Traci Plumlee had the life many dream of.
She and her husband, Brian, had a big house in Johnson County; high-paying jobs; top-notch schools for their three children.
But the closer their son, Braden, came to entering middle school, the more the Plumlees looked to moving their young family away from city life. The search brought the family back to Traci’s hometown of Iola in August 2010.
Almost a year to the date of moving to Iola and with her children safely ensconced in Iola schools, Traci accepted a job as administrative assistant to Executive Director Susan Raines at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
She brings to the Center a wealth of business acumen after working in the telecommunications business for 15 years. She began with Sprint PCS during its “big boom” of development.
She recalls the impressive setting on the Country Club Plaza.
“Our conference room had floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Plaza,” she said. “During the holidays, it was gorgeous.”
Plumlee, 37, worked in the finance department of Sprint PCS and its eventual spinoffs and mergers. Many of Plumlee’s duties included the merging of the billing departments as Sprint took on with Nextel, then Embarq, and then with CenturyTel which is now CenturyLink.
Though each merger directly affected Plumlee’s job, she said she stayed above the fray by “keeping my nose to the grindstone.”
That attitude and her work performance also gave her job security.
“I was never afraid of losing my job because I was always a top performer,” said Plumlee, who has a penchant for detail.
Plumlee’s work ethic will be a boon to the Bowlus as she assumes the tasks of bookkeeper, box office administrator and administrative assistant to Raines.
“My goal is to make Susan’s job easier,” she said.
Plumlee sees her new job as a perfect fit to what has become a downsized lifestyle.
“We’ve gone from a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house to a house one-third the size, not to mention one-fifth the mortgage,” she said.
Despite both having good careers, Plumlee said she and her husband “were never able to build up a savings.”
She tallied off the various paths their money took.
“Our house payment was $1,500 a month, just to enroll our kids in school was $2,000 the beginning of each year, recreational soccer for our sons was $600 each per season, and day care was $600 a month. That’s Johnson County for you.”
With her 30-hour a week job at the Bowlus and Brian’s position at CellularSales.com at the Iola Verizon store, Plumlee figures the couple should not only be able to live a comfortable lifestyle, but also be able to save.
“We want to feel comfortable to take vacations — even to Europe some day,” she said. “We wanted to spend less on a house and things to be able to enjoy life.”
The Plumlees live in an older home on South Elm Street.
“It’s a fixer-upper but not a money pit,” she said of the 1940s era home. “We were pretty particular about the neighborhood and that it be in walking distance of the kids’ schools.”
THE DECISION to return to Iola didn’t come without due diligence.
“We began thinking about it as early as 2007,” Plumlee said. “I have to give David Toland of Thrive Allen County a lot of the credit for our decision to come to Iola. He was an inspiration as to what we could do for Iola and in return, what living here could mean for us.”
Traci said a bonus of her job at the Bowlus is that it “puts me in touch with people doing good things for the community.”
Traci was born and bred in Iola, the daughter of Frank and Charyl Link, who have since divorced. Frank works for Haldex Brakes primarily from his home in Iola. Charyl, a former math teacher at Iola schools, lives in Kansas City.
Traci’s grandfather is Chuck Kress of rural Piqua. The family farm goes back six generations.
That farm has been a constant tug at Traci’s heartstrings. “In my job at Kansas City I had a picture of the family farm on my desk,” she said.
Brian Plumlee is a native of Kansas City.
The two met as coworkers at Barley’s Brewhaus in Kansas City.
“I had just graduated from college and took the job as a waitress until I found a ‘real’ job. Brian was a bartender there.”
After attending Allen County Community College, Traci transferred to Benedictine College in Atchison where she double-majored in economics and business administration.
Brian had just completed a six-year stint with the Marine Corps when they met. The romance blossomed quickly and within a short time Brian was enrolled in college — a prerequisite for marriage according to Traci — and the couple was engaged.
Thirteen years later, they have three children, sons Braden, seventh grade, and Breton, fifth grade, and daughter Josie, second grade.
“We’re meeting a lot of people through our kids,” Traci said. She also teaches Sunday school and religious education at St. John’s Catholic Church and is a Girl Scout leader of Brownie Troop No. 70323. This past summer she and Lisa Wicoff ran the two-week Heritage Arts Camp for children through the BFAC.
Brian is a former Cub Master for Boy Scouts. Both are involved in their children’s soccer leagues.
THOUGH BUSY, Traci said their lifestyles now lack the stress of living in the city.
“I hated city driving, especially in winter,” she said. For years her commute to work was 30-40 minutes.
She and Brian typically worked 55-60 hours a week.
“We were ready to relax,” she said.
One setback shortly after their move to Iola last year was a car accident in late October that occurred in Kansas City and involved the Plumlee family and two of the children’s friends. A deer carcass in the middle of the highway caused Brian to swerve his car, resulting in a rollover crash. One of their son’s friends suffered a cut to his temple. Traci’s neck was broken in three places.
“I think I was turning my head to see that the children were all right,” when the car crashed. It took the better part of the next few months in a neck brace for Traci to recover.
In her spare time Traci enjoys quilting, making jams and jellies, gardening, perusing flea markets and having morning coffee with her neighbors — not exactly the mold of a Johnson County girl.
Traci laughs.
“I trade my jelly for John’s sauerkraut,” she said of neighbor John Richardson, caretaker of the Elm Creek Community Garden.
Jelly for sauerkraut. Sounds like the Bowlus — and Iola — is getting a sweet deal in Traci’s return to home.
