Attitudes

A poster on another thread brought to my attention a poll in a local newspaper. The poll shows 79 percent think Arkansas City is inferior to other towns. It should be noted that this is 154 votes.
Last week the guy from Municipal Solutions - the audit company - gave results of their survey. They sent out surveys in the water bills, and people were invited to send them back. They got 161 back, and half of those said the city either meets or exceeds their expectations.
The two surveys do ask different questions, but they do show different results.
One survey says people have a positive attitude and one says they have a negative attitude. Of course, 150 or so is not really representative of 12,000 people.

I would agree that Ark City has more than its share of negative people. I call them naysayers, and they will be negative no matter what.
Remember the doom and gloom about the hospital. Its more than 1 million under budget and going to be done a month or two early. Im sure they will still find negativity.
Remember the traffic circle on  the Bypass and Kansas Ave. ? and how it was going to result in hundreds of wrecks, deaths, mayhem and general bad things? Just how many wrecks have we had? One i think? i dont have official stats, but I would bet there are fewer now than there were before the thing was put in. .

As I have said before, people need to get out more. I dont think AC is better or worse than most towns. A town is not good or bad in itself .. it is what you make it.

I have to tell you all about the town of Crossett Arkansas. No worse or more godforsaken place on the planet in my estimation. Its in LA, lower arkansas, near Louisiana. Nasty hot in summer and extremely humid, cold and cloudy in winter but no snow. This used to be a company town that produced paper and grew those fast growing pine trees. It still is a paper mill town. Huge paper mill on one side of the tracks, town on the other. Stinks awful all the time, some days worse than others, but ... oh my goodness.
Smells like rotten eggs all the time.
For miles - probably 50 miles -in all directions there is nothing but rows of pine trees. Not even real forest, just rows of planned pine trees.
The only good thing is a small park with a decent trail through the woods, but it is by a stagnant lake - big pond - and mosquitos will eat you alive in the summer, so its not usable 6 months out of the year.
There are no cool looking old buildings. It was started as a company town in 1900 or so, and just has wooden structures. Anything that might have been historic was torn down.
Its also a dry county. You have to drive 20 miles into louisiana to get alcohol. and thats a two lane road that makes the road by the casinos here look like an interstate. About once a week there was a major accident with fatalities or serious injuries on that road  with people drinking on their way back..
It had about 8,000 people in the early 80s. The mill was the only employer of substance.. 
People were not friendly either. I lived there 2 years and was always an outsider...
Ok, the thing is though, the people that live there, who grew up there, LOVE their town. They think it is great. They dont even mind the smell.
One interesting fact. Coaching Legend Barry Switzer was born and raised there .. I dont remember, it was his uncle or cousin or something, that was municipal judge when i was there. Thats about the only good thing I could say about it, one interesting fact ... thats it. and he doesnt even go there anymore.

So, I come to Ark City. Historic old west town. Not so terribly hot in summer (usually) and not that humid. Has four seasons. Some snow but winter is tolerable..
Some interesting looking old historic buildings and homes. Nice looking brick streets. Somewhat active downtown.  A lot of great trails to hike on. Interesting looking countryside. Rivers to explore. Sort of close to larger cities - wichita, stillwater, oklahoma city, -
Has some good things going on...
Yet people are negative toward it ....

What do you make of that?


 

Hospital going

The bonds for construction of a new hospital were nearly sold out today. The city got an interest rate of 6.7 percent, which is not great but was better than some thought it might be.
Out of $23 million in bonds, all but a few hundred thousand are sold, so if you want to buy any, you better hurry.
The Public Building Commission meets at 6:30. They are expected to approve the sale that was completed this morning.
At tonight's regular meeting, which starts at 7, the city is expected to hire the engineering firm to start that process.
Construction should be well underway by the end of the year.

New Hospital

Good morning.
The cop notes are posted.
The city passed the measure approving the sale of bonds for a new hospital at its meeting last night. It was a huge step. They also gave final approval to the budget for 2010.
A new hospital for Arkansas City is all but a reality since it passed through three meetings last night at city hall.
The city commission approved the sale of the bonds - $24 million worth - at its meeting Monday. Earlier in the day the measure was approved by the public building commission and the hospital board.
The sale of bonds must be given final approval August 18, and the bonds can be sold at that time.
The new hospital has been in the works for 13 years, but this is as close as they have been. They had a deal, and actually broke ground, in 2006 with a company called CoVista, but that deal eventually fell through.
The current strategy calls for the current hospital to build a new medical center north of Arkansas City.
The bonds will initially be sold at 6.9 percent. City Manager Steve Archer said local people may buy the bonds. If anyone is interested they should contact Archer.
The payments will range from $1.4 million to $1.8 million per year. Hospital officials said they are confident they can make the payments.
They said they should be able to make the payments even without the sales tax approved by voters last year, but that money will help them in case there is a need.
See the whole story here