Pictures From the 2011 Great Snowball Drop!

It is estimated that about 250 people showed up at the first ever Snowball Drop! 

One lucky attendee grabbed a handful!

From the top of this firetruck ladder fell the 450 snowballs all with prizes and discounts on them.

Hundreds of people quickly gathered the snowballs as they fell to the ground.

They found their snowball!

1st Ever Snowball Drop HUGE Success!

Last night as the sun was setting, people began trickling into the lawn of the Main Street Depot.  As the time went by, more and more arrived.  Not knowing what they were really there for, curiosity got the best of them.  Advertised as the Great Snowball Drop, all they were told was that hundreds of snowballs would fall from the sky and each would have prizes on them.  At 5:45 p.m. a couple hundred people still milling about spotted two big firetrucks which parked on the grounds.  "Ahhhhh, maybe this is how they are going to fall" a woman said to her child as they say the ladder go high into the air.  From the very top of the ladder, we were honored to have our brave fireman drop hundreds of "snowballs" onto the crowd.  These snowballs were of the ping-pong ball kind. 

This was the first time that this event has been attempted in this manner in El Dorado.  We were so excited to see how many people showed up.  We have great plans to make it even bigger next year with a few Grand Prize snowballs.  Thank you to all of the businesses who participated and the El Dorado Fire Dept for allowing it to happen. 

Pictures to come!

Downtown in the Christmas Spirit!

Last week was the annual downtown Christmas Parade.  With the famous reindeer jeeps (famous in El Dorado, anyways) and floats from local business and of course Santa finishing off the night.  Even in the cold and blustery weather, hundreds gathered to see the parade and then visit with Santa afterwards. 

We want to thank everyone who came out to see the parade and all of those who participated and volunteered for the event.  Many El Dorado "lifers" remember the Christmas parade when we were children.  In the 70's-90's the parade ended at the Butler County Court House where Santa would then climb to the tops of the steps and hand out candy canes to all of the children.  In my memories of that event, it was always freezing cold and many times was snowing, but we went every year.  We hope that by continuing the downtown Christmas parade, we are creating these memories for our children for many years to come. 

Study Shows El Dorado has a Strong Pull Factor (originally posted 11/29/11)

Recently a STUDY determined the pull factors for 60 Kansas communities.  These communities were chosen based on the amount of retail sales within the city.  These 60 cities account for 78% of all retail sales in the state and are home to 63.5% of the state's population.   They were split into 4 different categories based on numerous factors including size and the % of sales tax generated for their county from the community.  El Dorado was categorized as Group B, which was a community over the size of 10,000 people but not a first-class community.  A first class community is described as a larger and more dominant city in their respective counties.  Most of these were located in the eastern half of the state.
A pull factor is used to measure a community's strength of the retail business.  It is computed by dividing the per capita  sales tax of a city  by the statewide  per capita sales tax.  A pull factor of 1.00 is a perfect balance  of trade.  The purchases of the residents of the community outside of the city are offset by the purchases in the city by residents of another community.  Pull factors with a value greater than 1.00  indicate that a city is pulling in trade from beyond their home city border.  This is a very favorable situation for the city.  If the pull factor is less than 1.00, this indicates that there is more spending outside of the city by the residents that is not balanced by shoppers from other communities in the city.  CLEAR AS MUD?!  Long story short...if the value is over 1.00 it is good.  If it is below 1.00 that is bad.
El Dorado was given a pull factor of 1.23 for the year 2010.  This was the 5th highest rank in our category and if we combine our category with the first class communities we would rank 16th out of 37.  The report also gave a 5-year history which shows that El Dorado has remained relatively stable since 2006 where our factor was 1.21 and we ranked 6th.
Andover was also included in our category ranking at number 10 with a factor of 1.01.  This was the only other community in Butler County that was included in the study.  It is interesting to note that Wichita has a pull factor of 1.179, which is lower than El Dorado's.
I often am asked how the strength of retail is in El Dorado.  This report shows that it is strong and with encouraging our residents to shop locally while also inviting our neighboring communities to shop here, we can continue to increase this number.  If you would like to see the entire report CLICK HERE

New Construction in Downtown Vacant Lot

We have been hearing it for years from community members, EMS volunteers, and downtown building owners, "When is someone going to do something with the burnout vacant lots?"  I finally have an answer!!  Someone is doing something NOW!  While El Dorado Main Street Board of Directors have known about the impending plans for this lot for about a year, we have been careful not to jinx it by shouting it from the rooftops.  Owner of the lot, Mark McCollom with McCollom Construction, has a vision for this space and if not for Kansas Secured Title deciding to relocate and grow, this may not be happening.
Building a new building in an old downtown is not as easy as you might think.  In order for the building to look like it belongs downtown, the materials to build are more expensive.  Part of the reason might be the different way of thinking by builders today compared to the early 1900's; which is when most of our downtown buildings were built.  Back then, it was important to build the best building that they could possibly afford.  Many times, our early community developers would try to out-do their neighbors by building a better, fancier, and more impressive building than the one before.  In today's economy and way-of-life, developers often try to build a building for the least amount of cost as possible.  Many times this means using lesser quality materials than were used in the early 1900's.  For this reason, buildings do not last as long as they used to.  So now we have a new building going into an old downtown, and we are very glad that a downtown champion and previous downtown investor is the one who will be taking on this task.  Mr. McCollom has an impressive track record with building rehabilitations in Augusta and El Dorado.  He has even won Kansas Main Street design awards for some of his work in Augusta.  We feel confident that he will do his very best to build this new building in a way that it is complimentary to the downtown area.

Work Begins on Downtown Building -HOPE VI Recipient (orginally posted (11/4/11)

You may have noticed the large dumpster taking a parking space on Central Street this week.  While we know that this may be an inconvenience, this is very exciting to see!  The owners of the Ellet Opera House on west Central are preparing their building for the major construction that will soon begin.  This will revitalize this building and bring it back to life in downtown El Dorado!  For pictures of the inside of this building and the other HOPE VI award recipient, go to the "pictures" area of the El Dorado Main Street website and click HOPE VI.

For Him it Makes All the Difference (orginally posted 11/3/11)

The other day I was talking to a friend, (who does not know that I will now be writing about the conversation).  He was telling me how his family had to buy a new clothes dryer over the weekend.  While he started talking about why he needed a new one, he then told me the experience that he had in purchasing it.  They bought their new dryer at Young's Appliance in downtown El Dorado.  He explained how much he likes doing business with them because of the service that they provide.  As his dryer was being installed, the business owner, Dennis Young noticed that the existing connector pipes (it has a more accurate name) which were in his home have a history of being a fire hazard.  He promptly went back to the store and brought back safer connections for him and replaced them.  My friend explained that maybe he spent a little more for the dryer by purchasing it here in El Dorado instead of price-shopping the big discount stores in Wichita.  Even so, if something goes wrong with his dryer, he knows that Young's Appliance is only a phone call and a couple miles away and that they will promptly service it.  He has a relationship with this local business and trusts them.  He does not have that with the discount stores in Wichita and for him, that makes all the difference.

Another Successful EMS Event! (originally posted 11/2/11)

Such a great turn-out for the now El Dorado Main Street event, Trick-or-Treat Down the Street.  Two months ago when EMS volunteers learned that this tradition may be ending in El Dorado, they stepped up and decided that we would take it on and continue it.  In addition to this event, fall/winter months for our volunteers are already busy.  With the Frontier Western Celebration wrapping up, three Christmas events in December, First Fridays every month, and an annual breakfast in November; we were concerned about the ability to add another event to plan.  We quickly realized that this activitiy almost plans itself.  Because so many businesses love this downtown event, they take all of the work off of us.  The community has come to expect it as well and show up even though very little advertising was done for it.

We estimate that over 2,000 people attended the 2011 Trick or Treat Down the Street.  One great contributing factor was the beautiful weather that we had.  Families were able to take their time and stroll downtown and enjoy their surroundings while the children participated in games, contests, and received candy.  El Dorado Main Street wants to thank all of the businesses who contributed to the event this year.  Thank you for your patience with us as we learned how this event comes together.  We have some great ideas for next year and we hope to make it an even better event!
El Dorado Main Street is dedicated to the success of the downtown businesses.  We feel that this activity brings much exposure to the area.  By bringing children and families into the downtown for various reasons, it will become an area that they will eventually find more reasons to visit/shop/dine.  As a segment of our mission statement says, we strive to  "...foster a center of activity for both business and recreation..."   The El Dorado Main Street Board of Directors and volunteers feel that Trick or Treat Down the Street is very much in the scope of our mission.