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 Emporia Main Street Calendar of Events 

November 16

Emporia Main Street Board Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office.

November 30

All Committee Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office
 

December 1

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

700 Block of Merchant

December 3

Breakfast with Santa

9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Emporia Public Library

December 6

Quarter Mania

Granada Theatre

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the event starts at 6:30 p.m.

December 7th

Board Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office. 

December 8

Midnight Madness

8:00 p.m. until Midnight

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

700 Block of Merchant

December 14

Promotions Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office

Design Committee Meeting

noon in the Emporia Main Street office

December 15-17

Kris Kringle's Kids Shoppe

December 15

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

December 21

Board Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office.

December 22

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

December 28

Business Enhancement Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office

Home Based Meeting

12:30 p.m. in the Emporia Main Street office.

January 7th

Granada Bridal and Prom Expo

noon in the Granada Theatre.

Benefactors 

The City of Emporia

Lyon County

Bobby D's BBQ

Caribbean Sun Tanning

CoreFirst Bank & Trust

The Emporia Gazette

ESB Financial

Emporia's Radio

StationsKVOE, 104.9, Country 101.7

Longbine Auto Plaza

Roberts Blue Barnett Funeral Home

T2 Verizon Wireless

AKA Marketing/The Sports Fan

Amanda's Bakery

Applebee's

Ash, LLC.

Atherton & Huth Attorney at Law

Barden & Thompson

Bath Expressions

Bennett Dental Group

Best Western Hospitality House

Black Heart Cherry

Brown's Shoe Fit Co.

C & J Woodworks

Cable One

Cable One Advertising

Capitol Federal

Cassell Insurance

Chester Press, Inc.

Clark Carpet & Tile

Coffelt Sign Co. 

Commercial Street Diner

Complete Works

Country Mart/Price Chopper

Dan's Hands

Dorsey & Wise Family Eye Care

Douglas Chiropractic Center

Dynamic Disks

Emporia Chamber of Commerce

Emporia State Federal Credit Union

ESU Memorial Union

E-Town Solutions

First Community Bank

Flint Hills Eye Care Associates

Flint Hills Lanes

Flint Hills Music

Flint Hills Tech College

Flint Hills Mall

Forget Me Not Productions

Four Seasons Apartments

Furniture Loft

Genesis Health Club

George Groh & Sons

Gerald Schumann Electric

Glendo

Granada Coffee Company

Granada Plaza & Lofts

Graves Drug Store

Hair Krafters

Helbert & Allemang Attorney's at Law

High Gear Cyclery

Hornet Residential

IM Design Group

Java Cat 5

Jimmy John's

Kansas Radio 96.1 The Wave

KISS 103.1

Krueger & Williams Law Office

L & L Pets

Little Acorns

Little Caesers Pizza

Lyon County State Bank

Lyon County Title

Marion National Bank

Mark II Lumber

Mathis Physical Therapy

McDonald's on 6th Ave.

McKinzie Pest Control

Menu Foods Midwest Corp.

Midas Touch Golden Tans

Modern Air Conditioning

Muckenthaler, Inc.

Nature's Paradise

Navrat's Office Products

Pizza Ranch

Plum Bazaar

Poehler Mercantile

Pool & Wright

Prairie Sage Apartments

Prairie Land Partners

Pro Cuts

Pyramid Pizza

Redi Upholstry

Redline Trucking

Ru Yi

Sauder Custom Fabrication

Scheller's Lawn & Landscape

Simmons Pet Food

SS Graham Insurance Agency

Stanley Jewelry

Studio 11

Subway

Sunflower Gymnastics

Symmonds & Symmonds Attorney at Law

The Help Desk

The Henrikson Team

The Medicine Shoppe

The Sweet Granada

The Villiger

The White Rose Inn

Thompson Auto Repair

Toso Appraisal Service

Town Crier Bookstore

Town Royal

Water's True Value

Westar Energy

Wheat State Pizza

Williams Automotive

 Big Brothers Big Sisters

Community Theatre of Emporia

Corner House

Emporia Arts Council

Emporia Farmer's Market

Emporia Granada Theatre Alliance

Emporia High School Future Business Leaders of America

Emporia Public Library

ESU Foundation

Small Business Development Center

First Presbyterian Church

Flint Hills Optimists Club

Jayhawk Area Council (Scouts)

Lyon County Historical Society

National Teachers Hall of Fame

Plumb Place

The United Way 

Boyzen Bunny Fiber Arts- Tracey Graham

Energy Innovators

Family Jewels-

Leticia Rust

Gold Canyon Candle- Stephanie Morgan

Green Door Recycling- Amy Becker

Independant Longaberger Consultant- Judith Dieker

Interdependent Web- Ben Stallings

Joe the Furniture Doctor- Joe Kurzen

Kynda Kreative- Amanda Mendoza

Mary Kay- Brenda Braynard

Pampered Chef- Chelsea Gerleman

Patti Cakes- Patti Lipson

Paula's Creations

Paula Roper

Premier Designs Jewelry- Nikki Simmons

RossTography

Mike Ross

Scentsy- Deann Rose

Stampin-Up

Darcy Johnson

Tastefully Simple- Vanessa Apodaca 

Anne Strobel

Brad Harzman

Dale and Carolyn Davis

Erin Woods

Julie Johnson

Kayla Oney

Mark & Amy McAnarney

Mary & Tim Helmer

Matt & Val Zimmerman

Pam & Fred Stephenson

Peggy Mast

Rob Gilligan

Sue Blechl

Victoria Partridge 

Emporia Main Street E- Newsletter

Red Ribbon Merchants 

Click HERE for more information on this cooperative Marketing Package through Emporia Main Street!

Businesses currently signed up include: Bath Expressions, The Emporia Arts Council, Forget Me Not, Graves Drug Store, Plum Bazaar, Poehler Mercantile, Stanley Jewelry, Studio 11, Town Crier, Lyon County Title, L & L Pets, Furniture Loft and Complete Works and Dan's Hands.

To sign up, click HERE!

Midnignt Madness

December 8th from 8:00 p.m. until Midnight

Businesses currently signed up to participate include: Town Crier, Waters True Value, The Place to Be, Joe the Furniture Doctor, Pampered Chef and Furniture Loft, Sweet Granads, Granada Coffee Company, Plum Bazaar, Dynamic Discs, Complete Works, KISS 103.1, and Bath Expressions.

To sign up, click HERE!

Quarter Mania

The Next Quarter Mania is December 6th at the Granada Theatre.  Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the event starts at 6:30 p.m.  If you want to become a participating vendor, please contact Emporia Main Street Events Coordinator Becky Smith at 620-340-6430 or main.street@emporia-kansas.gov .

LAST CHANCE!!! 

Kansas Main Street Quarterly Training Webinar

National Main Street Center staff person Todd Barman will lead a webinar covering Targeted Market Research.  This webinar is free for Emporia Main Street members, but you need to sign up by Noveber 10th.  The webinar will be hosted on November 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  for more information: CLICK HERE.

Breakfast with Santa

December 3rd, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Emporia Public Library.  Bring your kids for breakfast, arts & crafts, story time and a chance to meet the big guy: SANTA CLAUS!!!

Window decorating contest 

Currently, Bath Expressions, Town Crier Bookstore, Navrats, Complete Works and Plum Bazaar are signed up to participate.

Click HERE to sign up!

Kris Kringle's Kids Shoppe

December 15-17 at 725 Commercial Street.  Red Ribbon Merchants can provide goods at $10 and under in a shopping environment just for kids!  Kids can shop for parent's, grand parents, teachers, siblings or anyone else on their wish list!

An ounce
 of preventative maintenance is worth a pound of cure.

A short walk around the inside and outside of your building can extend your building's life and prevent extensive and costly damage to your building.

You would probably never let a kid get away with throwing a blanket over a mess in their room.  You would expect to repair a broken window on your vehicle.  You wouldn't simply slather paint on a broken arm...  Yet, we see some short sighted "fixes" in buildings throughout the U.S. that either cause much more extensive repairs in the future, or a vacant dilapidated eyesore.  Before the Christmas rush and prior to 3 feet of snow on the ground that will be here before you know it, it is important to take a walk around the entire outside and inside of your building to look for potential issues so you can budget for, and fix them, in the near future.

1. Is your drainage actually draining?  Improper or leaking drainage can severely damage masonry

A pipe extension could save this building owner a lot of money.

or other materials.  Ensuring that your drainage actually takes water AWAY from your building can save you a lot of time, money and effort in replacing brick, tuck pointing or fixing a wall.

2. Here's a tuck you should point...  Mortar was always meant to be the sacrificial layer in a masonry wall.  It is easier and cheaper to replace than brick, but you need to ensure that the proper mortar is being used for your wall, and that it is applied by an experienced mason.  If your mortar needs replaced through tuck pointing, covering the brick layer with metal, coatings like driv-it or stucco simply adds weight to a weak wall.  While it may seem like a cheap option now, it can cost a lot more in the long run, or leave you with major engineering problems.

3.  New windows do not always equal better windows.  Oh, to be a window salesman...  Older windows were built to be repaired, and while windows severely damaged by vandalism or other extreme cases may need completely replaced, it just doesn't make economic sense to replace most windows.  Don't believe me?  Check the chart!

4.  The golden rule of masonry.  Never, ever, ever, ever paint unpainted masonry.  Ever.  Once it is painted

Coatings cover problems, but they don't solve them.

(with non-sealant paint), it is simply another maintenance step that you have to keep up with.  And, most people don't...  Furthermore, many paint masonry to cover up problems, and I have yet to meet a load bearing paint.  Just don't do it...

5.  Uncover a treasure.  I have yet to see a building with it's facade covered in metal that looks better than the original masonry.  I haven't ever looked at a building after the windows were boarded or covered and said "wow, that looks a lot better".  People inherently know how a building is supposed to look.  They know where the store front is supposed to be, where the windows go and that the building should all be made of the same masonry material.  When it's not, it just looks weird to the public.  When things look weird, people keep walking...

Which do you like better, the covered building on the left or the same building, uncovered, on the right?

6.  Lights, Signs, equal ACTION!  It's dark a lot earlier now.  Are your sign lights working?  Are your store front lights on?  You have powerful advertising at

I know "rat rods" and "shabby chic" are in, but rust on buildings is never in style.

your disposal just by having attractive signs and store windows that are properly lit.  They are like billboards for your business that come with your building!  If you had a billboard, you wouldn't cover it up after you closed for the evening, would you?  You wouldn't shut the illumination off of your advertising billboard when it got dark, right?  Then why do that with your store front?  You can go overboard (rotating LED signs in a downtown environment are typically not the best investment), but feel free to light up your store with Christmas lights for the holidays.

7.  Get a fresh set of eyes.  You see your store every day, so it is natural that you can get a little complacent.  Why not ask for a fresh set of eyes?  Use the Emporia Main Street secret shopper form, and get a fresh take on what you can improve (you might be surprised what you find out).  Click HERE for the form.

We know that dilapidated walls, covered windows, damaged awnings and general disrepair keeps customers away from your building and your business.  We also know that failure to repair small problems as they arise can result in catastrophic problems that make a building potentially unsellable and unusable.  Take some time to identify issues and formulate a correct plan of action.  Remember, you have potential financing tools through Emporia Main Street, the USDA, Network Kansas, Historic Tax Credits and other agencies.  Fixing the problem correctly right now can save you money down the road AND promote the aesthetics that improve consumer spending at your business and in your neighbors.

Information on this topic was provided by McMillan Architects, one of the presenters at the recent Kansas Main Street Downtown Symposium.  For more information on McMillan Architects, click HERE.

Last week we met with Pastor Andrew McHenry as he continues to work towards returning passenger rail to Emporia, we held a board meeting,

The Anderson Library, one of two Carnegie Libraries in Emporia, serves as the 2011 Holiday Ornament.  In stock now for a $10 suggested donation!

met with a USD 253 faculty member concerning the inclusion of additional entrepreneurial training for area youth (more on that in the future), board member volunteers hosted the wife of an ESU Presidential candidate on a downtown tour, we met with community bankers and the Small Business Development Center with members of Network Kansas as Network Kansas made members aware of some new loan guarantees and venture capital made available for business start ups and expansions, we received our Main Street Christmas Ornaments for this year (the Anderson Library is the featured building), Steve Hanschu provided the history of the Anderson Library which we included on the interior of the ornaments, we helped coordinate another successful "Freedom Fest" on Saturday to help raise funds for the All Veteran's Memorial and on Sunday we hosted a group of youth that needed community service hours as they cleaned out local stairwells.  It was another full week of work and activities that lead to some good questions from all of you!...

1.  "How many people came out to Freedom Fest on Saturday?" From a number of people.  A little over 80 people participated in the bike ride or run portions of Freedom Fest.  We had over a hundred people in attendance when you consider volunteers, support and spectators.  Cold weather and a strong wind made biking and running a little tough, but it was still a great turn out, and we are happy that we were able to raise funds for the All Veteran's Memorial again this year!  Thanks to all of the event sponsors: High Gear, The All Veteran's Tribute, Cable One, Dan's Hands, Emporia's Radio Stations: 1400 KVOE, Mix 104.9 & Country 101.7, Flint Hills Technical College, KISS 103.1, Town Crier, The Emporia Recreation Commission, The Emporia Convention and Visitors Bureau, Little Caesar's, Town Royal, ESB Financial, Subway, Gerald Schumann Electric, The Emporia Gazette, Emporia High School Future Business Leaders of America, Bath Expressions, Wal-Mart, Country Mart and E-Town Solutions.

2.  "Can you give me some community connections in other college towns in Kansas?"  From an ESU College Student. Sure, and we did...  Emporia Main Street is continuing to work with ESU on marketing and other activities to encourage students to attend Emporia State University and to remain here.  Students are starting to get more involved in the process, which we think is positive.  If you are looking to attract more people in a given age range, you might want to include your target audience in the decision making process, right?  As students are traveling to different institutions, they are seeing campuses surrounded by housing similar to ours, but every single community with a Division 1 or Division 2 school in Kansas has a Market Trade Area population at least double our own.  That makes conversations about amenities difficult, mainly because we don't have the market population or disposable income to sustain the amenities of a Manhattan, Kansas.  The general response we get to that statement is something like: "well, Manhattan wasn't always that large."  True, but the area has always had a significantly higher population.  I'm from a small local town, and I love our small towns, but there is a significant difference in counting the trade area populations of the smaller towns around Emporia that have under 800 people in them, and a Junction City with 23,353 people, a Fort Riley with a "Population Assigned Served" number of 42,264 people and even smaller area towns like Wamego with 4,246 people that are added to Manhattan's population of 52,281 people and a 23,588 student population at Kansas State.  When compared to the 24,868 population of Emporia, the 33,690 population of Lyon County and a 5,976 student population at ESU, there is no comparison.  So, we can either wish for amenities that can't happen in a community our size, or we can work to improve what we have in a sustainable manner to grow our community over time.  We all agree that our community needs to grow and prosper, the difference of opinion is how we get there.  If we do the hard work and grow at a steady pace, we can accomplish our ultimate goals.  If we just go after the "big win" and concentrate on examples that don't apply well to us, we will simply perpetuate the status quo.

3.  "Will the office be open on Veteran's Day?" From a volunteer. Staff will check office messages, but I will not be in the office on Friday.    

4.  "When are you teaching the next Social Media Class?" From a new business member. I will be teaching a Social Media for Business Class TONIGHT, Tuesday, November 8th from 6-9 p.m. with Rob Gilligan at Flint Hills Technical College.  For more information, call 620-343-4600 or go on-line to   http://flinthills.augusoft.net/ .

5. "Where am I supposed to shop?"  From a few area residents. Our office gets a lot of referral questions.  Questions about products, services, restaurants and more on a daily basis.  People called last week about needing a wrecker service for their son that was traveling through Emporia, legal services for a new business starting out, accounting services for an expanding business and we get the "where do we shop for ____" or "I'm looking for ____ restaurant" all the time.  Sometimes, the question has a bit of an accusatory slant to it, like "well, I can't find this category of items here, so what am I supposed to do...?"  Generally speaking, not always, but generally speaking, we can make people aware of several options for the goods and services they are looking for right here in Emporia.  When we do that, the response we generally get is "I've never heard of them" or "I didn't know that they did THAT..."  First, this shows the importance of advertising.  Second, this shows the importance of getting involved with community groups like Emporia Main Street, but finally, and most importantly, it shows that we need to encourage people to explore their own community.  During our Haunted Tours on October 29th, I was shocked at how many tour participants had never set foot in the Granada Theatre, on ESU's Campus, in Red Rocks, at Plumb Place or in Poehler Mercantile(all tour stops).  The first step towards creating pride in our community isn't creating something new, it's making people aware of the things that we already have.  Get out, explore YOUR Emporia and find out what we have to offer.  And, if you are looking for something cool to do, you can always contact Emporia Main Street.