Hey everyone, I'm Sheila Jenkinson and you're listening to the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast where my co host Marcie Sextro. And I asked community leaders and business owners about their efforts in revitalizing the Cornhusker State. If you love your small town and you're looking for ways to make it even better, or you're interested in what this revitalization movement may mean for you and your family, join us as we talk with small town Nebraskans making our state the definition of "The Good LIfe."
Hello, everyone. I'm Marcie Sextro. We are coming to you from the Intersect Co-working and Incubator podcast booth in downtown Norfolk. Where every Wednesday at 9am you can have a cup of coffee and hear from local and state entrepreneurs at their 1 million cups gathering. The Intersect Coworking space is located at 509 West North Oak Avenue. And it's a wonderful place to have a meeting, drop into work when you're on the road, or have your permanent office space. You can find out more by visiting their website at intersectcoworking.com.
Hey everybody, we are back at the intersect coworking podcast booth. Hey, Marcie. So tell me a little bit about what you did over the weekend.
Well I'm working on a project in Battle Creek it's their 150th anniversary is coming up in August. So I'm on a committee where we are redoing the Heritage Park there. We cleaned out a museum, things that we put into storage because we're going to have to raise the building. And we're going to be painting, we picked colors for paint. And we're working on all types of fundraising projects. So lots of things going on with that right now.
That sounds exciting.
And what have you been up to?
I was actually cast in the Northbrook Community Theater production of basement church ladies. It's a musical. Fine. Yeah, I was cast as Vivian Smoothstead and it's going to be hilarious.
I can't wait to see it.
Yeah, so the musical but it's very funny. And we're a small cast, having a great time with rehearsals there. And that is going to be the first two weekends in December.
Well, that sounds great. We can't wait to hear more about it.
All right. Thank you. Well, I'll be anxious to share more about that. Meanwhile, we should probably get to our guest today.
Sounds good. Today we have two business owners from Stanton, who are part of a revitalization committee, Andrew Hohne and Tim Larson. Welcome guys to the podcast.
How are we doing?
Glad to have you here today. Okay, so I am also from Stanton. So I already know, I Well, I know you, you know.
Yeah.
Small Town, small town.
Oh, of course.
But other people may not. So we're going to have you introduce yourself a little bit and tell people a little bit about you and what you do in the community, just personal wise, business wise. And Andrew, we'll start with you.
Andrew Hoehne. Um, I'm from Stanton, grew up on a farm north of town. I've been in Stanton my whole life. We kind of moved to Omaha for about 15 years there, right, right after high school, but I own the Greenhorn bar, basically dead center town. So we kind of got that and started fixing that up and get ready.
Yeah, big changes with that, too.
It looks a lot different. It didn't it didn't have a window in the building before we bought it. And now it has twelve of them and so we kind of opened it up and change change. Look. I mean, it's the middle of town. So you want it to pop when you pull into town.
And it does. Looks great. So and then Tim you?
So yeah, Tim Larsen. I lived in Stanton for I think about 18 years now. I grew up on a farm south but actually went to Leigh. We were kinda in the middle area, but I own Teeco water services. And then my family owns the hardware store in town too which they let me work there for free. So it's real, real generous. But yeah, so we're very integrated in the community, really like small town.
Yeah. So these two besides what they're doing in their efforts overall, have helped revitalization in Stanton, just with their own businesses.
Tell us a little bit about the projects that you've been doing in your community and how you got that started
I think it started 2019 when the flood came through and knocked our bridge out. There was Lowell Schroeder, he called a meeting for the business owners in town and for the community, just to see how they could pull together because it taken that bridge out really took a toll on the amount of traffic coming through town. At that point, Trent Hickman, who was the the previous owner of the Greenhorn, he is from Creighton originally and he was looking at a lot of the small projects going around throughout the other towns and he says "Lowell, why don't we have that and then Lowell says "Well because nobody asked." Now Lowell worked at Northeast Nebraska economic development and then he he kind of got the ball rolling on all of it,
And then kind of when, right right about when COVID hit before that Trent decided you know, they ran the bar for 10 years that was kind of their goal him and a classmate and then I bought it and it was it was a $500,000 grant. It took a bit to kind of convince everybody that this is a good thing, you know, it takes a bit,
Right/
to convince people you spend a little bit to gain a lot.
Right? And so how did you guys start that process?
So originally, we we got lucky. There was I think there was some surveys had to be completed. When the flood hit the the UNL extension in Stanton actually got grant funds to get a summer intern, and was great because for for somebody to take the legwork and do the tedious, you know, walking around collecting this doing that. We, we had an intern for free all summer, and she did a lot of that stuff for us. There was a lot of data collection, they had to, you know, figure out income levels, and I don't know that it really mattered, just that we had to know. But that's kind of where it all began.
And then you kind of after that, once we kind of devise a plan on Hey, this is how much we're gonna go for. And for storefronts and this and that, then we went, you know, Tim knows some of the business owners in town better than I do. We went, you know, and Michael Eberly was on it, too. And we could go one on one to you know, that the grocery store owner, the the owner would go Okay, explain this is what we're doing. You know, so every business owner heard from one of us, this is exactly what we're doing. And that that was a big part of everybody getting on board and saying okay with it.
And what did it mean for your small businesses, then were you able to offer them funding to help with different things?
So yeah. The essentially it came through and it was, so Well, there was a committee setup, which me and Andrew were on, and we figured out Okay, once we found out we were awarded, I think it was 435,000. Then we could go through and see what the community wanted to do with their buildings. If it was a roof replacement, if it was windows, if it was paint. From that point, then we took all the applications and kind of did the figuring so if it was a roof we were you would pay for half and they would match half. I think for facade it ended up paying 75 percent?
It was like 23 point
Yeah, it was gonna have some you had to come out exact.
It was some oddball percent. 23.78 percent or something
Yeah,
yep, like that.
So so basically
all you had to be put in as a business owner.
Yeah,
Yeah, it's split it up pretty good. The biggest thing we wanted to do was make the town uniform. You know everything looks the same. You know, that you know, the REA in town helped out we have we used to have the orange lights downtown looked orange every night and now they're all white LEDs and then we have you know, the sidewalks were big in getting fixed around town, the windows matching storefronts are painted everything when you pull into town you if you if you've driven through there before you notice a difference you know us there every day we're now very much used to it. You know, like when we had alumni in last April, not even we there's a lot more done since that point but people who weren't in town since probably last alumni notice Hey, that the hardware store. Honestly the hardware store is the probably the biggest change in building in our town in just the way it looks so
That and the Uptown town building and building
the Hungries building on the corner
cleaned up nice
changing that
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One of the things that I noticed besides just the businesses and the buildings and everything that's happening is the sense of community has also changed along with this revitalization. There are community events that are happening that I know the two of you and other business owners and community members have really jumped into I mean, would you agree with that?
Yeah, wekind of did a spin off of our group that set this off. We have a downtown group too now that we do Yeah, like it all started like kind of with COVID I got they couldn't have the Easter egg hunt you know at the nursing home and like when I my kid love like my daughter is even the same age as your daughter 10 years ago that when we came back from for alumni that was the signature thing was the Easter egg hunt. Well we have to have it. So we all got together and we had it at the fairgrounds. And it was like, Oh, this is cool. We should do more. And then we did tricker trunks and then that was your Yeah, trick or trunk.
That was the craziest thing
Yeah his mom is, yeah, she comes up with the ideas and then we figure it out how to do
The trunk or treating. I think that was a we should do this. It's gonna be this day from this time to this time he ran an ad in the paper. We would have never guessed we must have had 250 kids show up.
We bought about every bag of candy in town.
Yeah, there was no candly left.
I remember hearing that.
Yeah.
And then like with us, Robbie, Robbie Johnson's partner at the bar, his daughter, Kelsey, she's very good at doing events too. And then we did. We've done pool parties we've done you name it. I mean,
Parade of Lights,
Parade of lights, and the only time it snowed all winter.
I thought my mom was going crazy when she's like, we're gonna put lights on cars and drive around town. And we had 20 Some vehicles show up.
It was 30. It was 32 cars
Was it 30? Oh man
It was the only time it snowed. We're pushing, pushing cars up the hill. And I was going from spot to spot the push cars. And it was
That is awesome. And that's really what it's about with the revitalization is being able to make your community more fun to live in, and everybody coming together. So what great opportunity
Well and like some of these buildings, if you can fix one part of it. Like, like the Hungary's building, for example, a younger couple is now on a very energetic young couple that's deep roots in our town. Well, now that they they're taking it over, if you wouldn't, they would have had to do everything. If they would have had to fix the facade on the outside and gut the entire inside there financially, there's no way they would have been able to do that. With the grants, you can take one part of your building and fix it. So you have opportunity to get enough funding to go to a bank and redo the other half. I mean, it helps one step of it. So
Absolutely. Now, another project that you guys worked on was the library. Tell us a little bit about that
They're doing because they're doing a lot of handicap and that so we don't we haven't done too much with it. And when we approved it, and then
Tammy Barths kind of spearheaded that she Yeah, and she has I know she had to really get her ducks in a row to get that going. She had to get grant money for one thing, she had to go apply for other grants and do fundraisers. And but yeah, they they finally kicked that off and should be
It will look good. because that that's was an actual historic building. And that was kind of a little bit different. You know, it took a lot more to
Anytime you want to cut holes in an historic building, people start throwing flags up there
or bolt something to it.
Yeah, it's kind of it's been quite the process. And I have a little insight because my husband's actually the contractor.
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's something that needed to be done will be done. I mean, it's small steps, you know, five years, five, six years ago, we didn't have any growth. I mean, the town looks completely, I mean, even like events and the fairgrounds and that I mean, our whole community is growing is, you know, everybody's excited. And that next generation is, you know, it's a it sounds funny, but those little things like the, you know, the trick or treating and the Christmas parade and the Easter egg hunt, knowing people can do that, you know, you know, saying, hey, let's do it and just doing it. That builds confidence for other people to do that.
Yeah. Well, it'sso important just to be able to keep your young people interested in the community and wanting to live there once they graduate, which is a wonderful thing. So what is your upcoming events? Tell us what's coming up in your town. Next.
We'll do the Easter Egg hunt again, we'll do alumni, we do cornhole tournament We do. I mean,
that's awesome.
If we think it's something we'll try to do it. It's kind of the I mean, I don't know. That's, that's the one nice part about like, the business I own the bar. And, I mean, if someone comes up with a good idea, I normally don't say no, I mean, we now have golf. You know, like when the Par and bar and golf outings we have that we're talking about doing a hole in one. I mean, we haven't had a hole in one in Stanton for probably 20 years. So doing doing fun stuff like that is kind of more the more people that go through your town, the better at it doesn't matter if they're just watch a volleyball game or that perception is everything. You know, if your town looks clean, you know, it looks inviting, you know,
I don't know how many times recently, you know, my kids are out of school. Now I'm not making near as many trips or different trips that I will on a Saturday just be like, Oh, I'm gonna head into town for a little bit and I'll visit the hardware store I'll visit Grace's closet, obviously the grocery store that is also completely different. Now the
Tanner done a great job with it.
Now I'll head to the Dollar General I'll head to all of those things that are in town. On just because they're there, and I can. Well, we appreciate you coming in today, you've given us a lot of great things to think about. And we're going to keep everybody up to date on our webpage as well with events that are going to be happening. But we have one final question for you. So ask each one of you here, Tim, why do you love living in a small town?
I love the sense community. I really do. I let you know, my kids are gone now too. But I always loved the fact that they were always being watched. And everybody knew and the kids kind of just had that room to go. And they knew when the whistle went off at six o'clock, Okay, it's time to get home. But yeah, and the people, just just the people make it make it a great place to stay live.
Andrew?
Kind of along the same lines. I mean, like, all of us business owners know that like, you know, we we do a lot of sport motorsports, stuff like that. I mean, if I need a bolt at nine o'clock at night, I text him and I already have a key to his store. If you need it
Good to know, good to know
like, everybody watches everybody. You don't, you're not by yourself. You can, you can get anything answered with with one cell phone come conversation, when you call a business in town or need something you can call someone's cell phone and get an answer. I mean, it there's, there's something to be said about that. You know, I mean, every product in our town might not be the cheapest, but it's going to be the product you want and the right thing you want. That's what I like about small towns.
Well, thanks, guys. We really appreciate you coming in today.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
So now y'all know a little bit more about my small town. And Clark and I have lived there for 20 years now. I had to think about that. 21 years, 21 years we've lived there. And you know, we love our small town, Marcie. There's some great things coming up. So we want to make sure and tell our listeners about it.
Yes, I don't know if you've heard but the holiday passport, the passport booklet that comes out in Nebraska here is just a wonderful way to be able to see so many different things in the state. And they have a holiday version of that now. And so you can sign up for that booklet at Nebraska passport.com And there's over 20 different stores you go to you get this little booklet you go into the store, you get a stamp from the store, they usually have some kind of fun thing you where you can have your photo taken, and those type of things. I found all kinds of fun, new places to go through when we did Nebraska passport, my husband and I love it. So the holiday version I've already signed up for I can't wait.
You know I've never done those. I've seen them and I've always thought I wanted to. So hey, maybe the holiday passport. Maybe this will be my first time getting that done.
You shouldtry it out.
Yeah, absolutely.
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The Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast can be found on Apple or Spotify, and we have new episodes the second and fourth Tuesday of every month. Join us again next time as we talk with businesses and community leaders who are working to revitalize the Cornhusker State. Thanks for listening
