Rotarian Kent Heermann, President of the Regional Development Association of East-Central Kansas, has been in Emporia at the RDA since July 1993. He explained about the history of the RDA, and the RDA's role in economic development in the Emporia area for many years. A city half-cent tax was voted in place in 1994 with a ten-year sunset for the purpose of land acquisition, land improvement, and the funding of the RDA to make our community more successful in recruiting new industry. Since then it has repeatedly been re-instituted by a wide margin. The results have been undeniably successful. In 1993 the average wage for production workers was $5.57-$5.74, and today it is $16.44. In 1950, Emporia population was 15,669. In 2010, it was $24,916. Twenty-three manufacturing plants have chosen to call Emporia home.
Retail recruitment has been more active since 2006 due to the economic downturn in our country. The result is a new Hobby Lobby that opened in August.
Kent provided some of the code names for potential plants that were looking for a new home:
Taho - Caterpillar
Sweetness - Mars Candy plant that located in Topeka (2013)
Sleeve - Chinese sausage casing company (2012)
J.T. - Menards that located in Lawrence (2015)
Block - Fertilizer plant
Jacob - Hill's Pet Nutrition that invested $200 million in Emporia and hires 200 workers (2007)
What are the challenges facing Emporia's future recruiting efforts?
Labor availability, especially for entry-level workers
Public transportation
Housing availability, especially for the high-end home
Our Rotary Club is a is the chartered organization for the outreach Pack for the kids in SummerScape, a camp program held during the summer at Camp EE.
At the end of July, the youth at the SummerScape Program came to the Girl Scout Camp Double E for day camp. About 80 boys and girls came to the day camp this year despite the heat. While it was hot, the kids stayed cool and had great camp fun! The day camp was put on for them by the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts. During the day, they sang songs, made solar ovens, planted seeds, and hiked in the trails. The Boy Scouts came to demonstrate how to make rope and tie knots. In the afternoon they stayed cool by playing water games.
The Boy Scouts were able to put on the Day Camp thanks to the Rotary Club of Emporia, who is the chartered organization for the outreach Pack for the kids in SummerScape.
Alex Mosakowski
District Executive
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Jayhawk Area Council - Sojadi District
Our Rotary Club donated $50 as a sponsor for the Cardboard Regatta, a scouting event for scouts in our area this summer. Below is a thank you note for our contribution and the success of the event for the kids.
Please let the Rotary Club know how much the Boy Scouts appreciate them for helping us put on the Cardboard Regatta. We had 50 people show up for the event on Friday, July 28 – Scouts, siblings, parents. We had 6 teams of cardboard boats ready to race and only one boat sank. The sun went down quickly in the evening, but that didn’t stop us! And afterwards the Scouts and their families got to enjoy the water park. It was a wonderful evening!
Alex Mosakowski
District Executive
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Jayhawk Area Council - Sojadi District
Funds collected from Happy Bucks during our July, August and September meetings go to the Emporia Community Foundation's Match Day activities. Contributions toward this have resulting in attracting growing contributions every year since Match Day started. Please contribute!
Getting kids outdoors experiencing nature is the goal of Phil Taunton. He says it gives them a different perspective in life. Phil gets involved in encouraging kids to have fun outdoors across the state of Kansas...from visiting schools to working with kids with disabilities at Communications Camp held at Camp Alexander.
Phil introduced Hannah Duncan, who is one of his award recipients. Hannah is an Emporia kid who is entering Kansas State University this fall to study chemical engineering with an environmental emphasis.
Rotary Club President Stuart Symmonds thanks Past-President Harvey Foyle for his year of service as President of our Rotary Club. We appreciate your service, Harvey!
Happy Bucks Donations last quarter to the Emporia Arts Council Children's Fund totaled $369, while the change added to the Polio Plus cups added up to $85. Thanks, everyone for your great support!
Newman Regional Health CEO and Rotarian Bob Wright introduced Harold Glitz, NRH Facilities Director, to explain the Emergency Department renovation. Based on the 2009 master plan for the hospital, the capacity of the new ER will be greatly increased to allow for a level of care that will be much easier to obtain. The new ER will contain a new clinical decision unit, all private rooms, and a waiting room that is more than two times larger than the current one.
Our Rotary Club recently helped to organize and install some Little Libraries in Emporia. Especially now that we are in the middle of summer, more children's books are needed to stock the libraries. At our next meeting, bring any children's books that can be used to help stock these lending libraries.
Our Rotary Club is a is the chartered organization for the outreach Pack for the kids in SummerScape, a camp program held during the summer at Camp EE. 
The Boy Scouts were able to put on the Day Camp thanks to the Rotary Club of Emporia, who is the chartered organization for the outreach Pack for the kids in SummerScape.
Getting kids outdoors experiencing nature is the goal of Phil Taunton. 
He says it gives them a different perspective in life. Phil gets involved in encouraging kids to have fun outdoors across the state of Kansas...from visiting schools to working with kids with disabilities at Communications Camp held at Camp Alexander.
Rotary Club President Stuart Symmonds thanks Past-President Harvey Foyle for his year of service as President of our Rotary Club. We appreciate your service, Harvey!.JPG)
Our Rotary Club recently helped to organize and install .JPG)
some Little Libraries in Emporia. Especially now that we are in the middle of summer, more children's books are needed to stock the libraries. At our next meeting, bring any children's books that can be used to help stock these lending libraries. 
