Mary Kay Heard’s Friday was a good Friday indeed.
Heard, Iola Industries chairwoman, entered the Easter weekend with equal parts relief and elation following Thursday evening’s successful legislative votes to create the Lehigh Portland State Park at the south edge of Iola.
The state park will be situated on 360 acres of land being donated to the state by Iola Industries, including the Lehigh Portland Trails system and the quarry formerly known as Elks Lake.
“I feel pretty darned great,” Heard said. “To me, it’s like getting a candy factory and rubber hose plant all in one.”
Heard was referring, of course, to Russell Stover Candies and Gates Corporation, both of which came to Iola in no small part due to Iola Industries’ efforts.
Heard spoke at an impromptu celebration at Iola’s new Derryberry Breadery Friday evening, which attracted a crowd of more than 30 supporters, young and old.
“This is such a great cross-section of people,” Heard said. “I started calling people (Thursday) night once the votes were in. I didn’t want to say anything too soon. I didn’t want to jinx it.”
There wasn’t much to jinx. The Kansas Senate approved the state park legislation with a 35-5 vote; the House of Representatives by a 114-9 tally.
Gov. Laura Kelly’s signature will finalize the deal, sometime in the next week or so.
The land transaction will be formalized and completed this summer.
The state park, Heard says, will spur economic development in multiple ways, from entrepreneurs developing businesses to accommodate out-of-town visitors, restaurants and shops greeting larger numbers of customers, and even attracting folks to consider moving to Iola with a picturesque state park not far away.
“Our goal all along is economic development,” Heard said.
The land donation, valued at $2 million, drew the unanimous support of the Iola Industries board, Heard noted.
“There was no dissent on that, but it wasn’t easy,” she said. “We knew people would be upset. …. We didn’t want that.
“We did hate that we couldn’t tell people sooner,” she continued, noting the behind-the-scenes legwork, which began a year ago, was necessary to avoid jeopardizing the deal.
