The Holts Summit Board of Aldermen heard from another retail-centric, economic development consultant firm at last night’s council meeting. Retail Attractions, LLC presented the board with a candid opinion of Holt Summit’s retail market.
“As lovely as it is (Holts Summit), your community, a small Missouri city, is in competition with every other city not only in Missouri, but in other states in the lower 48 who are after the same retail towns,” Retailer Attractions founder Rickey Hayes said while addressing the council.
Hayes and his team have worked with big-name retailer restaurants and hotels in various size markets that he thinks would be an asset to the city. In particular, he thinks that adding restaurants near Highway 54 would make ample return on investments because they would be visible to drivers passing the city.
“The synergistic flow between the three of us that we could actually bring something to this community and really affect the quality of life in this community,” Hayes commented on the public hearing that was held before his presentation and commended two Holts Summit residents — a local businessman and a citizen concerned about the lack of children’s activities and restaurant development — for their vision of improving the community.
“Changing your community only requires three things,” Hayes said. “It requires vision, and that lady had a vision for something that’s not here now that she thinks would bring an improvement in the quality of life in your community — not only for her grandchildren, but for yours as well and for the other residents.”
The concerned citizen, Penne Sneller, proposed the city add a splash pad similar to the one in Fulton so she doesn’t have to drive her seven grandchildren to Fulton for them to have something fun to do. She told Hayes and the council that although Holt Summit’s populating is increasing, the city still does not provide enough activities for children.
“People are wanting to come into this area,” Sneller said. “The city is growing but when it comes to children during summer time and no school, there’s really not much for kids to do.”
She said one of her sons chose to purchase a house in Jefferson City instead of Holts Summit for the same reason.
“He lived in Holts Summit for the last 14 years and moved there because the kids can’t do much here,” Sneller said. “I want to be able to answer people asking, ‘well, what does Holts Summit give?’ and I want to tell them that it gives a lot. I’ve been here myself for 12 years and I adore this town. But for little kids and my grandkids, it’s a struggle having to go to Fulton or Jeff City. But if we had something here, we can offer more and get more people to come to Holts Summit.”
Mayor Oxley agreed that a splash pad would benefit the city, noting that the Fulton splash pad is always busy.
“I think that it’s something we should talk about,” Oxley said. “We just need to find a safe area for kids to use this.”
Hayes liked the idea of the splash pad, adding that the best way to improve the quality of life in Holts Summit is to attract investments from national retail companies since they provide sales tax revenue and property tax revenue.
“We want to help you change from what you are to what you could be,” Hayes said. “We want to take Holts Summit as you are to the retailers and say this is how you are and this is the vision they have for their community. This is what the city council and its citizens want it to become.”