Last Chance To STOP The Event Center.

[Army_of_One]

Maybe the 1st step would for everyone to call ICE every day until they do a raid...lol.

Seriously do you think that tourism can be revived in Dodge? I think it will take more than just an events center. I think it has to be a multi-faceted approach. I don't think there is just one golden ticket that is the answer. I think you need to reduce crime first and foremost. The city needs to be cleaned up over all. It's filthy. Drive around the town sometime and just look at it from the point of view that you are a tourist...There are so many stray animals running the streets it's not even funny. There should also be an ordinance passed prohibiting purple and pink houses...lol. Why can't we have a casino?

[mommiedearestx3]

"There should also be an ordinance passed prohibiting purple and pink houses...lol. Why can't we have a casino?"



Because it would have purple and pink lights and walls.... <<<< sry, Army, I just had it do it......

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by mommiedearestx3

"There should also be an ordinance passed prohibiting purple and pink houses...lol. Why can't we have a casino?"



Because it would have purple and pink lights and walls.... <<<< sry, Army, I just had it do it......

You are probably more correct about that than you care to be.

[Detector]

You're right there is no one golden ticket but you've got to start with one and you've got to commit to the cause. No half ass efforts. As Master Yoda says "Do or do not, there is no try."

IBugsy is right. We are setting on a gold mine of history and doing nothing but making excuses as to why we shouldn't mine it. I look at dodge and I see a town waiting to explode on the world market for tourism. I read boards from around the world of people just looking for a place like dodge to visit, yet we set back and call ourselves the little town that couldn't.

When I go by downtown dodge it saddens me to see such a waste. I can still remember the old original buildings pre-parking lot and it conjures up scenes of old Luke McGlue passing out them fancy cigars to the towns folk and that poor easterner running around town trying to catch him.

Nobody says it's going to be easy or cheap or even a guaranteed success, but look at what we've become and see we've reached critical mass. We've become a low-skilled magnet. What big business in their right mind would want to move here? Other than a few more Payday Loans? Most people I know can't wait to get the hell out of dodge or at least get their kids the hell out of dodge.

It doesn't need to be this way.

Am I missing the whole idea of the Why No Dodge project? Was this really a tax collected to buy the locals new toys? We had a nice track that apparently the locals thought was built for them. Anyway I guess they only voted on it because they thought it was for them. Now we have the nicest dirt track within oh... 25 miles anyway. Hey that was fun for all of 2 seasons. Money well spent once again. The best idea I've seen so far was to put a roof on it fill it with water and call it our Events Center/Water Park.

What we need is to stop all these people trying to get their hands in the till and get back to the plan. To tell the world WHY NOT DODGE

[JohnWayne]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

Maybe the 1st step would for everyone to call ICE every day until they do a raid...lol.

Seriously do you think that tourism can be revived in Dodge? I think it will take more than just an events center. I think it has to be a multi-faceted approach. I don't think there is just one golden ticket that is the answer. I think you need to reduce crime first and foremost. The city needs to be cleaned up over all. It's filthy. Drive around the town sometime and just look at it from the point of view that you are a tourist...There are so many stray animals running the streets it's not even funny. There should also be an ordinance passed prohibiting purple and pink houses...lol. Why can't we have a casino?

Army,
Very well said.

Adding some thoughts on tourism. Dodge City became a household name for one reason; the long running popular Gunsmoke show. Unfortunately, the newer generations have not had that television show available to them. I still remember an interview on a Wichita television station a number of years ago with the curator of the barbed wire museum, when he made the comment that he was having a hard time getting the kids interested in collecting barbed wire. Well, duh. There are still plenty of people all over the world that are interested in the Western Lore and we need to target them.

Dodge City and its name have a lot to offer to tourism, but it is not happening now and I don't think a municipal building will be our salvation. Where are our entrepreneurs that could be capturing this tourism market today? For Dodge City to be a tourist destination there needs to be a mix of shops, attractions, eateries, which are all private business, then you can mix in the non-private sector, such as Boot Hill Museum, the Heritage Center, Ft. Dodge, even the Register of Deeds. In Dodge when the non-private attractions exceed the private enterprises, tourism will fail. After all we don't have the Rocky Mountains or the Grand Canyon close by, but we do have a lot of negatives to overcome: stinky air, dirty streets, trashy neighborhoods, lack of water in our river.

Detector, I think you will see something besides meat packers in Dodge and here are my thoughts------

It would be nice for a clean industry like tourism to replace our dependence on packing plants. There will be life AP(After Packers). The packers will eventually leave Dodge. They are here for one reason and that is the supply of cattle from the feedyards. The feedyards are here because of the production of irrigated corn. The irrigated corn is here because of the Ogallala aquifer. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the production of irrigated corn will decrease in years to come because holders of junior water rights will be forced to shut their wells down. In turn feedyard output will decrease and at some time when the packing plants have some age to them, they will shut down. I don't know how quickly this will happen, but water is being mined from the aquifer at an alarming rate and there is basically no recharge. From Southwest Water, a publication of the Southwest Kansas Groundwater Management District Number 3, Volume 2, Issue 1, January 2007, "O(sic) course, half of the 3 million acres irrigated each year in Kansas are located in GMD3 and less than one inch of average recharge gets back to the aquifer."

Back to the SEC. I would like to get the biggest bang for my buck possible. I see what Garden City does in attracting events to their 3i Building/Fair Grounds complex. To me that is a lot of bang for the buck. I personally liked the idea submitted by Phil Ochs and Steve Riegel on the SEC. I think that complex could attract the kind of visitors to our city that we are capable. I think part of our problem today is that some business leaders and governmental leaders over the years have tried to put down our image as a cowtown and make us into something that we are not. Let's promote our Western heritage, that is really our biggest asset.

Here's to a new improved Dodge City, cheers!

Duke

[Made in the USA]

I gotta agree with Detector and John. Originally, I was against the SEC. But, they are gong to have to build it anyway, so why do we keep draggin our feet? As for the "sales tax repeal", if you repeal the sale tax, then us "property owners" will have to foot the entire bill. That means all of us LEGAL folks will have to foot the bill. I would rather them continue the sales tax, because that entails everyone, and not just us LEGAL CITIZENS!!!! If you know what I mean!! Dodge City is known worldwide, and it should be represented properly, before the interest dies out. Presently, I am ashamed of what our City has become, and am not really that proud to be from DC; but on my travels (when I mention that I am from DC) people are struck in awe!! Let's clean this place up, in ALL AREAS, and get back to a home town that we all can be proud of!

[Captain Kemical]

Originally Posted by Detector

We need to quit trying to build for the local clientèle and target the world.

That pretty much sums it up right there!

[Redhead 18]

Detector.

I will agree with some statements that you made. I lived through “Gunsmoke Day’s and the show was one of the best. Today things have changed. The problem with people in Dodge they sit on their as- and do not attend meeting. They depend on The Globe, but meeting’s that I have attended Eric or whom evers stories in the paper is only his/her version. The same applies to the Nation’s media.

Your family has been around Dodge long enough to see changes let’s start with Urban Renewal. That was a deal where several old timers made a ton of money. Have you been to Ft.Scott, they kept their old building fixed up the outside with a coat of paint and did some remodeling inside? We had the same thing in Dodge, the same type building, old with a lot of history. In come’s Urban Renewal, which took out 75 Mom & Pop type businesses in the downtown area. With that swipe, our famous town history went out the door.

Sure it would be great if we had a lot of tourist coming through Dodge, but very few will spend time checking out our history. You can get almost any information about Dodge on the net.

What we are doing living in the past when Gunsmoke made Dodge famous. People do not want to accept the fact Boot Hill is a Has Been and it will only get worse. Strong words but read on.

Getting back to my statement about attending meeting, the last meeting in January of the CFAB board, the City Mgr. and City Clerk made a large spread sheet listing all money received and spent on Why Not Dodge project from the start to a projected date of 2033.

What pis--- me off our Great Paper was in attendance but they will not publish this. Our City Clerk and City Mgr. did a very good job on this. And I am not a fan of our City Mgr. You wonder why they have this projected till 2033, because that is the year the bonds would pay off for the Special Event Center. They have used the lower figure, 37 million dollars for an example. IF,IF,IF, and the City Mgr. made the statement with this spreadsheet figures, no money would be included so that Boot Hill, Roundup, Depot, could not depend on a hand out. This will be cutting it to the bone. Example. If the Estimate on the Event Center should come in over 37 million it would have to have something cut out. No EXTRA item would be allowed. No add in Alternates. Also they do not have any amount figured in to have a slush fund like the racetrack to give to the Lessee.

Mr. Stark’s face turned BLUE. He did not have anything to say. Have you noticed they have not been making glowing statements for the news media?

By the way. The principal, $37,000,000 in 30 years, the total amount of Interest and Debt service will be $62,583,892 dollars, if the Bonds can be sold at 4.10%.

Remember down the road anything can change. If and this is a big if, should the amount of sales tax revenue fall short, they have projected in the year of 2033 this should amount to $7,014,041 sales tax dollars. We have had 3 years when the amount that was received was less than the year before. The City and that means YOU, Me, the Taxpayer will have to pick up the tab with an increase in Taxes that you pay. I hope this does not happen but it could. We have a lot of Homeowners leaving Dodge. Look at the amount of Homes listed For Sale.

Our Tax Base is the highest in this end of the State, Maybe State wide, as I do not have the figures for 2007.

Total Mill Levies for County’s below.

Ford County, 172.896 (Dodge City)
Barton County, 160.027 (Great Bend)
Reno County, 153.070 (Hutchinson)
Seward County, 136.382 (Liberal)
Finney County, 128.300 (Garden City)
Saline County, 117.722 (Salina)
Ellis County, 115,065 (Hay’s)

Getting back to the start, Tourist’s would be nice, Clean Businesses YES, something for our kid’s to return home to. Not a blood and gut factory. It’s possible that our Downtown store space has more Hispanic Storekeepers than anything else. Is this what the Tourist want to see? I can not see how our Chamber of Commerce, (same people that are promoting the Event Center) can not see, the outlook for Dodge isn’t that great. Sorry, forgot this bunch has been running Dodge since Urban Renewal. Question? How many Chamber members have made any improvements to their downtown buildings? Another question, do you shop downtown? I bet you do not.

What about the request for a new Jail? More taxes. That’s another story.

[lurker]

The "stark" reality about this pipe dream is that it relies on 'talent' to attract money. We don't have the necessary local talent so we'll have to attract the 'talent' too.

At the end of the show, the talent will leave with most of the money.

That is not economic development.



This is economic development:

One baby boomer's nursing home.

40 Million Dollars to invest; at $50,000 per apartment, we can build 800 units.

800 units that rent for $125 per day will gross $100,000 per day; or $36,500,000 per year of gross income. Granted, lots of that money goes towards labor/talent BUT the laborers don't leave the area with their income. They stay and spend it locally.

Oh, don't think for even one second that there aren't 800 potential baby boomer clients in this area....

[Mike B.]

IBugsy,

I hate to disappoint you, but I am far from narrow minded. I to have a vision for Dodge City. We live in a wonderful community with a lot of great things happening.

I do agree that we can and should capitalize on our western heritage. I can think of no other city in Kansas or the US that has the ability to stir up the excitement, adventure and the romance of the old west better than the name...DODGE CITY!

I just don't think a sec is the way to do it!

What we desperately need is economic growth. New businesses opening up shop is the only way that is going to happen. High property and sales tax have always been a hinderance to economic growth. Dodge can do better.

One member of "the inner circle" even admits that property tax is to high in Dodge, so what does he do? He funnels as much business and he can from his Dodge City based business to his other businesses in Garden City and other surrounding communities.

We need economic growth not a sec.

When was the last time you saw entertainment build new streets in SW Kansas? When was the last time you saw entertainment create a stronger police dept. in SW Kansas? When was the last time you saw entertainment lowwer taxes in SW Kansas? When was the last time you saw entertainment create a cleaner community in SW Kansas? I never have. What will cause all these things to happen is sustained economic growth!

I have never expected everyone to agree with me, but I believe alot of people do!

Believe it or not President Ronald Reagan proved, in the 80's, that trickle down economics does truely work. And in still does today. Let people and businesses keep their money. They (we) know how to spend it better and wiser than any city government does!

IBugsy,

I do respect your different view and your ability and right to express it. I guess we can agree to disagree!