Community Connections--Opportunity Knocks, Part 1

Opportunity is all around us, but we often fail to take advantage of it. I've had the opportunity to work with Frank Spano, a site consultant, for the last few days and to see Kennett as he would see us as a location for a new manufacturing or distribution facility. We'll go into more detail about how we can take advantage of Mr. Spano's visit, but before we can move forward we have got to let go of some of the past.

I keep hearing that somewhere out there are folks who do their best to keep jobs out of Kennett. They supposedly vote down, pay off, and/or work behind the scenes to keep competing businesses away. I wanted to share the minutes of some of the early Chamber meetings with you and I'd hope that you remember some of this the next time you hear anything along that line.

In 1947 a group of community leaders decided that Kennett needed a Chamber of Commerce so they formed one. The minutes of these early meetings document action taken to help with such projects as the Kennett Housing Corporation to build houses in the newly developed Baker Subdivision; to assist with procuring deeds for right-of-way on the "proposed" North By-Pass; to hire a consultant who would "promote the securing of an industry for Kennett"; to conduct a survey, then later build a hotel (now Cotton Boll Commons); to develop an industry-targeted pamphlet which Chamber members would include in all correspondence with out-of-town industries; to improve the school system; to improve the streets and the list goes on. The names in these minutes are Baker, Dalton, Duncan, Braswell, Ford, Farmer, Riggs, Shelton, Mills, Goodman, Freeman, McCaul, Bradley, Jones, Blakemore, Brown, Spence, Welman, Davidson, Johnson, Pickard, Oakes and McHaney. And that's just the first of the many records we have.

In these early years the Kennett Development Corporation was formed for the sole purpose of industrial recruitment and funded through the sales of shares of stock. These stockholders invested in a building and hammered on Emerson Electric's door until Emerson came to Kennett. Over the years KDC funded scholarships for Emerson employees who wanted to further their education and when Emerson closed, all remaining funds were given to SEMO-Kennett for scholarships. I could go on but there is no way to cover 60 years of documented dedication to this community in a small space.

Our consultant sees opportunity here and he also sees challenges. It is vital to our future that we overcome whatever issues or perceived issues we have. Thanks to all who have participated so far in the Ward meetings -- we've gotten some great feedback that we'll publish when all the Ward meetings are done. Stay tuned for more details from Mr. Spano's visit in Opportunity Knocks, Part 2.