Ps2e4
The Sov.tr
November 1984
Grand Island: Thir
d City
Y4ien you're Number 3, you have to try
harder. Grand Island residents face the
same problem as other city dwellers, but
in some ways Nebraslca's Third City is a
city like no other especially in the eyes
of her citizens.
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Andrea HoyThe Sower
Above: Grand Island mayor Bill
Wright says Number three does
try harder at least his town
does. An aerial photo of Grand
Island dominates bis downtown
office. Left: Shoppers do a little
window gazing at the Conestoga
Mall in Grand Island. The mail is
one of the most successful in the
Midwest in attracting out-of-town
business.
There's not much traffic on the Tom Osborne Express
way at 7:30 a.m. A few trucks roll by a little white country
church glistening in the early morning light. A handful of
drivers glance at billboards that clutter both sides of the
highway signs trying to entice travelers to stop and
shop at Grand Island.
Nebraska's "Third City."
More than 78 percent of Nebraska's people live in the
eastern third of the state where Omaha, the largest city,
and Lincoln, the second largest, are located. Omaha's
population is about 314,000; Lincoln, 172,000.
Grand Islanders number 34,000.
It's not surprising, then, that Grand Island is Number 3
on a lot of lists: business, churches, schools.
So the "Third City" nickname has stuck with Grand
Island. But many community leaders seem to think that
being third isn't so bad because Number 3 tries harder.
"It's more of a label, than it is a matter of pride," said Al
Schmahl, Grand Island Daily Independent editor.
Grand Island has developed a personality of its own
inducting its economic makeup.
The Third City is more highly dependent on agriculture
for its size than any other city in the state, said Dick Good,
president of the Grand Island Industrial Foundation Inc.
Grand Island's top three industries are all agriculture
related. Monfort, a beef-packing plant, employs more than
1 ,300 people. Sperry New Holland employs 700 workers to
manufacture farm equipment. Chief Industries, which
makes grain bins, steel buildings and factory-built homes,
employs about 550 people.
But because the agricultural economy is suffering,
Grand Island must diversify its economic base, Good said.
The Third City is trying to attract and build businesses that
export products and import dollars.
"We need to be sure our balance of trade is balanced,"
Good said.
One example of this diversification is Bankers Life of
Des Moines. The insurance company's new Grand Island
office services accounts nationwide.
The city also has put more emphasis on light and heavy
industries. In the last decade, Grand Island has increased
its manufacturing employment from 10 percent to 20
percent of the total employment.
Good said tourism is another opportunity for economic
growth. The city is trying to bring dollars into the
community through conventions, parimutuel horse racing
at Fonner Park and the Stuhr Museum.
But one of the biggest "conventions" draws from Grand
Island's agricultural base.
Husker Harvest Days attracts farmers annually from
across the state to see the latest in farm techniques and
equipment. In 1973, the Chamber of Commerce agriculture
committee saw a need for working demonstrations of
farm innovations, Good said. It took five years to organize
the event before the first Husker Harvest Days in 1978.
This year marked the seventh such show.
The pervasive importance of the farm economy to
Grand Island's business community was shown in an eight
state study conducted by the Upper Midwest Council of
Minneapolis, Minn.
The Council conducted a study in June 1982 on Mid
western cities' abilities to attract shoppers from beyond
the city limits. Grand Island attracted more shoppers from
outside the city than any other city of comparable size in
the eight-state area, including other cities in Nebraska,
Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota,
Wisconsin and upper Michigan.
While Grand Island always has been a strong trade area,
Good said, the Conestoga and Grand Island shopping malls
give the city a "much more complete retail community."
He said people don't have to drive to Omaha and Lincoln to
do non-essential shopping.
But no matter how hard the Third City tries, effort can't
compensate for a flagging economy. When people don't
have the money to spend, they won't drive anywhere to
spend it.
Tom Corkle, president of Northwest National Bank in
Grand Island, said he thinks the city is feeling the effects of
both the 1980 recession and the current farm recession.
Corkle said extensive damage resulting from the June
1980 tornadoes brought a lot of insurance money into the
city. While other cities in the state suffered, Grand Island
boasted a building boom. But many buildings were
"overbuilt," adding a debt to businesses where none had
been before. And business slowed down.
Today, Corkle said, those buildings probably would sell
for only 85 percent of what they cost to build two years
ago. The owners can't afford to sell them.
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It's more of a label, than
it is a matter of pride.
Al Schmahl
But Corkle said Grand Island s biggest economic
problems are tied to the poor farm economy. The banker
said inflation, falling land prices and high interest rates
have forced some farmers to partially in some cases,
totally liquidate. Because of problem loans, Corkle said
he suspects more agriculturally based banks will fail.
Several bank mergers already have taken place, he said.
Some bank loan policies create further economic
problems for the Third City. Corkle said four major banks
in the city can legally take money from inside the
community and loan it to businesses outside the community
in Omaha, California and Texas. That practice takes
money away from the community and drives up the local
interest rates. If those funds weren't removed, he said,
local borrowers could pay less interest
"Grand Island has become a real capital deficit
community," Corkle said.
Grand Island mayor Bill Wright sees trouble ahead for
Grand Island, mostly based on the worsening farm
economy.
But Wright said he thinks the Third City will survive.
"We've had our share of problems," he said. "Fortun
ately, they haven't been the kind of problems that we
couldn't deal with, and live with, and learn to work our way
out of."
Wright pointed to the 1980 tornadoes to prove his point.
In one night, at least seven wracked Grand Island. For a few
hours, Wright said, everyone was in shock. Then residents
started cleaning up, patching holes in roofs with plastic and
putting their city back together.
"Whatever it is that people in the city of Grand Island
seem to have, they have a great deal of it," he said.
The Third City now faces a nitrate problem in the water
table beneath the northwest section of the city. The
problem became evident early this spring when heavy rains
raised the table level and flooded some basements in the
area.
The water is contaminated with RDX, a derivative of
nitroglycerin. The cancer-causing substance has been
working its way through the groundwater system toward
Grand Island from a U.S. Army ammunition plant outside
city limits. The Army dumped the substance at the plant
site during World War II and the Korean War. The Army has
agreed to pay about $5.12 million to correct the situation.
Wright said about seven to nine million gallons of
contaminated water will have to be removed. The water is
being piped to Silver Creek about three miles northwest of
the city. Wright said the city will have to pump water day
and night for 18 months to get rid of the contaminated
water.
"But once that's done, we have no insurance that in
seven years to 14 years it won't be back again, and may
have to be pumped out again," he said. "There are a lot of
unanswered questions."
But the spirits of the three-time All-American City
residents remain high. Mayor Wright said Grand Island is a
"dynamic, happy place to live."
Wright is a business law and math instructor at Central
Community College near Hastings. He moved to Grand
Island from Kansas City, Mo., in 1956. He said the people
in Kansas City were friendly, too.
But there is one major difference between his old
neighbors and Grand Islanders.
"I never really did know anything about those people,"
Wright said. "I just spent a little bit of time with them
during the day and I never really did know il they maybe
were married, or had children, or cared a little bit about
anybody else in the world. Somehow I don't feel that way
in Grand Island.
"Once tbey accept you as a part of the community, they
support you and they care," he said "They really do care."
Sazssce Tetea
