per line; and with clipart, three lines with 20 characters.

People serving on the fundraising committee include Milton, Joanna McAlister, Barb Alpers and Sharilyn McNickle.

“Right now, with the amount of money we have, we have enough money to get the shell of a building. We can get it back to where we were before,” Milton said. “But the additional money will go towards plumbing, electrical, tables and chairs, a bathroom and kitchen area on the inside.”

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Oktoberfest in Stafford Starts Soooooon! Oct. 6th & 7th

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Check out the schedule here and also the other festivities on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/StaffordOktoberfest .

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September 2023 Radio Show

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This is our September 2023 Radio show with our director Ryan Russel

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Stafford County Organizes A Letter In Opposition to Quivira Call for Water

A letter signed by 32 city and county officials from 5 counties was created in response the Quivira’s Call for Water. The letter which outlines the catastrophic effect the diversion of water would cause to these counties was sent to Martha Williams Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. It was also sent to Gov. Laura Kelly’s office.

Carolyn Dunn wrote the letter and a number of Economic Development Directors from several counties collected the signatures.

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The Petal Shop Opening Soon

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There is a new flower shop opening in town just off the square in St. John behind Equity Bank.  The Petal Shop will be aiming for a soft opening on July 31st and will have everything from homemade gifts, fresh flower arrangements, candy bouquets, and plants.  The family behind the opening of the shop are the Truitt’s who are also the owners of Kansas Pest Inc. Jarrin Truitt is known by many through the Pest control business. But his wife, Kimberly, will soon be in charge of the flower shop. Keith Van Doren and Darla Stone were instrumental in helping the Truitt’s get their building. Kim is originally from Medicine Lodge and has lived in St. John for nearly five years following Jarrin who’s lived in here since 2005. The Truitt’s also have two boys Dylan and Jett who you’ll probably see hanging around The Petal Shop with Kimberly.

 Kimberly loves doing scrapbooking, journaling, photography and started focusing on crafting in 2020 right as Covid was starting and needed an outlet while being a stay-at-home mom with a one-year-old.  She first got into doing art projects when she joined Facebook groups that had cute inexpensive ideas.  Ideas like the pizza pan wreaths that are featured on early posts on her Facebook page.  In Medicine Lodge Kimberly arranged several community fund raisers and worked with the Chamber of Commerce through social media campaigns and Peace Treaty Pageants.  Since moving to St. John, she’s been a stay-at-home mom.  Now that her boys are bigger, this is the right time to start The Petal Shop.

 Kimberly had been thinking about opening a small craft/gift shop in St. John for the past 5 years but was encouraged by Jarrin to dive into it after seeing the need for a flower shop in the community.  Kimberly says, “Jarrin’s persistence and faith in me probably was the driver. But when we started to investigate what we needed to do, everything has come together like it’s meant to happen.”  They’ve also received lots of encouragement from the community once they announced they planned to open. 

 The Petal Shop will have delivery eventually for the entire county but at the start it will just be Kimberly by herself running the shop.  Eventually they will be able to provide full-service delivery to the entire county.  For now you can do pickup at their shop or they can deliver within St. John area.

 The Petal Shop logo was inspired by Kimberly’s Grandma Violet’s fabric paint design on a pillow case. 

 Follow The Petal Shop and make orders on Facebook or [email protected].

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New Childcare Operator in St. John Logen Kernell

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The Stafford County Childcare Committee just signed a lease with Logen Kernell to be a childcare provider in St. John.  Logen currently lives in Great Bend but is originally from Fowler, KS.  Her boyfriend Garrett Thomas is a truck driver and is from Larned. Logen likes watching her two favorite animated movies Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. Her favorite children’s books from her own childhood are Goodnight Moon & Love you forever.

 Logen has worked in an in-home daycare as well as her Aunts Community Daycare.  She’s even spent some time working in a preschool classroom.  She’s having lots of younger cousins she’s watched over the years and now has an 8 week old son!

Logen says, “I was trying to find childcare for my son, but it was very stressful as most of the daycares were full. I want to be able to help a community like St. John as I know firsthand the struggles with childcare.”  She’d looked at starting a daycare in Great Bend but ran into several roadblocks.  She was then recommended to the Stafford County Childcare Committee.  She’s excited to get started and hoping to open August 1st.  There will be an open house on July 25th, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Different activities she plans to do with the children would include Circle time, this will include the calendar, days of the week. She plans on also having story time once a day and the kids doing a craft at least once a week to take home to their families.

If you are interested in getting on her waiting list:  [email protected] or 620-539-3102

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Abilene Meat Processing Site Visit

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Stafford County Economic Development (EcoDevo) has been looking into different concepts that might work with the growing need of the county’s beef producers to slaughter, process, and package meat to sell directly to consumers.  After talking with Kansas Commerce and Land of Kansas, EcoDevo organized a site visit to see Midwest Meats mobile beef slaughter trailer in Abilene, KS.  On June 23rd a group of 5 people including Billy Milton, Lisa Cornwell, Scott and Jennifer Pfortmiller, and EcoDevo’s Ryan Russell went to Abilene to meet with Troy and Brian Leith of Midwest Meats.  

The group first went to lunch and discussed Midwest Meats journey of over 2 years in trying to figure out how to create a system of farm to table beef products.  The main challenge had been city ordinances which stopped them from doing beef slaughter within city limits.  Now they were operating and had followed guidelines to be Federally approved.  Troy said, “All small towns in Kansas should be replicating this, it’s the only way forward economically allowing small beef producers to slaughter, butcher, and sell directly to customers.  Our goal at Midwest Meats is to promote branded beef specific to beef producer farms’.” 

 The concept they had built was a 13 ft tall trailer that had cooling capacity for 5-6 slaughtered cattle.  They could drive it to any farm in their county, set it up with a 3 man crew, and complete the slaughter process of  a cow within 40 minutes of setup.  After that, drive the cooling beef to their butcher shop and transfer them from the trailer for processing at their butcher/retail shop.  The trailer has on board electricity and water.  They have plans to set up slaughter staging stations at all the farms they worked with, equipping them with a concrete slab and electrical hookups for their trailer.

The trip made all participants intrigued about what might be possible for beef producers in Stafford County.  This is the starting point in the due diligence process to create a project that fits the needs of beef producers in Stafford County.  There will be a followup meeting with all beef producers interested in entering the discussion on how to go about getting beef slaughter and processing into Stafford County. More information about next steps will be available on EcoDevo’s facebook page soon.

If you have any questions or interest please contact Ryan Russell at [email protected] or 620-314-5561. 

Midwest Meats Trip Media

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2023 Photo Contest

Stafford County Economic Development sponsors an annual photography contest for images that will be used on promotional materials and/or our website. A $25.00 prize will be given to the winner in each of the 3 categories listed below, and an unlimited amount of honorable mention winners will receive a $5.00 prize for each entry.

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