Workforce development and retention will be a key area for City leaders as they work toward a marketing plan for Junction City/Geary County.

Mickey Fornaro-Dean, Economic Development Director, said that spreading the word about what Junction City has to offer to areas beyond the local region is important.

“We need to be creative about where we look – besides locally – where we pull potential workforce people from, and that flows into the marketing plan – where do we market to get potential workforce,” said Dean. “We do not have the lowest unemployment rate in the state, but its low; workforce is a issue in the entire state of Kansas, so through our marketing, through our relationships with workforce development groups we need to be smarter about how we tell our story about our companies [and] about our community.”

Dennis Beson, Chamber of Commerce CEO, reported that between ACT, Footlocker and Smithfield Foods, there are approximately 500 jobs that need to be filled.

Dean said that she’s met with the three companies and is working with them and other businesses in the community to tackle the workforce issue. “I think we have a pretty skilled workforce, what we need to do is do more about getting the word out about our companies – that they’re good companies, [and] what type of work they have to offer.”

During an Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting, committee members expressed that in addition to bringing people to work in the community, they need to live in the community.

Pat Landes, City Commissioner, said that [we] have to do a better job of telling people what Junction City has to offer, specifically addressing the large quantity of available land bank lots.

“People from [here] know where the lots are, but we need to market those lots to everybody beyond Junction City’s borders, and we haven’t done a good job in setting up a website or any links to go look at lots; I think that there’s little tweaks that we need to make in the whole program regarding maybe price, what to do about the specials [and] what we can do to make Junction City more attractive,” said Landes.

Landes argued that the approach that the EDC Director (Dean) is using to “market Junction City” should include land bank – Dean agreed.

“I think Junction City/Geary County has incredible potential, there’s just assets here that I think are really positive; it’s just an issue of doing our marketing plan, looking at our websites, making sure we’re all working together – the comment about the housing lots came up, [and I think that] we need to have a clearinghouse so that if you’re looking for a house you know where to go to see that all those lots are available,” said Dean.

Dean said that the first step in economic development is building a foundation to take the community to the next level.

“I want to get Junction City/Geary County on the map,” said Dean.