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Tonight, Friday, June 30...
• Announcements and robust cheers at Bethany College's End-Of-Fiscal-Year Party, brats and burgers served, 6-8 on campus, all welcome Tuesday, July 4... At Swensson Park • Bouncy houses for children 10-1 • Inaugural Lindsborg Turtle Trot race for box turtles, 10:30 registration, race on the track at 11 • Patriotic Parade Decoration of bicycles, trikes and wagons starting at 5 at the gazebo, processional at 6 • Old-Fashioned Fourth of July entertainment program featuring the Lindsborg Community Band at 6 • Lawn chairs and blankets encouraged; bleacher seating also available; move to Presser Hall on Bethany campus in case of rain Anderson Stadium @ Bethany College: Fireworks display organized by the Kiwanis Club of Lindsborg, Ahlstedt Fireworks, and Bethany College; paid by community-wide donations, starts at dusk Notices from the business community: Anderson Butik — 10 to 4 Chestnut Studios - 10 to 5 Connected Fair Trade --10 to 4 Hemslojd -- 10 to 4 Nex-Tech Wireless - 9 to 2 Small World Gallery — 10 to 4 Swede’s Liquor — noon to 7 White Peacock — 7:30 to 6 Farley's Bar & Grill -- closed The Swedish Crown — closed Farmers State Bank — closed Lindsborg News-Record — closed Rendezvous Adventure Outfitters — closed Lindsborg Community Library — closed The Courtyard Gallery and Bakery — closed Bethany Lutheran Church office — closed Designs — closed ******* It's time to begin mulling how Ad Hoc can work with the much-larger incoming Bethany College's fall class. Thanks to The Good Life Scholarships, more than 70 Saline and McPherson county students are expected to start at Bethany -- in addition to incoming freshmen from Kansas, the US and around the world. Bethany College Athletic Dean Dane Pavlovich and 2017 orientation organizer Ashtyn Snider of the college Student Life Office will be with Ad Hoc on Monday, July 10, to brief us on college plans. For weekend enjoyment: A 19-minute documentary about Grandmaster Timur Gareyev's Guinness Book World Record in blindfold chess, Las Vegas 2016. GM Gareyev teaches at Lindsborg's Anatoly Karpov International School of Chess. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGn5YYMBOpY&feature=em-subs_digest
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• Here are details shared so far about July 4 hours in Lindsborg. Final list to be shared Friday afternoon. Email smallworldgallery@mac.com to add to this list.
Farley's Bar & Griill -- closed Swedish Crown — closed Anderson Butik — 10 to 4 Farmers State Bank — closed Lindsborg News-Record — closed Swede’s Liquor — noon to 7 Rendezvous Adventure Outfitters — closed Small World Gallery — 10 to 4 Nex-Tech Wireless - 9 to 2 Lindsborg Community Library — closed • Ad Hoc will gather at 8 a.m. Monday, July 3, in City Council chambers. All are welcome to sit in; all are welcome to receive our notes, or just check our Facebook page for updates. • Lindsborg is a place of volunteers. We're grateful for that tradition. It adds much to Lindsborg's livability; the town we get is that which we all make through actions large and small. Another way to volunteer? City government boards and commissions. Here's a current list of boards and openings: Board of Zoning Appeals - one vacancy (term expires in 2020) Library Board - two vacancies (both terms expiring in 2021) Golf Advisory Board - two vacancies (one that expires in 2018, another in 2019) Lindsborg Housing Authority - one vacancy (term expires 2021) Recreation Advisory Board - one vacancy (term expires 2018) Planning Commission - two vacancies (terms expiring in 2020 and 2018) Sundstrom Conference Center Advisory Board - two vacancies (terms expiring in 2020 and 2021) If you know of someone who may be a candidate, please ask them to go here to express interest: http://www.lindsborgcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/94 The Lindsborg City Council will soon discuss whether to create more policy for street closure requests. Street closure requests are made by residential neighbors for block social events — and also by community event organizers in areas such as downtown. No specific issue or complaint is leading to the discussion; rather, it is triggered by awareness of Lindsborg as a busier place overall and need from Police Chief Tim Berggren for more guidance. At last Monday’s Ad Hoc session, Chief Berggren opened a discussion with Ad Hoc on this issue. In general, there was acknowledgement that blocking east-west traffic on Lincoln Street is a special consideration because it is an often-used emergency vehicle route. It also was acknowledged that event coordinators should be more proactive in communicating with Chief Berggren and other city staff members about plans. Concern also was expressed that street closure policies should encourage those who create quality of life and engagement in neighborhoods and business districts.
While with Chief Berggren, the subject of the Smoky Valley Car Show in Swensson Park on Aug. 5. The chief and a veteran crew of volunteers has made the event a colorful, popular addition to Lindsborg's summer schedule for many years. In recent years, the Car Show Committee has generously donated proceeds after expenses to a good local cause. A note for 2017: Based on feedback, the committee does not plan to solicit promotional materials for and stuff bags for entrants. If a business or organization would like to offer materials, please contact the chief or a member of the committee. Ad Hoc has talked about the increasing public expectation about business openness to well-behaved pets. For those who are able and want to promote pet friendliness at their locations, CVB director Holly Lofton designed a window transparency. If you'd like one, please stop by Small World Gallery. Thanks • Lindsborg is creating a stormwater utility to address existing and future stormwater runoff problems citywide. This utility will be funded with a proposed flat fee of $7 a month or $84 a year for each residential unit. Commercial, industrial and institutional properties will participate according to a formula factoring in the amount of "impervious" areas such as roofs and concrete-covered areas. In other words, everyone creates stormwater runoff; everyone pays to help manage it. Much effort, including by an advisory group of stakeholders, has gone into this plan. If you'd like to browse the details in an informal setting, please drop by the Sundstrom Conference Center from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 27. Your public servants will be there to visit with you.
• Lindsborg continues to field inquiries from other communities who are interested in the ad hoc spirit. Delegations from Kechi and Eureka are planning trips to Lindsborg soon. It's an honor for our community, and each and every person on the Ad Hoc network shares in it. This means you. • The Kiplinger forecast for executives and investors highlighted rural areas in a recent newsletter. While the article outlined the challenges that we all know, editors also had this: "... some regions are poised to pick up, either because companies are starting to catch on to the economic advantages of moving away from expensive and crowded urban areas, or because local officials are getting proactive at marketing those positive factors. "Abundant land and low energy prices are major draws for many rural spots. It’s no coincidence that Google has located eight massive server farms in remote areas across the country. In eastern Kentucky, where the once-dominant coal industry is hurting, there is a move afoot to develop a huge drone testing facility. Why? Scant jet traffic to avoid, and laid-off miners who are used to operating equipment by remote control. "Geographic advantages are reviving some regions that can play a key role in supply chains because they’re situated between big markets and connected by road or rail. Retailer Gap’s upgraded 2.8 million-square-foot warehouse in Gallatin, Tennessee, is one response to the growing need for distribution centers as online shopping grows. "Some places are playing up their natural beauty or unique regional culture. Sprucing up Main Street or building new campgrounds can bring out-of-towners seeking outdoor experiences or local color. Annual music festivals in southwestern Virginia helped boost tourism-related employment by 30 percent in 15 years, for instance. One town in North Carolina near a major bird sanctuary is drawing more visitors and new businesses after it asked its residents for small donations to refurbish downtown building facades. "Perhaps the biggest economic challenge facing rural America is demographics. The overall population of rural regions is barely growing. Many places are shrinking. That means fewer workers available to would-be employers and fewer customers for would-be businesses to serve...stubborn problems that show no signs of easing." Let's keep thinking about what we take for granted that makes Lindsborg great to others. Let's welcome young people and ideas to our table. Let's not take our collective foot off the gas in marketing Lindsborg as a place to live and visit. Thanks for sharing this piece, Jim Prugh. • Here's a fascinating interactive map about arts in the US, compliments of Gary Shogren, our community development director. You can see McPherson County as compared to others: https://sites.smu.edu/meadows/heatmap/index.html • In recent interviews, emerging tech business execs shared some of their most inspiring reads. One oft-cited book: Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles. For these execs, the book addresses the risks of creating *anything* -- an atmosphere, a team, business or product, whatever it is that presents the next obstacle. Here's an anecdote from the book that one exec cited as most meaningful: A teacher split a ceramics class into two. Half the class was tasked with making the single best piece of pottery. The other half of the class was tasked with producing the most pieces of pottery. Then they were judged. All the best individual pieces of pottery came from the half of the class tasked with producing the most pottery, not the best pottery. • Thought you'd enjoy seeing how Lindsborg and our valley is portrayed in the latest AAA Midwest Magazine. Give thanks for local businesses that provided complimentary meals and overnights to help make this article possible. AAA advertising and editorial content usually gets good response, the Lindsborg Convention and Visitors Bureau reports. May we say thanks again to...
• the Midsummer's Festival team, including the Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers and Folkdanslag? They looked crisp even in 100-degree weather. • our City of Lindsborg team for neighborhood branch removal help after week's wind storm? • anyone and everyone who listens, helps where possible, and tries to find positive ways forward? * * * Among upcoming events... • the final City Band concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, at Swensson Park. • also in Swensson Park will be Lindsborg's Old-Fashioned Fourth of July -- with cool new fun for kids this year. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. children may bounce on big inflatables thanks to Long-McArthur Ford and "Lindsborg in Bloom" organizers. Also 10-1, come for Lindsborg's first first Turtle Trot! Yes, entrants can race a Kansas box turtle of their choice on a purpose-built track, thanks to Rendezvous Adventure Outfitters in downtown Lindsborg. Pick up entries and details about the trot from Rick and Julie Bodenhamer at Rendezvous (along with guidance in box turtle care). Family fun resumes later in the afternoon at the park gazebo with complimentary decoration materials for bikes, trikes, wagons and small rolling stock and a parade at 5 p.m. Entertainment on the bandshell stage starts at 6. Then the fun moves to the skies over Bethany College and a community fireworks display sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Lindsborg with help from the college and community donors. (It's not too late to chip in a few bucks! Pls see David Hay of First Bank Kansas.) Watch the show from Anderson Field grandstands or the venue of your choice. * * * This morning Ad Hockers welcomed Charles Walton of Lindsborg, who recently purchased the property at 120 W. Lincoln. Mr. Walton described plans for a digital art gallery, small restaurant and fine wine tasting venue under the name The Wine Gallery. He envisions remodeling the building and staging the business over about two years. Learn more about Mr. Walton's concept at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1WHp4HgWoo * * * Over at least the next two Mondays, Ad Hockers will continue to outline ways we can create and sustain more "pockets of creativity" in Lindsborg in association with Bethany College's new strategic goals. Anyone is invited to sit in or take part in these discussions, especially everyone who loves the creative. We are brainstorming about how to tie in Smoky Valley traditions into new and reinvigorated crafts, music and visual arts. The aim is to further develop Lindsborg's and the college's creative cultures and make them more seamless -- and visible. From these conversations will emerge a document that can be shared with the college, city and others. Please stay tuned. If you can contribute ideas, please do. • • • On a related note, Corey Peterson of the Hemslojd showed this morning a small hand broom made by Berea craftsman Jason Burton, who visited this past weekend at the invitation of Bethany College President William Jones. Jason custom-dyed broom corn, then wove and stitched bristles around an old railroad spike from Berea. He finished the piece with a woven and stitched cap where bristles clustered around the spike. His approach to the work brings unexpected new dimension and meaning to a humble tool. Jason's creation will be presented tonight to the Lindsborg City Council. This final reminder from the Midsummer's Committee:
Next time you see a City of Lindsborg employee, please give them a wave or word of thanks. Even before last night’s storm had subsided, city crews were already rolling out, keeping us safe and getting a handle on what had happened. They started repairing damage as fast as safely and humanly possible. We appreciate each member of the city staff, especially on days like Thursday, June 15.
As our colleagues in agriculture begin the harvest, others of us put our noses to the grindstone in other summer ways. Let us all keep an eye out for each other -- as well as for those at play.
• • • • Tonight at the Old Mill! The Lindsborg City Band, supplemented by special guest players, will be jazzing up the place. That's 7:30 p.m. Bring your chairs and enjoy director Adam Keller and all. • The Good Sam Chapter of the Serendipity RV Club of central Kansas will gather in Lindsborg as members set out on a joint excursion. About seven RVs will be parked near The Hemslojd beginning 9 to 9:30 a.m. Thursday, June 15. • A wedding reception for 300 guests is slated at the J.O. Sundstrom Conference Center this coming Saturday, June 17 -- also the date of our annual Midsummer's Festival.. Please be prepared. • Speaking of Midsummer's Festival, please keep an eye out for guests moving between the festival's official run/walk (7 a.m.), Riverside Park (9-3) and downtown (3-5) and back to the Old Mill's Heritage Square area for the sounding of the birch horn, majestic raising of the maypole, and all-come dancing (7 p.m. start). Surry rides will be available, thanks to Bethany Home. Childrens' activities, entertainment, demonstrations, floral crowns, colorful costumes and folk dancing -- and a free 9 p.m. swim, thanks to the City of Lindsborg. It's a deal -- and full day. ! We surely do appreciate *all* who make Midsummer's possible in Lindsborg. Tack! * * * The Roundtable received a visual presentation last Monday from a local group that toured Berea College and City of Berea in Kentucky. Like Lindsborg, Berea is a relatively rural location about four miles off a major interstate with a small liberal arts college and that, along with city government and independent artists and craftspeople, focuses on the arts and crafts. While there are limited apples-to-apples comparisons between Berea (pop. 15,000) and Lindsborg (pop. 3,500), there are plenty of inspirations for Lindsborg in how Berea seamlessly blends college and community, interprets their heritage, connects internally and externally, and creates economic mojo. Ad Hoc will discuss next Monday these after-trip observations: • Lindsborg no longer can afford *not* to communicate. As we plan for the future, we must start talking with each other -- among organizations, particularly. • Lindsborg has quite a lot going for it, and we could do more in several areas with some relatively straightforward and less expensive shared efforts. • Lindsborg must build more emotional connections with residents and visitors alike. We're doing some of that -- but must do more. • Lindsborg's Swedish heritage is key and a logical point from which to expand our interpretation of the arts and crafts, food, and much more. • Lindsborg organizations' messages to various publics must be more closely aligned to be more effective. • Lindsborg should invest in those who want to be in creative realms in our community. One way? Provide professional coaching about arts as business. • Should we move to regularly referring to Lindsborg as "the arts and crafts capital of Kansas"? • Should Lindsborg become a sister city with Berea? If your organization would like to see the Berea presentation, call Kathy Richardson at Small World Gallery, 785-227-4442, smallworldgallery@mac.com. If you'd like to discuss these points of observation, please come to an Ad Hoc gathering from 8 to 9 a.m. Mondays at City Hall. All are welcome. An Ad Hoc scheduling note: At next Monday's gathering we will receive a presentation on behalf of a local group that went looking for inspirations and ideas in Berea, KY, also home of Berea College. Learn why the group chose to go to Berea and what they saw. Then chime in on the reactions and brainstorming to follow. All are welcome. That's 8-9 a.m. in Lindsborg City Hall, 2nd floor City Council chambers.
• A regular pleasure in the Smoky Valley is our tradition of music in everyday life. Many of us read music; both as professionals and enthusiasts we love to play instruments and sing out -- and act, too. We also place a priority on music in educating our children. That's why we tote our lawn chairs to the Swensson Park bandshell tonight, June 6, at 7:30 to help open the season of the Lindsborg City Band. Directed by Smoky Valley Schools director of bands Adam Keller, the Lindsborg City Band is *us* -- our friends and neighbors doing their thing for our enjoyment and their own. C'mon out, everybody! (If not tonight, then please do aim for June 13's performance at the Old Mill and June 20's performance back at Swensson Park.) Thanks in advance to musicians, Mr. Keller and everyone in attendance. • Sweden's Royal Academy tours its finest vocalists and pianists in the US each year to key national locations such as Los Angeles, New York, and, yes, little Lindsborg. Did you know that former Lindsborg mayor Don Anderson helped Lindsborg get its first Jenny Lind concert many years ago? You can see the heart-filling 2017 Jenny Lind concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 11, at the Sandzen Gallery. Thanks to all. • Do you or a friend have reasonably good handwriting and an hour or two to help a good cause? Contact CVB director Holly Lofton, pls. Requests for information in response to Lindsborg's advertising in Midwest Living is going gangbusters. Kinda cool, yes? If you could help hand-address replies (it's the Lindsborg way, of course), that would help. • We're seeing steady growth and creative people from our area during Maker's Street: The Lindsborg Art Walk. Warm thanks to the team organizing this new event every second Friday. Next Maker's Street is 5-8 p.m. this Friday, June 9. Come stroll and grab a bite to eat. • Reminder: The Ad Hoc group sells two styles of Lindsborg mugs for $10 each. We are able to generate a dab of cash to make memorial donations, send flowers, and cover the occasional unanticipated group expense. Whether you want to stock mugs for sale on your own shelves or buy a few for your own use or as gifts, get them Scott's Hometown Foods, The Swedish Country Inn, or Small World Gallery. Nobody makes any money off this project, all proceeds over mug cost go to Ad Hoc. Brief reminders:
• Donations gathered between now and Tuesday, June 20, will shape the celebratory fireworks we'll see in the sky over Lindsborg the evening of July 4. Please drop cash or checks made out to Kiwanis Club of Lindsborg to David Hay at First Bank. After that, final preparations will be under way by the club and Robert Ahlstedt of Ahlstedt Fireworks. Thanks to all for bringing back a community fireworks display as part of our Independence Day tradition. • 40 promotional items to Betty at Lindsborg Community Hospital by Tuesday, June 6. Please? Thanks. Historic redeveloper Jim Prugh and his spouse Diane Fatheree of Colorado will be in Lindsborg for a few days next week. Give them a wave. Buy them a refreshment. If reflecting on the current level of vitality and collaboration in the business community, please think of Jim's decade of investments as a significant part of that mix. One recent example? Jim's care and vision for the historic Main Street building that now houses Blacksmith Coffee Shop & Roastery -- and the collaboration that followed. Read on if you wish... Lindsborg’s Blacksmith Coffee Shop & Roastery embodies three equally good stories: • an out-of-stater buys a decrepit-yet-intriguing building because he *hoped* for potential more than saw it. • a young business owner merges two existing small businesses into one by fusing family, meaning and identity in one historic building. • a construction manager orchestrates an historic building’s original melody with a host of modern accompaniments into a masterwork. Blacksmith Coffee Shop and Roastery, now open at 122 N. Main Street, is a joyous locale that few could have envisioned — except maybe the synergy of this diverse trio. Walk toward the Blacksmith Coffee location today and find a tidy 117-year-old red brick building with its original black-and-white stairstep façade that proclaims: “Holmberg and Johnson Blacksmith & Wagonshop.” Inside, scan an eye-pleasing amalgam of the original, repurposed and new in a serene and clean coffee house. Out of sight behind the coffee house is a two-story metal building that houses a regional coffee roasting and shipping operation. When Jim Prugh of Colorado purchased Lindsborg's Blacksmith building nine years ago, he had no idea what this place could become. However, if he knew that if he didn’t intervene, he felt certain that the blacksmith shop would succumb to insects, neglect and eventually gravity. “I was struck by its history, rustic beauty and incongruity,” Prugh said. “I asked myself, 'Why is this blacksmith shop still standing here?’ While I had no plan, I bought this ‘diamond in the dirt’ and waited.” Several months elapsed before Prugh found an entrepreneur, Mark Galloway, who named his new wholesale and online retail coffee roasting business in honor of the building itself. Prugh continued to find and renovate other historic properties in downtown Lindsborg. In 2016, eight years later, Molli Esping had just purchased Lindsborg's popular Old Grind Coffee Shop at 113 N. Main St. from Janice and John Rathlef. Esping also was considering the purchase of Galloway’s now-successful Blacksmith Coffee Roastery, conveniently located across Main Street. Esping, now 20, said she and her family envisioned that combining a retail coffee shop with a wholesale roastery could be more than the sum of its parts. Yet she was not optimistic about locating them both under one roof. Then she talked with Galloway, Prugh, and Lindsborg’s historic renovation expert, Brian Freeman. Over several meetings, it became clear that both businesses could operate in one location — and that was exactly where Blacksmith Coffee Roastery was situated, using both the blacksmith building and the adjacent metal building. “The prospects were particularly fun to consider because I am descended from country blacksmiths and metalworkers on my dad’s side. In fact, we still had my great-great grandfather’s anvil in our barn,” says Esping. The historic restoration job was entrusted to Freeman and his 20-plus years of experience with resurrecting historic buildings in Colorado and Kansas. Freeman said he and his team's creativity and respect for historic architecture was “taxed to the max” over the next few months. “Almost everything was touched in the rehab,” Freeman recounted. "We rebuilt a good bit of one soft brick wall, which was very close to disintegrating into a pile of red dust. We worked through electrical and plumbing challenges to carve out a new kitchen and handicap-accessible bathrooms. Plus, we added a second floor to the metal building in back so that heavy bags of raw coffee beans could be hoisted on a lift and stored above the roasting room below.” Perhaps the most challenging problem was saving the blacksmith shop’s original uneven brick floor to make it level and walkable for customers as well as health code compatible. “After much research on new materials and old methods, we decided to pull up all the bricks, create a new base, and re-lay them,” he said. “In the end, it was intense and a huge puzzle — but it was necessary and we did it.” The building’s history still shines through modernity. Blacksmith Coffee Shop & Roastery is topped by solar panels. Inside, the base of a reconditioned Esping-family wagon was repurposed as the front counter. Dozens of Edison-style LED bulbs, dangling from the rafters, illuminate the entire coffee shop, yet consume a fraction of the electricity of standard bulbs. It is also powered by warm smiles, lively conversation and fresh roasted coffee six days a week from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Soon to come is a revised menu and at-your-table brewing techniques called “pour overs” that are part chemistry experiment, but always a delicious hot beverage. And, oh yes, the Esping family anvil presides over the whole transformation. Who would have thought it possible? |
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