Welcome to El Dorado, Kansas! (relocating, jobs, business)

[ltinpdx]

Visit El Dorado at http://www.eldoradoks.com today!

El Dorado used to be a nice town. The oil industry brought with it many fine, upstanding leaders of a stature communities its size would not normally attract. But the oil fields eventually played out, the leaders died or moved away, and, by the mid-1980's, the town was in an economic and emotional funk. Jobs were scarce and the suicide rate among young men was alarmingly high.

As often occurs in such situations (take post-World War I Germany, for example), an opportunistic group of individuals was waiting in the wings to take over. These folks promised to make El Dorado prosperous again. Desperate for better times, the people swept their candidates into City Hall and just about every other elected or appointed office inside and outside local government.

This group scored a couple of early economic development victories, bringing a prison and a balloon factory to town. These people also set up a system of political cronyism reminiscent of Chicago in the early 1930's minus the gangland "hits." Regardless of one's vocation, one either belonged or did not belong. Making one's way in El Dorado became difficult for those who did not belong.

The system worked fine for awhile, but as the nation prospered during the 1990's, El Dorado -- particularly its downtown retail sector -- began to implode. In order to make the public believe their candidates still stood for prosperity, the group embarked on a program of statue-building, streetscaping, cheerleading and a host of other welfare-state diversion tactics.

The voters eventually wised up, however, and elected a majority of city commissioners who promised to make government fair for all citizens and to stop wasteful spending on feel-good public relations initiatives. These brave and honest men include Mayor Brian Shepherd and commissioners Todd Peterson and Mike Fagg.

But the dregs of the corrupt former regime wasted no time in fighting back. On February 7, 2006, they succeeded in recalling Commissioner Peterson. Mayor Shepherd narrowly escaped bring removed from office.

Dark days lie ahead for El Dorado. The town remains sharply divided. All persons and business owners considering relocating to El Dorado should avoid doing so. Consider yourself forewarned.

[Crazy_Daisy]

I have been here a few times. It is just a small town with a little bit of nothing. I actually liked it.