Kansas Profile – Now That's Rural - Gene West – Greensburg – Part 2
Note to Editors: This column is adapted from the Kansas Profile radio series. Every Wednesday, a different Kansan, Kansas community or Kansas-based company is profiled as a regular feature of the K-State Research and Extension News lineup. A photo of Ron Wilson is available at http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/RonWilson.htm.
By Ron Wilson, director, Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
Community and communication sound like similar words. Today, we will learn about a community initiative which is taking communication to a whole new level.
Last week, we learned about Kiowa County Commission Chair Gene West and the rebuilding of his county seat of Greensburg. After the devastating tornado hit, there was no public place to eat in Greensburg, so a couple of ladies temporarily set up warming pans under a carport and began serving food to the public. Locals dubbed this the Carport Café.
One day Gene grabbed lunch at the Carport Café. To make conversation, he asked the stranger sitting next to him what he was working on in town. The stranger explained that he was with K-State and that he wanted to explore how to use technology to enhance communication in the region. The stranger wondered whom he should contact. Gene said, “You need to talk to me.”
It was a fortuitous encounter. Gene talked about the need to get news out to citizens in between the weekly editions of the newspaper. The stranger, Dr. Bert Biles from K-State, pointed out that modern telecommunications technology could help fill that gap. Bert was in Greensburg thanks to the K-State Center for Engagement and Community Development, which mobilized the university’s response to the disaster.
Out of Bert and Gene’s conversation and working with Gloria Freeland of the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media in K-State’s school of journalism, an idea emerged that would bring together several information sources and use modern technology to communicate with the public.
The centerpiece of this idea is something called the Kiowa County Commons. The Kiowa County Commons would be a modern, environmentally-friendly building with state-of-the-art telecommunications equipment.
Housed in the building would be the Kiowa County office of K-State Research and Extension along with the county museum, county library, and a media center. The media center would include a radio and sound studio, a TV studio, and a Web portal that will use the WiMAX system installed on a local tower or the grain elevator to access Internet. Airspan and Stutler Technologies donated WiMAX equipment.
The chair of the media center’s board of directors is Jan West, the wife of county commission chair Gene West. Jan says, “We need a community calendar with real-time news. With this facility, we could film a home basketball game and post it on the Internet so that grandparents can see the game from a thousand miles away.”
Broadband Internet service through WiMAX would be provided by Haviland Telephone Company, which is based in the nearby rural town of Haviland, population 590 people. Now, that’s rural.
The building is projected to be constructed on Greensburg’s Main Street next to the city hall that is being rebuilt. Currently architectural designs are being drawn up in preparation for the fundraising that will be necessary to build the building. The Commons building is projected to be certified as LEED Platinum for sustainability, with wind turbines, solar panels, recycled water, and a green roof.
Along with all this modern stuff, the architect included a classic element which connects to the town’s history: A reconstructed version of the soda fountain from the downtown drug store which was destroyed in the tornado.
Jan West says, “I view the commons as an opportunity to preserve our culture and move it into the future for learning and growing.”
Meanwhile, Greensburg is coming back. Groundbreaking ceremonies are being held for the new school and hospital. Some 42 businesses have reopened or are in the process of rebuilding, and more than 400 homes have been permitted or are under construction.
Community and communication: They come from the very same root. This exciting new facility will enable modern communications to support a renewed Greensburg community. We commend Jan West, Bert Biles, and all those involved for making a difference with their vision for the future.
And there’s more. Help has come to Greensburg from not just Manhattan, Kansas, but Manhattan, New York as well. We’ll learn about that next week.
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The mission of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is to enhance rural development by helping rural people help themselves. The Kansas Profile radio series and columns are produced with assistance from the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications News Unit. Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/huckboyd/.
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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.
Story by: Ron Wilson
rwilson@oznet.ksu.eduK-State Research & Extension News The Huck Boyd Institute is at 785-532-7690 or rwilson@ksu.edu.