Downtown square, trails charm visitors on tour

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February 7, 2018 - 12:00 AM

Late last fall, three anonymous residents from Baldwin City descended on Iola with the intention of judging this town’s book by its cover.

They toured the downtown square, hiked the trails, cast an evaluative eye over the town’s parks. They entered shops and businesses bent on judging the friendliness of the establishment’s staff and the ease with which they could walk from store to store or business to business. They never announced themselves, these “secret shoppers”; they merely kept their eyes peeled, their faculties engaged, and they took notes. Their intentions were entirely friendly. They admired the modest grandeur of Iola’s many churches, and attempted to assess the energy each church injected into the community. They wanted to know where kids in Iola go to play. They wanted to know where to find a convenient town map. They asked: How active are the social clubs? How visible are the police? How well maintained are the clinics? How safe are the streets and sidewalks surrounding the schools? What is the quality of the housing stock?

These anonymous volunteers were participants in the K-State Research and Extension “First Impressions” program, which initiated the “secret shopper” project with the goal of highlighting for the spotlit town its strengths and weaknesses as they announce themselves to the first-time visitor. The program, modeled on a project forged at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, is an exchange between two similarly sized Kansas towns. In keeping with the “sister city” approach, Iola sent a handful of its citizens to Baldwin City.

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