Is Hays Kansas a good place to live for a single Dad (Salina: travel)

[mjcten]

I'm a single dad of 2 boys looking for a better place to raise them.I currently live in Michigan where things are not good.I would like to know about rent,schools,crime,daycare,people etc.Anything you want to tell me about Hays.Thanks

[BuckeyeBroad]

I'm sure you'll get better answers, but I drove past Hays this spring. It looked prosperous. I went to college there eons ago and liked the town then. Be advised that the wind blows and blows and blows. You really have to learn to compensate when you're playing tennis!

[Yokomo]

It's a "nice" place but you're kind of out there by yourself. I mean you can't just cruise to this town or that to "get away".
Small town feel, no crime to speak of, not slummy, etc

[W350]

Like the others said, a nice place. Loads of history, a rural trade center and county seat. Right on Interstate 70 and your last chance for a quality stop going west for a long time! Same for going east for that matter, 100 miles to Salina. It is windy and fairly dry there, like all of western Kansas, water is a premium commodity. Glen

[iskerbibel]

I lived there for four years (see my other post on the "questions about Hays" board.). It was one of the better places that I've lived... a nice little town overall, but lacking in opportunity for my purposes. But be advised that as an outsider, you're likely to remain a SINGLE dad. Hays is pretty isolated- to get to a larger town, you'll have to drive 90 miles east or 350 miles west. Like any small town, everybody knows everybody (and their business) and has since birth... unless you've married into the clan (like I did... sortof), you'll likely remain an outsider.

To give you an example... I have a damn good resume and lots of experience in my line of work. But after I'd worked at my employer in Hays for two years, my boss (a damn good guy) commented to me that he never would've hired me had I not been married to a local girl. He said that, considering all the places I've lived (lived in several fairly large cities), he would've guessed that I was just looking for "traveling money".