City Services

The Building Futures committees are now working on these Action Plans:

An update from the City Manager, Matt Zimmerman, on the role the City of Emporia is playing in Building Futures.

Building Futures makes way for partnership between City & FHTC

Building Futures is about making the Emporia community the best it can be. It’s also about forging partnerships in the Emporia community, and working to share resources.

A great example of this happened recently with the City of Emporia and Flint Hills Technical College. The college & city now have a new IT Department partnership.

When the city acquired new software and was understaffed to handle issues and training, City Manager Matt Zimmerman and FHTC President Dean Hollenbeck got together and made an agreement for their tech departments to work together on solving technical issues and training city employees on the new system.

The IT Department at the city, and the separate police department IT department can now call and e-mail FHTC with any technical issues and vice versa.

FHTC specialized in IT support and will provide training at a lower cost to the city. This helps the city save money, and at the same time helps fund the educational opportunities at FHTC, all while keeping dollars in the Emporia community.

With the help of Building Futures, the city and the college were able to work together to solve a problem and also help Emporia.

Visitor's Information Stop

The City of Emporia is working with Building Futures Goal #8: Increasing Tourism to Emporia, to move ahead with design concepts for the development of a visitor’s information stop, named Prairie Passage Park, on the west side of Emporia near Highway 50 and the Turnpike interchange roundabout.

Over the years, their plan is to build the project in phases as funding becomes available. Phase One will include a walking trail, a small parking lot, and rest areas for visitors to stretch their legs. The City is helping to also get the Prairie Passage Stones and signs moved to the area to create a focal point for travelers. “We want to create a visible identifier to encourage people to stop,” Zimmerman said.

Phase Two will include informational kiosks, where area businesses can post information and have a place to display travel information.

In Phase Three they will add more amenities. Plans include a display area that could showcase the history of Emporia or facts about William Allen White, Clint Bowyer and other notable Emporians.

Right now the City and Building Futures Goal 8 are getting final permission from KDOT to lease the land, and finalizing the design with architect Dave Emig of Emig and Associates, Inc.

In other news, the City submitted a proposal to do a partnership with the the 79 Fund of the Bowyer Foundation, started by Emporia NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer, to assist in the funding of a city-wide clean up in the fall.

The clean up would be a joint effort between Building Futures Goal 5: Enhance the housing available in the Emporia area, the City, the 79 Fund, the Human Relations Commission and the Lions Club, and would take place over four weekends in September and October. Areas to drop off trash and other large waste items will be set up in the four quadrants of town, and people will be able to dispose of unwanted items for free. They are also looking for volunteers and additional funding to help with this effort.

Code Enforcement & New Signage Underway

The City of Emporia and the Building Futures Housing Committee recently met with members of the Human Relations Commission. They reviewed the Overland Park, Kansas, program for ideas on implementing a stronger code enforcement program. Overland Park has had a successful run of their programs, and the City and Building Futures were able to learn some of their tactics that worked.

"They had some really great ideas," Zimmerman said. The new code enforcement proposal will be presented to the City Commission later in the year. Last year the City implemented a way to make anonymous hosing code violation complaints. They are also encouraging people who see violations to report them, with the security of complaints being anonymous. "We are getting ready to kick-off our next enforcement program for 2009. Our goal is to be more active in looking for and prosecuting code violations," Zimmerman said.

The City also met with the Building Futures Tourism Committee for additional city entrance signs. The signs proclaim that Emporia is a National Diversity City, after meeting the National League of City’s qualities. The signs are now up at North and South Kansas Highway 99 city entrances and East and West Highway 50 city entrances.

Civic Arena Update & New Educational Channel

The City of Emporia is very close to completing the Civic Arena improvements.
Improvements are part of a multi-year plan to update the arena thanks to the city, the Jones Foundation, Emporia State University, USD 253, and Emporia Sports Promotion’s partnership. Updates include repainting in an art deco style, refinishing the floor and installing a new scoreboard with video capabilities.

ESU is now offering a new university education channel on TV. The city and school district will now be available on channel 18, with ESU information on channel 8. Not only will the university network broadcast local university events and lectures, national programs will also be part of the offerings.

“We’re adding to Emporian’s quality of life by bringing more entertainment and research options and more access to information here and across the country,” Zimmerman said. The new programming was made possible by coordination between ESU, the City, USD 253 and business partner Cable One. “This is a great example of intergovernmental cooperation,“ Zimmerman said.

The City of Emporia is working aggressively to improve the aesthetics around town.

Graffiti
The City is starting a strong graffiti enforcement program. They’ve started with replacing all vandalized Neighborhood Watch signs and have worked with local media to let the public know what happens when people don’t follow the rules about graffiti and why the city is working to make the community look better.

Civic Auditorium
With Emporia State University, Emporia High School and Emporia Sports Promotion Inc, the City is funding a new scoreboard, floor and floor painting design for the Civic Auditorium. The old scoreboard from 1984 will be replaced with all new state-of-the-art technology and video features. ESU students helped develop the floor painting design.
All of these improvements are on track to be ready in the fall of 2008, in time for basketball season, along with a new entrance.

The City is also getting bids on painting the new entrance that will have an updated art deco look, designed by an ESU graphic artist.

Look for these new improvements around town!

Increased Retail Opportunities
The City, along with Emporia’s Regional Development Association, has recently completed The Buxton study, a detailed analysis of the Emporia buying area. The study will show relationships between what people buy in Emporia and what new goods and services Emporia needs. The focus of the project is to improve Emporia’s retail opportunities and the quality of life. A goal is to recruit nationally known retailers for the community.

Shopping in Town
Currently the Emporia Chamber and Emporia’s Main Street Association are meeting with established retailers on how to better serve the community. Specifically, what goods and services people would like available locally and how local business can further meet the public’s needs, so that people shop in Emporia, rather than traveling out of town.

One Stop Shop for Permits
The City is working to set up a one-stop-shop for building permits in an effort to be more conducive to professional and individual builders. The City’s goal is to have Building, Fire and Zoning permits all available at one location to make it easier to start a building project.

Entrance Signs
You may have noticed the new entrance and directional signs in and around Emporia. Now residents and visitors will have more resources for navigating and traveling the city.

    Building Futures - The Blueprint for Emporia
    719 Commercial | Emporia, KS 66801
    800.279.3730 | 620.342.1803