Cloud County Community College (CCCC) honored the addition of an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) program to its Geary County campus with a ribbon-cutting on March 2, 2022. Building B which houses Nursing and Allied Health programs including EMT, CNA, and CMA on the Geary County campus was renovated to accommodate the new program. The ADN program ushers in yet another way CCCC is addressing the workforce needs of Junction City and Geary County.
“A 2020 Career and Technical Education Comprehensive Regional Needs Assessment showed that ADN programs were not meeting labor market demands and CCCC had students in the Junctio...
Geary County, Kansas, has a prime location in the center of the nation that gives it an unbeatable drive-time radius that puts multiple major markets within 600 miles. Kansas City is just under two hours away. This location advantage is a major plus for target industries like logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing that need to get goods into customers’ hands quickly. Junction City, the county seat of Geary County, can be reached by I-70, U.S. 77, Hwy K-18, Hwy K-57, and I-135. It has five exits off I-70, the nation’s main cross-country artery. Add in access to interstate rail and ai...
The pandemic has been a game-changer for employee and employer attitudes concerning wellness, well-being, safety, health, and hygiene. Many — if not most — organizations are doubling down on wellness in the workplace. Some are going so far as to incorporate health and well-being into their corporate site selection and location criteria.
A focus on wellness in the workplace has become not just a “nice to have,” but a necessity to keep employees safe and healthy, and to enhance human performance. Health and well-being are among the new employee priorities that are now equal to — if not more important tha...
A prerequisite for a high-quality workforce is people. To upskill employees, attract remote workers, or fill a skill gap through a community college program, you first need people. That may be rather obvious, but talent attraction and retention efforts have been built on the assumption that when it comes to people, the harvest will always be plentiful. But what happens if the supply of people to attract to, or retain in, a community isn’t increasing? Or what if it’s decreasing?
In The Demographic Drought, Emsi Burning Glass raised the alarm bells about the pending sansdemic (sans-without, demic-people). Due to an increas...
The superlatives are accumulating as fast as the shipping containers: Industrial real estate, largely focused on logistics, keeps setting new records, to the point where the pop-up distribution center might soon be as common as the pop-up retail spot once was.
It’s gotten to the point where even a defunct driving range has potential to trade in the Big Bertha for an entirely different kind of driver.
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Being a small business owner is being a juggler. You have to maintain all of the daily management operations while planning and implementing for the future. One ball to never let drop is your finance management. January is “Financial Wellness Month,” an excellent time for small business owners to assess their finances and determine areas for improvement. Some key factors to consider include:
How do you manage day-to-day operations such as taxes, payroll, and invoicing?
Have you set and implemented retirement goals?
Do you have enough reserves to handle most financial emergencies?
Have you planned for responsible debt management?
Once you determine areas that nee...
The Covid-19 pandemic happened to be the kind of crisis that can shake up the entire world economy. The kind that forces business leaders to rethink and reevaluate our overall approach to facing a crisis.
Sadly, for many, this exercise was more of an autopsy — looking back in regret at what you wished you would have done differently. Others were luckier — able to scrape by but now well aware that deep changes are needed. As a business leader, the past two years weren't without their uncertainties, but I found that these three things made all the difference.
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Businesses need data for decision-making, planning, and expansion, otherwise, it’s all just a guessing game. Data-based decision management is a business practice that highlights a pathway to constant, incremental improvement that can enhance the overall performance and efficiency of a business. It lends a consistency to business practices that allows for collaborations and successful forecasts and predictions.
Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, are powerful decision-making tools that give businesses this needed data since they allow the analysis of environmental, demographic, and infrastructure data. Data intelligence compiled from GIS applications can help companies, various industries, and consumers, make informed decisions.
Junction City-Geary Count...
I'm mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” declared the longtime news anchor Howard Beale in the 1975 film classic Network.
A similar debate is raging across the world about the future of work, and there is a lot more at issue than how often to commute. The way of working that is emerging could alter the basic elements of our work life.
A whopping 65 percent of employees said they are looking for a new job, according to a PwC survey;
And 88 percent of executives said their company is experiencing higher turnover than normal.
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To address local disparities and help struggling areas thrive, governments at all levels have spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the past 40 years on a range of geographically targeted, or “place-based,” economic development programs — mostly in the form of financial incentives — designed to boost job creation and business investment, incentivize real estate development, or increase property values in specific places. But decades of research have shown that governments have struggled to effectively target these programs to the people and places most in need.
Tax increment financing (TIF), enterprise zones, community development block grants (CDBG), and other program...
Even as state and regional education systems and business coalitions roll out reams of computer, tech and STEM skills certification and boot camp programs, Big Tech behemoths is doing the same. Companies such as Google, Intel, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, LinkedIn and beyond have developed their own academic portfolios in order to fill a need for talent that only promises to keep climbing.
Skeptics might point to such programs as community development sops — the sort of philanthropy-tinged outreach a company does to convey its goodwill and commitment to a region even as it hunts out ever more competitive advantage. But ther...
Despite the slowdown in elective medical procedures prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 has been a banner year for medical device manufacturers. Capital commitments within the sector, according to a report issued in late July by Silicon Valley Bank, are way up.
“Looking at dollars raised,” says the report, “U.S. and European medical device startups raised $4.6 billion in the first half of this year, putting 2021 on pace to eclipse total dollars raised in 2020 ($5.2 billion raised) and 2019 ($4.8 billion raised).” While North American companies continue to dominate, the report notes that European startups accounted for 34% o...
The $222 million replacement of the Merchants Bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis reached a milestone in September with the installation of the first of three new trusses. Dating to 1890, the Merchants Bridge serves six Class I railroads and Amtrak in the nation’s second largest rail hub by car interchange volume and third largest by gross tonnage.
Work began in 2018 and, when completed in early 2023, the new double-track bridge is expected to provide an alternative to more congested rail regions like Chicago.
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We all know that in the past two years, the only constant for small business owners has been change. Thousands of businesses changed their business model at the onset of the pandemic, introducing new products or services and embracing new channels to reach their customers. Thousands more launched new businesses altogether, spotting untapped opportunities in our collective “new normal.”
Now, as we head into 2022, we see the impacts of the past two years crystallizing and new trends emerging, like the beginnings of the metaverse to changing how we define small businesses and how small businesses operate — online, offline an...
Congratulations on an amazing year of successes, learning opportunities and improvements for you and your business. It’s no easy task running a company, and it can take a toll on you. As the year comes to an end, let’s talk about how to keep you energized in the coming year.
Here are eight New Year's business resolutions to help you achieve just that.
1. Get your business processes down on paper
You have an amazing brain, and it holds a lot of the information your business needs in order for it to run smoothly. You need to put all of that information o...
In Junction City, Kansas, entrepreneurs are an important aspect of our thriving economy. They help spur growth by taking risks on innovative ideas. Through their hard work and dedication, industries are dramatically moved forward. Junction City-Geary County Economic Development Commission (JC-GCEDC) is decidedly pro-business with available support and incentives to help these resourceful, passionate, and optimistic business owners succeed.
Junction City Entrepreneurial Success Stories
Honor Screenprinting & Embroidery
Honor Screenprinting & Embroidery started as an at-home business when owner, Shawn Robison, was preparing for retirement from the Army after 23 years of service. Inspiration to start his business came from a dinner conversatio...
As the U.S. economy continues its recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are encountering an increasingly difficult talent landscape fraught with challenges related to the attraction and retention of the talent upon which their business relies. This is particularly true for the most advanced technical job roles. Amid this environment, companies are relying on their site selection consultants to develop talent-based location strategies that help ameliorate these challenges. Utilizing market data in more creative ways can help companies gain competitive advantage by identifying new pools of accessible technical talent.
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As the U.S. economy emerges from the 2020 recession, the U.S. labor market remains an area of concern for occupiers, investors, and the commercial real estate industry. The impact of the pandemic on the labor market has been sharp and severe, especially within urban areas. Although the economy is now well on its way to recovery, significant challenges remain, including labor supply-demand imbalances and a drop in labor force participation.
A Constant Pain Point
With unemployment benefits having ended for millions of Americans on September 5, it remains to be seen how labor markets will respond. The COVID-19 pandemic sparked the acceleratio...
The world of real estate is making significant strides toward adopting the latest and most innovative technologies. But with more tech comes heightened risk. One of the latest ransomware attacks this year impacted up to 1,500 businesses globally by targeting U.S. IT company, Kaseya. Brazilian meatpacking company, JBS, also experienced a cybersecurity attack that forced the company to shut down operations, which could have been detrimental to its supply chain and to the U.S. food supply. In January 2021, a hacker was able to break into a water treatment plant system (by stealing an employee’s username and password) in a...
In August, Rocki Rockingham was named Chief Human Resources Officer for GE Appliances. Area Development’s editor recently asked her about the company’s strategy to build upon its recent global “Great Place to Work” recognition and to create a workplace culture that attracts and retains top talent.
Area Development: Despite the high unemployment rate created by the pandemic, companies are still struggling to find skilled labor. How does GE Appliances’ workplace culture factor into attracting these workers?
Rocki Rockingham: Having a great culture is critical to attracting talent and our success. This year, 81 percent of employees said GE Appliances is a grea...
The brand new Junction City High School is a military connected 6A school that prepares students to Educate Locally, Impact Globally and become successful citizens by developing relationships and incorporating relevance and rigor into the curriculum.
Natural Beauty
Home to the largest lake in Kansas with 163 miles of shoreline.
Connected
Five exits off I-70 and an abundance of affordable sites for development.
2020 Great American Defense Community
This is a national level award that is only given to five communities per year across the entire United States after a tough competition between applicants. This award demonstrates the continuous dedication that Junction City shows in its support of Fort Riley and the 1st Infantry Division.
Higher Education
Kansas State University, a world-class research institution, is 20 minutes away.
Technical Training
Twenty minutes from one of the top tech colleges in the nation: Manhattan Area Technical College.
Connected
An unbeatable drive-time radius with multiple major markets within 600 miles.
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