Investing in Downtown

The power of a few well placed dollars is beginning to show up in downtown. Several businesses are taking advantage of the grant/loan project to improve the look of downtown.

Citizens National Bank and the City of Concordia partnered earlier this year to improve the looks of downtown by fall fest (third week in September). The progress to date has been awesome!

The latest improvement has been Coppoc Sports with their new awning going up today.

Tom’s Music House awaits a porch to go above the store windows. There is new paint on the Thrift Shop and the second hand shop next door. Hart to Heart is getting new windows. After all the work is done, I will post the before and after pictures

All the new paint and window works is having a great impact on how we look to others.

There are several business owners that are still in process of improving their buildings.

Seeing what is happening makes you proud of your town, doesn’t it?

Changes at City Hall

Changes at City Hall

Don’t expect to see or hear about what happened at City Hall Tuesday morning.  Personnel changes are not discussed, period.

The changes you can expect to see is the manner in which citizens are treated by our staff.  Tuesday afternoon I told the front office staff what I expected when John and Jane came through the front door or called on the phone.

First, when we have a visitor, we can expect that City Hall Staff will recognize the visitor with “Hello, I am Larry. How may I help you?” They will extend their hand offering a hand shake.

When you call, you will get a greeting “good morning (or afternoon), City of Concordia, (we don’t say “City Hall” any more. What City Hall is this?)  This is Larry, How may I help you?”  I shared this concept at the Department Head staff meeting today too.  I expect all of us to respond in the same fashion in person and on the phone.

Two simple greetings intended to tell folks we are here to help.

City Hall is on loan to us by the community so that we can help them with things they need.  There are very capable people waiting to help and I am pleased how they are taking to the new steps.

Tuesday night, I read another Blog I enjoy, Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/).  The third article down, also posted Tuesday, was a piece describing customer service.  It seems that Mark Horstman and I were on the same frequency.  I recommend reading his material AND listening to his pod casts.

A positive attitude

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort!" ~ Herm Albright