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If you live in a small town like I do, (probably about <6,000 people as of the 2010 census) you get more excited than people from bigger towns when you see progress in your community being done, more businesses being built/opened. So I'm asking you: are there any new businesses or buildings, etc. being opened in your town? What are they?
Around late October or early November, a new Best Western opened up here. Then just this month, a new fancy Shell station with a Subway opened its doors.
There's rumors of a Pizza Hut delivery coming to town. It'll be the 5th pizza place in a town of about 6,000 people. It's all the buzz around here. Well that and the poor kid who just got his permit and took out the front of a tavern.
There's rumors of a Pizza Hut delivery coming to town. It'll be the 5th pizza place in a town of about 6,000 people. It's all the buzz around here. Well that and the poor kid who just got his permit and took out the front of a tavern.
lol.
A few years ago, some person drove into the front of a burger restaurant here. It closed, but some guys bought it and turned it into a church.
I'm in a county of about 35,000. We have two new commercial elevators planning on opening this year. We have had four or five locally owned (not chains) restaurants opened or soon to open in the past six months. New housing in the county zoning jurisdiction has been slightly beolw normal, but agricultural building has been robust to say the least. Great harvest here and the farmers are sitting on a bunch of cash.
Does installing a pay a quarter air pump at the gas station count?
We actualy lost stores. We had the usual assortment of a general store, a service station, dinners, cloth/shoe store etc. but over the last year the cloth and show store closed and was merged into the general store. The stand alone local burger joint closed.
We do have a growth of new businesses such as Fred who lost his job at the paint store now does handyman painting. Gloria lost her job at the burger joint and now helps families prepare meals at home.
No new stores and lost of some store, but no lost of employment, people just did something else and adapted.
Our downtown Main Street, sadly, has a lot of vacancies. We just lost a men's clothing store and home furnishings shop that had been there many years. There was a Chinese Restaurant and a Pet Shop that only lasted a few months before closing. The roller rink on the outskirts of town also just closed. They tore down the movie theater. Fortunately, the drive-in movie theater is still going strong, but it is only open in the summer. The Fashion Bug closed, also.
On the bright side, we do have a new Aldi's, a Super Wal-Mart, a Tractor Supply, and a Peebles on the outskirts of town. They only replace another grocery store and the Farm and Fleet that went out of business, though. The Farm and Fleet building was taken over by an indoor flea market, which does great business on the weekend. DH has a stand there.
There's this building in town that used to be a home-cooked meals restaurant that closed nearly a decade ago. Some people bought it, put new gravel in the parking lot, and repainted it from a light blue to a beige color. I don't know if it's going to be a restaurant yet, but it sure would be great. We six restaurant chains located in our town, but most are fast food:
McDonald's
Dairy Queen
Subway
Pizza Hut
Great Wall Chinese Restaurant
Sonic
It'd be great if we got some variety in the type of food available to eat.
In the Nineties, Rolla was included in a book about the top 100 small towns. Since then, it has outgrown small-town status and is now a small city.
We've got a Walgreen's that's still fairly new.
Colton's Steak House just opened.
A new ATT store is going up at the junction of Highways 63 and 72.
The city council and administrator keep telling us that Kohl's is coming; the city approved a tax increment financing plan.
A side benefit to this is that crime is up, too. We're getting a government grant for the police department to hire a housing officer who will devote full-time to our housing projects.
Every day the local paper has a crime story on page 1. One day last week there was a story about a murder in which a drug dealer delivered heroin to a woman who died of an overdose; he got charged, but there are many people who think he is being mistreated. And Saturday there was a story about a fellow being bound over for trial on murder; he shot his stepson, perhaps accidentally, on a night of drinking with another feller. The stepdad and other feller threw the stepson's body into a ditch and drove off. This happened in early January.
So, with all the crime, there's more work for lawyers and paralegals. Drug use is up, giving plenty of work to police, sheriff's deputies and paramedics, nurses and emergency room doctors.
I think once word gets out about the growth in both commerce and crime, Rolla will get on more people's radars. They'll be more willing to move here because they'll know we're in the Ozarks but we're not a typical small town; we've become more urbanized, so transplants will feel more at home. The police chief told the city council that gang activity is up as more young transplants from the city come seeking the good life, so I think my theory is on track.
I'm looking for a boom in growth. Won't you join us?
The city council and administrator keep telling us that Kohl's is coming; the city approved a tax increment financing plan.
Our town kept saying a Wal-Mart Supercenter was coming. (our current Wal-Mart is just a regular store that stays open to 10) They first said it was going to open in June 2006.
Our town kept saying a Wal-Mart Supercenter was coming. (our current Wal-Mart is just a regular store that stays open to 10) They first said it was going to open in June 2006.
Know how you feel, except we didn't have one to begin with!
Well Applebees put up a sign about 7 months ago saying coming soon, but it was recently taken down. CVS is building a new building near its old one, but the construction has taken forever! Heard rumors of the following; Wendy's, Walmart, Peebles, Taco Bell, Hampton Inn, and another Subway.
Actually our old Middle School Building is being remodeled into a business hub with a health clinic, YMCA, and 911 center.
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