Jim Gilpin, trust officer for Iola’s Community National Bank, has a heavily annotated copy of the Allen County section of the Kansas Statistical Abstract he’d like to show you — and show any one else interested in reversing population trends in the county.
Iola and Allen County have been losing population at a steady clip for most of the past 100 years and Gilpin says it shouldn’t be that way. Statistics show that the county has a work force of 7,593, but lists 9,210 active jobs.
How can there be 2,000 more jobs than workers? Those extra workers commute into our county from elsewhere.
The bad news is also the good news.
Allen County and the communities within it can stop losing population — the 2010 census showed another 1,014 went missing — if those who earn their living in Iola and elsewhere in the county moved to where their jobs are.
The challenge should be met.
Iola, Humboldt, Moran and the other Allen County communities are good places to live. Living costs are low, benefits substantial. The county has a lot going for it and should mount a campaign — a permanent campaign — to sell its attractions to those who work here and live elsewhere.
Chief among those attractions may be the money a worker and his family can save in transportation costs. As Bob Johnson pointed out in Tuesday’s Register, a person living in Chanute who drives to Iola to work and back home at night is spending at least $35 a week on gas alone. When the other costs of keeping a car on the road are added, that total becomes even more impressive.
As Gilpin will tell you with enthusiasm, Allen County can provide most any kind of living setting a person could desire, from a five-acre mini-farm in the country to the suburban styles of neighborhoods Humboldt and Iola can offer. Housing costs are modest; living costs are even lower. The public schools, from kindergarten through the first two years of higher education at Allen County Community College, are first rate. Each of the three Allen County high schools has particular strengths to offer.
From swimming pools to golf courses, to top-notch running tracks, lighted baseball and softball diamonds, and rodeo arenas, the recreational opportunities are plentiful.
We know all of that. Chances are that our out-of-county workers know it, too. They just don’t dwell on it long enough to take the leap. They need to be sold, coddled and urged to come.
IT’S A JOB for Iola Industries, Inc., for Thrive Allen County, for the county’s realtors and builders, for Allen County Hospital, for the county’s churches which always are eager for new members, for all three school districts which are very much aware that their budgets are determined by their enrollments, for Allen County Community College, for the county’s civic organizations — and for you, too, dear reader.
Make a contribution by coming up with the best sales pitch you can dream up. The Register will be delighted to print the ideas you have. Dust off the computer keyboard and send your thoughts our way.
And if you work beside a guy or gal who lives beyond our county’s borders, invite them to come be a neighbor. They’ll like it here. We’ll make them feel at home.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
