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After a “perfect day” in his hometown
Celebrating the transformation of Shenandoah by CHUCK OFFENBURGER It’s always great to come home. And it’s especially good doing so now if you’re hometown happens to be Shenandoah. My wife Carla Offenburger and I were back in town August 11-12, primarily to take part in the fun around the 85th birthday party of KMA radio. The party was a great time, and rest of our visit turned into what I can only say is the perfect day in Shenandoah – stay overnight in the new Shenandoah Inn & Suites, get a piece of Mary Peterson’s lemon coconut pie at The Sanctuary and drink a chocolate malt at the soda fountain at George Jay Drug Co.
The hotel is the envy of economic development officials all over the Midwest. Most of them were shocked a couple years ago when Gregg Connell, executive director of the Shenandoah Chamber & Industry Association, started telling them that the City of Shenandoah, SCIA and other entities were talking with developers about building a new hotel in the heart of the business district. They saw it as an opportunity to 1) fill the need for nice hotel rooms in the community, 2) find a way to replace two downtown buildings lost in the fire that destroyed the former location of the Valley News Today, and 3) addressing the problem of other badly deteriorating downtown buildings in the block just east of where the fire occurred. But, many skeptics said, what town with population under 7,000 has built a new downtown hotel in the last 20 years? Who would take such a gamble? “We were a little reluctant at first, too,” said Percilla Lattin, who became a partner in the development with her husband Paul. “We’d never built downtown before in a small town, and nobody else had that we knew of, either. But the more we studied the situation in Shenandoah, the more sense it made to us. I think now it’s wound up being a win-win situation for all of us.” So, it’s going well after about four months of operating? “We’re doing good, actually great,” Percilla said. “Weekends have been fantastic for us, and the weekdays are building all the time.” The Lattins are Nebraska natives who now live on an acreage south of Farragut. They previously developed two other motels, both of them operating as America’s Best Value Inns, one of them at the interchange of Interstate Highway 29 and Iowa Highway 2 between Nebraska City and Percival, and the other in Percilla’s hometown of Broken Bow, Nebraska. Carla and I will tell you, based on our experience staying at the Shenandoah Inn & Suites, that this 42-room, $2.2-million hotel project is a perfect fit for what the community needs. It is not overbuilt and thus too expensive. It is nicely-decorated, very clean and in the location every alumnus of Shenandoah will want to stay – right downtown.
We rolled into town about 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night, parked in the nicely-landscaped lot that is now accented with the dome from the cupola of the building that once held Leacox Corner Drug and, get this – we never used our car again until we were leaving Shenandoah at the end of our activities on Thursday. That’s because we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go – KMA, the Depot Deli, The Sanctuary, several other mainstreet businesses and the Dennis Lloyd Memorial Park taking shape where the old Evening Sentinel was once located. Carla reports that “between me and our friends Joyce and Allen Hall, from Malvern, we spent $300 shopping in downtown Shenandoah.” At the continental breakfast Thursday morning at the hotel, we struck up a conversation with another couple, Gale and Lorrie Zellweger, of Scranton, which is only 15 miles away from where we live in Greene County. The Zellwegers told us they’d checked in at the hotel Wednesday afternoon while passing through the area on a leisurely trip. “We’d heard from some friends about the new hotel downtown, so we decided to give it a try,” Lorrie Zellweger said. “We wound up walking all over the downtown area, too, ate at two restaurants, went shopping and had a great time. The heck of it is that normally if we’re stopping overnight in a community, we’ll just check into a motel out on the highway on the edge of town – and we won’t experience anything else in the town except that one little part of it. Because we were staying right downtown in Shenandoah, we feel like we really got a good feel for what the town is like. We’ll be back.” The hotel fits so well that you find yourself thinking it surely must have been planned 10 years ago as the centerpiece for Shenandoah’s fantastic downtown streetscape project. With the garden beauty, art, history and community information built into that streetscape, it really is one of the nicest anywhere. There was a lot of planning in it, but there was also a lot of serendipity. Who could have imagined that a disastrous fire could wind up having a positive impact on the heart of a small town’s business district? Leadership, investment, vision and boldness have really made it all happen in my hometown. I’m intensely proud of Shenandoah. I believe that Earl May, founder of both KMA radio and the seed & nursery business that still carries his name, and his friendly competitor Henry Field, founder of KFNF radio and his own nursery, gave all of us in KMAland a unique and enduring heritage. |
| Want to be in touch with Chuck Offenburger? He’ll be glad to hear from you, and e-mail is the best way, chuck@offenburger.com. |
| Friday Aug. 20th, 2010 |
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You said it!
Comments, reactions & ideas from you readers. Rosalie Downing’s crucial vote & other observations from KMA’s 85th birthday Thoughts left over from last week’s fabulous 85th birthday party of KMA radio.
As you’ve read and heard in the days since the party, it was a tremendous event – one of the neatest days in Shenandoah history, I’d say. I could tell that Ed May and his sister Karen May Sislo, of the family owners of the station, were personally moved by the response from the public and from their employees. I felt there was a real, almost spiritual connection being made back to the 1920s and ’30s when their grandfather Earl May and his rival Henry Field founded their radio stations and hosted the early Harvest Jubilees, which sometimes went on for a week, drawing as many as 75,000 people to Shenandoah. I’d estimate that this one-day 85th birthday party was probably attended by a few thousand. It was a big enough crowd that I didn’t get to talk to a lot of people I saw there but never could corral for a conversation. The KMA staff all worked hard at hosting the party – and doing so with unfailing enthusiasm and hospitality. A key organizer was Nick Wetzel, who bounced around doing dozens of jobs, but still taking time to do interviews during the broadcast of the “Elephant Shop” buy, sell & trade show. It was hilarious hearing him work the crowd and drawing great stories out of them.
But suddenly during the noon hour, I was also summoned over to be one of the “cake divers.” KMA had hired Hy-Vee to bake and frost this 85-foot-long sheet cake. Each foot of the cake had a numbered poker chip in it. Those who won chances (or were assigned) to be cake divers, had to hold their hands behind their backs, and then eat their way to those poker chips, using only their faces and heads. The poker chip could be turned in for nice prizes.
Incidentally, one good lesson to remember for the next time you’re asked to be a cake diver. When you’ve pressed your face into that sweet, creamy frosting and the actual cake, do not try to breathe through your nose!
– Chuck Offenburger Thanks for your care about our cancer battles Some of you are aware that my wife Carla and I are both fighting cancer. It’s become kind of a tag-team thing for us – first one of us dealing with cancer issues, then the other, then the other. It’s rough, and sometimes scarey, but we have deep faith and a great support network around us. You can get the latest on us by clicking here. We try to update every other week, or so. We do appreciate the thoughts and prayers of all of you who’ve been so generous with them. Comments from you readers Ken Carlsen, Colorado Springs, member of Shenandoah High School Class of 1958: “Many thanks for these newsletters. What wonderful memories they convey!” Ruth Benjamin, Shenandoah: “Thank you for your greetings to me on your KMA program this morning (August 13). I enjoyed your part of the coverage yesterday of the KMA birthday party, as well as your program this morning. I always listen whenever possible, keeping up on your activities and hoping for a little family news. I hope your health problems, as well as Carla’s, continue to improve.” |
