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New grain handling facility is just one sign that Benkelman is a town on the move
by Gene O. Morris

When passing through Benkelman on U.S. Highway 34, there's no way you’re going to miss seeing the concrete grain elevators which are rising on the southwest corner of town.

They're huge.

Towering above the Republican River Valley, the elevators and the surrounding grain bunkers stand as symbols of the resurgence of American agriculture...and the hope for revival of America's small towns.

Big impact on a small town

Already, only a few months after Gavilon Grain LLC chose Benkelman as the site for the multi-million dollar project, it’s having a widespread positive impact on the town and the surrounding Tri-State Region of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado.

Because of increased demand, grain prices in the area have remained exceptionally high, pouring hundreds of thousands of new dollars into the area economy. And that's just the start of the positive trend. Tapping into the expertise of Mike Bacon, one of Nebraska's leading Tax Increment Financing attornies, Benkelman has created a Community Redevelopment Authority which, over the next 15 years, will pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into Benkelman improvements, including—most likely—sewers, streets, water lines and the renovation of aging and deteriorating business buildings.

But the tax increment funds flowing to Benkelman are not because of the multiple millions invested by Gavilon in the grain handling facilities. Gavilon neither asked for nor receive TIF funding. Benkelman qualified for the tax increment financing program because of the $700,000 cost to extend the city-owned electrical system to the Gavilon grain handling site.

A ‘tipping point’

Time will tell, but Benkelman's annexation of the site for Gavilon's grain handling facility, and the subsequent decision to extend power, may become the single most important economic development in the community's history.

"I call it the 'tipping point,'" says Ben Blecha, a young entrepreneur who has inspired his hometown and the surrounding area with an outpouring of ideas for business development.

Blecha was president of the Dundy County Chamber of Commerce and Development when the call from Gavilon came in.

"I knew immediately, that this was big ... real big. But, I want to make clear it wasn't me that made the Gavilon project happen. It was Gavilon, the Benkelman council, the economic board and everyone else who was called on to help. The people of Benkelman saw the potential and they acted, quickly and decisively," Blecha said.

One of the best moves the community made, Blecha said, was getting Bacon's advice about how to set up a Community Redevelopment Authority. Bacon, a Gothenburg-based attorney, is one of Nebraska's foremost authorities in the tax increment financing field, having been the advisor for 150 projects in 45 communities over the past 25 years.

Win-win situation

With Bacon's guidance, Benkelman's City Council annexed the Gavilon site and voted to spend close to three-quarters of a million dollars to provide electrical services. Those decisions set the stage for the creation of the Community Redevelopment Authority, which gives the town access to tax increment funding for the next 15 years.

"It's a win-win situation for the community and Gavilon," Bacon says. "Benkelman has gained a great corporate partner and Gavilon has received essential electrical power from a welcoming community."

The TIF money will flow slowly to the community at first, then more rapidly as the city's electrical expansion debt is paid off. Many needs await, most particularly the aging and unoccupied business locations which dot the community.

Even before Gavilon came to town, an effort was in progress to fill the vacant business buildings. Using ideas supplied by the Future Business Leaders of America at Dundy County-Stratton High School, Blecha and his graphic designer Monica Mercer created a website: www.paintourtown.com.

The website, which shows vacant buildings and imaginative ideas for filling them with new businesses, is already massively popular, having garnered nearly a half million votes in the nationwide "We Hear You, America!" contest sponsored by Reader's Digest.

Cheers for Paint Our Town

The total number of votes (officially called "cheers") for Dundy County's Paint Our Town effort was 491,445, placing the campaign ninth in the nation among more than 8,000 community participants.

Wow! That's a whole lot of cheering for a town with a population of 839 in a county with 2,008 inhabitants. But, as it turns out, the support is exceedingly well-placed.

With millions of dollars already invested and many more municipal projects in the works, Benkelman is moving forward with two things that are scarce in the small rural communities of America, namely hope and excitement.

It might be a good idea for someone in Benkelman to buy some paint and some brushes. Because, if things keep going like they have been, the town painting campaign is going to burst into full color in Benkelman, Nebraska, USA.

A former publisher of the McCook Gazette, Gene O. Morris is now a freelance writer based in McCook, Neb. He may be reached by phone at 308-340-5972 and by e-mail at geneomorris@yahoo.com.

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