Fort Scott has a reasonable number of choices for internet access.  Here is a list of what is available depending on exactly where you live.

• AT&T – DSL services provided over phone lines. Your lines can be further than 14,000 feet from the central office and some of the older lines won’t work.
• Suddenlink – Provided over cable connections. If you can get cable, you can probably gett this.
• RTS – Local wireless provider.
• Valnet – A wireless provider from Independence.
• Alpha Wireless – A new wireless provider in town. It isn’t clear if they are up and running yet or not.

That looks like quite a few options, but they all have one thing in common. They all get their bandwidth to Fort Scott from AT&T. So while there can be a certain amount of competition in how to connect your home, there is no competition in the underlying resource–access to the Internet.

Does this lack of competition drive the price up in Fort Scott? For comparison, I have a server in downtown Kansas City. For $50 per month I can get a 100 Mbps connection to the Internet. This would be enough bandwidth to let a local ISP supply reasonable service to a large number of customers. Now we’d expect that it would cost more to get a connection like that in Fort Scott than in Kansas City, but how much more? If it would cost 20 times more that would be $1,000 per month. Obviously that is more than what you’d want to put in your house, but it wouldn’t be out of reach for a business–particularly an ISP.

When I talked to AT&T about getting a connection like that, the initial price started out at around $39,266 per month. With a long contract and a special they were running, the price would come down to $31,333. After talking with a few different people, it sounded like there might be a way to cut that in half and get down to the $15,000 range. Still that is 300 times what bandwidth costs in downtown Kansas City. Could you imagine if your electric or telephone bill cost 300 times more than it costs in a larger city? Instead of a $90 per month electric bill, it would cost you $27,000 pre month. Instead of a $32 per month phone bill, it would cost $9,600.

If you were starting a business that required a reliable high speed connection to the Internet, would you go to the town where it costs $50 per month or the town where it costs $15,000? The future of small towns like Fort Scott is going to be very closely tied to their ability to tap into reliable inexpensive bandwidth. As long as everything comes through a single provider, there is no competition to drive the price down. Right now, no matter how many new ISPs start up in town, they are are all going to be reselling bandwidth from the same expensive source.

If Fort Scott wants to be competitive in the future, we are going to need to find ways to get competitively priced bandwidth into the city.

When Paul Feeney and his wife got to town last week to begin their project of turning the old middle school into a family entertainment location they found that the building wasn’t in the same condition they had left it. Vandals had broken in and gone through smashing most of the glass and spraying graffiti all over the walls. The floors were covered with broken glass and broken light bulbs.

There were quite a few things stolen as well including a nice weight machine and various equipment and tools. Many of the kitchen appliances were damaged and broken.  The vandals located some of the paint that had been stored by the previous owners and poured it out on the floor. A toilet had been pulled out of one of the rooms and thrown from the balcony in the auditorium.

Security cameras captured video of many of the miscreants and the police department is working on locating them.

All in all, it was a less than idea welcome to Fort Scott. Mr. Feeney said he briefly wondered if buying the building had been a big mistake, but after a few days of cleaning up the damage he is excited about the plans for the electric go-carts and other entertainment for the citizens of Fort Scott.

He still anticipates that the initial attractions should be opening in 2 or 3 years. The go carts will probably be put on the ground floor and the gym is the likely location for a climbing wall and possibly an indoor skateboard half-pipe.

He and his wife plan to live in the building and the tower in the center will be turned into an apartment with roof access and a great view of the city. Mr. Feeney said once he gets the glass cleaned up, his first priority is making sure the building is ready for winter and fixing any leaks in the roof that might lead to bigger problems later on. He said over all, the structure of the building seems pretty sound, but the roof has some leaks that need addressed–particularly in the center tower.

Another thing he is working on is getting a good inventory of what is actually in the building. He has found some unexpected surprises. There are a great number of what appears to be ceramic molds in what was once the cafeteria. It isn’t clear if those were put there by a previous owner or if they were part of the school. In a dark corner of the basement there are a number of canisters that appear to be rations and supplies from the cold war era.

The go carts that are planned for the building run on electric rechargeable batteries. Mr. Feeney expects the carts alone will cost somewhere around $200,000. He said his goal for the carts is to bring in enough to cover their operational costs and he is expecting to have a very hefty electric bill once things get going. He is less concerned about them bringing in enough to make money or even recover his initial investment.

Beyond the vandalism, there building has been left sitting for quite some time and is going to take some significant work. It appears that some previous owner may have removed much of the wiring to sell for scrap metal and the sump pumps in the boiler room haven’t been working so there is several feet of water in that area. There are many areas where the paint is peeling from the walls and plaster is falling off.

Despite all the work that is needed, Mr. Feeney’s enthusiasm is contagious and it is hard not to fall in love with the old building. Their goal of turning the school into an entertainment venue is going to require a lot of work, but it will be a great asset to the Fort Scott area and hopefully can serve as a model of what other communities can do with their large old buildings.

In the run up for the last city commissioner election, I was very interested in hearing from the candidates at a forum where they were asked about their plan for downtown. I was very disappointed that most of the ideas consisted of “get businesses” and “get grants.”  If anyone had concrete ideas, they weren’t shared at the meeting.

Even a candidate whose family had previously run a downtown businesses didn’t have anything to share about what would have kept them from moving. I’m not trying to criticize anyone, but just point out that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of ideas (at least that I’m aware of) designed to benefit the downtown area and get more foot traffic to those shops.

So to get the conversation started, here are five ideas of mine.  I’m not saying that they are all great ideas, but even starting with a bad idea can help get people thinking and eventually produce some winners.

Be sure to leave your comments at the bottom. Which of these ideas sound worthwhile? Which sound stupid? What other ideas can you think of?

1. Put In a Play Scape

At Wall and Main there is a large grassy area where a building burned down. This space is owned by the city and contains a concrete pad where the Christmas tree is attached around the holidays.

My family eats down town nearly every week with some friends. After dinner we will usually head over to this grassy area so the kids can run around, maybe kick a soccer ball a bit and the adults can talk.

This area could be turned into a very nice small park to help draw people into downtown. A school grade plastic and metal play scape that can accomodate about 22 children would cost around $11,000 for the hardware. A larger unit that can accomodate 50 children would probably be in the $30,000 range. Wooden systems may be considerably less expensive and it might even be possible to get used equipment from schools that close down, etc.

One of the nice things about this idea, is that if there is ever a desire to put a building back there, it wouldn’t be ridiculous to think about moving a play scape to one of the other city parks.

2. Giveaways & Contests

My dad grew up in Arcadia back when it was a thriving little town. To help get people downtown, they would choose one night when all the stores would stay open late and they would do drawings to give away cash and prizes sponsored by the downtown merchants. This produced quite a draw and the only way to fit everyone in was to double park up and down the street.

Could something similar work in downtown Fort Scott?  Maybe or maybe not, but it might be worth considering.

3. Downtown Movie Night

Would people come downtown to watch a city sponsored movie on the side of one of the buildings? The downtown concerts are great, but perhaps showing Toy Story 3, would pull in a slightly different demographic. It might mainly help the two restaurants downtown because most of the other shops are usually closed in the evening. I’m not sure what the cost would be to show a movie like that, but I imagine it wouldn’t be outrageous.

4. Use Empty Shop Windows

One thing that is plentiful downtown are shop windows and unfortunately many of them are empty. I’ve seen some efforts to put up displays in some of these windows, but none of them were things that you’d make a specific trip to go see.  Would people come downtown to view local art work? What if high-school & middle school art projects were displayed downtown–perhaps a contest where people could vote for the winner from their cell phones?

5. Free Wireless Internet

Pretty much any downtown business is going to need to pay for Internet. This will probably cost $50 to $150 per month depending on what options are available at a particular location. Offering free wireless can help free up those dollars for businesses that are willing to invest in our downtown and if done correctly, the cost should be fairly inexpensive.

A mesh based solution like Meraki would make it easy to cover the downtown area and add on access points to get to the back of buildings or other places where reception didn’t have good signal from the main antennas. The actual hardware to get started would probably cost somewhere in the $2,500 to $4,000 range and businesses who wanted better coverage could buy an extender for around $200. Monthly costs would probably be in the $50 to $150 range–or virtually nothing if it could be run over the city’s existing connection.

In addition to helping the businesses, it would benefit visitors who need to get to the internet from their phone or laptop. Obviously offering free wifi isn’t going to produce a flood of 100s of visitors each day, but it is a little thing that can make for a more pleasant visit for the people who want or need access.

So there are five ideas. If you’ve read all of them, I bet you have some opinions about what might work and what wouldn’t and chances are you have some other ideas that are much better than what I’ve come up with. Please take a few minutes to share your ideas and thoughts in the comments where everyone can benefit from your perspective.

Julie Saker and Bill Farr are partnering together on buying the old IGA to turn it into a bowling alley–something that Fort Scott has been missing for quite a few years now. They hope to have it open by May or June. The plan is for the new facility to include 12 lanes of bowling.  It will also have a grill and arcade area.

Julie wasn’t sure if smoking would be allowed or not under Kansas state law, but there are no plans to make it a private club. They do plan to get a liquor license so beer can be served.

The project is going to be partially financed by investors. Julie said that Macy Cullison is going to help the partners look into getting some grants and they will probably finance any remaining needs with a loan.  Julie also said they are open to talking with other people who might be interested in investing in the project.

They haven’t come up with a good idea for the name yet and are looking for suggestions. If you have a good name for a bowling alley in Fort Scott, please leave it in the comments below and we’ll make sure Julie gets to see them.

Macy Cullison is Fort Scott’s new Economic Development Business Recruitment and Retention Manager. She moved her from Pennsylvania where she was working with Economic Development loan fund called Community First.  We caught up with Macy at City Hall and asked a few questions about her new position.

What brought you to Fort Scott?

I wanted to work in economic development and have always wanted to live in Fort Scott. So when I started looking for a new job I looked at Fort Scott first and was excited to see there was a position here.

How do you plan to help foster economic development?

Right now I’m working on revamping the marketing for the city to help market ourself to companies outside of Fort Scott. A major component of economic development is fostering the businesses that are already here. So working with them to help them grow is a major part of what I’m doing.

Last week I met with a bunch of our manufacturers to talk to them about how we can help them grow. We found that a lot of them are looking to expand so we are going to be having a job fair with the chamber in November.

What types of things can you do to help a local person looking to start a new business?

They should definitely come talk to me. I can help find a good place for them to locate, help them get demographic information and try to help them get a good building to rent. I can try to help make sure they are in a place where there is traffic for their type of business and I have the resources at my fingertips that may take them a few weeks to find on their own.

Is your position only targeting new businesses?

No. Definitely not. I want to know about all of our businesses in town. I’m going to spend 60 to 70 percent of my time working with existing businesses helping them grow. Just last week I found out that existing business owners have 20 or so positions open that they are having trouble filling.  A huge amount of our growth is going to come from our existing companies.

Anything else you’d like to share with readers?

Yes. Ask people to “like” our Facebook Page!

Work is being done building a new retaining wall at 3rd and 69. Workers were there this morning with equipment including a large crane that was being used to place large concrete blocks into the drainage ditch.

This post contains notes from the city commission meeting on October 4th, 2011.

Community Garden

Jody Brillhart was recognized  for her work with the community garden project. Dave Martin spoke very highly of her work on that project and presented her with a certificate from the city.

Handicap Parking on Main

A citizen asked the commission for help with parking around the 900 block of Main near the high-school stadium. He is handicapped and cannot get a parking spot near his house when there is a football game. The police told him to park in the back of his house, but other people were parking there.

Mayor Adams asked the police chief if the individual could have the cars parked behind his house towed. The police chief said that if it was on his property the police could not have it towed, but it could be towed at the homeowners expense. The individual said that he was concerned that someone would damage his car if he had theirs towed.  The commission asked if it was legal to put a handicap parking put in front of his house, but Mr. Martin cautioned against putting handicapped signs up in public parking areas.  He was also pointed out that anyone with a handicap sticker could park in the space, so it might not necessarily help the individual get to his house.

Security Near 500 Block of Eddy

A retired couple moved from California to 400/500 block of Eddy had concerns about the security in that area. There was a robbery of a woman who lives alone and a suspicious fire. They feel like they are losing their neighborhood and that there isn’t enough of a police presence. They wanted to know what they can do to help keep the area safe. They were also concerned about the junk left in the alleys for 6 to 7 months.

Another individual said his car was stolen and burned last year after calling the police on the disturbances from 419 Eddy and he recently had another $10,000 of damage to his property in a similar situation. He said he has called the police “a bazillion times” but he felt the police were tired of hearing from him.  He said he called the police about a drug deal last Thursday, but they officer never came. He felt the police are scared of the people in that area. He feels that they aren’t catching anyone because they don’t spend any time there and because they don’t do any “detectiving” at night when the crimes are being committed.

He also said that people drive way to fast. He is thankful for the potholes on the street because it slows people down.

He didn’t think anyone would want to join any type of neighborhood watch program because they are afraid of retaliation.  He wants to see people arrested instead of just talking about it. He invited the commission to come over, sit at his house and watch what is going on.

One individual in the neighborhood not at the meeting bought a gun and put up a sign on his garage saying that he will shoot if anyone gets on his property.

Mother to Mother & Memorial Hall

Mother to Mother needed a different location and temporarily relocated to Memorial Hall. Dave Martin asked the commission if the area they are using could be leased to them on a more permanent basis for $100 per month going forward.

The ministry has been in Bourbon county for 13 years and serves a lot of single mothers, grandparents and other people who are having trouble raising their children. They were located in two units in Cameron Heights until HUD asked them to switch to a single unit, but it wasn’t big enough. They clothe 38 to 40 kids with school clothes every year. They also give out a lot of detergent and cleaning supplies. Last year they gave out over 20,000 diapers. Normally they get FEMA funds for diapers, but it wasn’t available this year because of the census.

The mayor is concerned that allowing people to use Memorial Hall is a dangerous precedence and pointed out that the city moved out of there because the cost of utilities are so high ($50,000 to heat per year). He wants to get the boiler shutdown and would prefer to have Mothers to Mothers located in a different location.  Right now there are still some city employees there (codes department), but that will change in the near future.  He was also concerned that opening it up for one non-profit will mean it must be available for any non-profit.

Dave Martin asked the commission if the goal is to shut down Memorial Hall and pointed out that it will deteriorate over time if left empty. If someone is going to need be in the building it might as well be an organization like Mother to Mother.

The mayor is concerned that as the federal government shuts down other services, the city is going to be faced with more and more organizations looking for a space. He would like to see the building shut down, but it appears that there are  number of other things the building is currently being used for including genealogy, records storage and the country music show.

The commission voted to table the discussion for now and plan to have a work session to look at the options and repercussions in more detail.

416 Eddy

The codes inspector said the building has been a problem for quite a while. He said it had gone through the condemnation process and after that was completed it caught on fire.  He recommends that the city go ahead and demolish the structure. The decision had been previously tabled, but they voted to go ahead and demolish it. They will get bids on having it removed.

Golf Cart Ordinance

The police chief checked with 16 other cities who allow golf carts on the city streets and none of them had any types of accidents. The ordinance being proposed requires registration of carts to be driven on the road. Several commissioners said that people had told them they didn’t want to see golf carts on the street.

Nothing was decided as this was the first reading.

Water/Sewer Penalties

There was a first reading of an ordinance that would increase the penalties for late payments from 5% to 10%.

Salary Ordinance

The account’s payable clerk has moved to the golf course. Dave Martin wants to promote Brent Crays to the director Community Development. The ordinance wasn’t passed out at the meeting, but it appears to deal with the raises and salaries of city workers.

The ordinance was passed.

Special Highway Budget

The ordinance will amend the budget to publish the ordinance that will allow the city to spend some money on road engineering.