Officials mark opening of industrial park road

Even though the new, concrete-surfaced road that runs through Holton’s industrial park has been open for about a month, Holton city officials and others involved with the industrial park are excited about the prospect of the road beckoning new industry into the park.

Four lots varying in size from 0.69 acres to 3.75 acres remain open at the park, and Holton City Manager Bret Bauer said city staff are in the process of putting together a plan to market and fill those four lots.

“The Holton City Commission has asked city staff to do research on marketing,” Bauer said following a Tuesday afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new road, which was completed in mid-November.

Members of the city commission were present for Tuesday’s ceremony, along with industrial park tenants and those involved with the construction of the new road. In the latter case, Bruce Rinkes, whose King and Associates Engineering firm of Holton drew the plan for the new road, expressed pride in the new road’s construction.

“It turned out to be a nice project,” Rinkes said of the road. “The quality of the work was excellent.”

The concrete road replaces a chip-and-seal surface road that had been heavily deteriorated in recent years by heavy truck traffic, city officials noted. The city commission sought proposals earlier this year to have the industrial park road rebuilt with concrete instead of asphalt, and King and Associates estimated that the job would cost $975,000.

However, bids for the road reconstruction project came in well below the estimate, with Kansas Heavy Construction of Topeka’s bid of $910,810.20 earning the company the job. Preliminary road work began in late summer and was finished in time for Thanksgiving, it was reported.

With the road finished, city commissioners and others are seeking out tenants for the four remaining lots in the industrial park. Industries have the opportunity to join other established businesses there, such as American Wholesale Co., Barrow Tooling Systems, Heartland Veterinary Clinic, Holton Livestock Express, Marketing Concepts, Morton Buildings and Wege’s Feed Service.

“Whatever the Chamber can do to help, we are here,” said Jennifer Shaw, a member of the Holton/Jackson County Chamber of Commerce board of directors. “We would love to attract new industry to our community.”

City commissioner Erich Campbell also noted that the city has had an economic development incentive policy in place since 2013 designed to “help bring businesses in that won’t compete with any businesses that are already existing in the community.”

According to the city’s economic development incentives policy, a business must be engaged in one or more of the following activities in order to qualify for public incentives: manufacturing, service sector, research and development, warehousing and distribution, corporate headquarters, transportation, commercial redevelopment, tourism, housing and medical services.

The policy also states that incentives should not be granted if doing so would create “an unfair advantage for one business over another competing business within the City,” and that such incentives must make a difference in that a business’ establishment or expansion within the city would not have otherwise been established or expanded if not for the policy’s availability.

Furthermore, city officials have stated that any prospective new business looking to relocate may purchase more than one of the four vacant lots in the industrial park. Holton City Hall may be contacted at 364-2721 for more information, and a copy of the economic development incentives policy is available at the city’s Web site — www.holtonkansas.org — by clicking on “Business,” then clicking on “Economic Development.”

For now, however, people who work at the industrial park are happy that the city commission kept a promise to business owners there that the city would rebuild that road.

“It’s a great addition to the community,” Rinkes said.