Thanksgiving Reflections
I hope you had as relaxing and tasty of a Thanksgiving as I did this past week! Makayla and I spent time between Topeka and Harrisonville, with a short stop in little Centerview, Missouri, where my grandparents live (family photo here). During that time, I was reminded of how thankful I am for my family, who act as a great support system for us! Along with my relatives, I can’t help but be grateful for our community that treats Makayla and me like family. 2025 has been a real blessing, and I’m sure 2026 has even more in store.
One of the fun activities we did over this time together with my immediate family was giving each member a chance to ‘present’ about their job/work life. I was sort of aware of my siblings' occupations, but all on a superficial level. They were able to share what their company does, what their role is, and a snapshot of their day-to-day. It was so informative and gave me a much deeper understanding of my siblings and their lives. If you want to push past the usual “How’s work?”, this might be the activity for you!
A Blustery but Beautiful Start to the Holidays in Downtown Ottawa
Every Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Chamber puts on one of our annual programs, the Mayor’s Tree Lighting. We invite the community to jump into the holiday spirit while we officially flip on the lights in Ottawa’s downtown. Preceding the lights, we have all sorts of fun activities, cookies/hot chocolate, and even Santa makes an appearance. Along with Saint Nick coming to the event, we also accidentally invited a wind advisory that was no joke! We dodged the rain, but did experience 20-30 MPH winds throughout the evening. Following the event, the Ottawa Main Street Association hosted the Christmas Parade. Dozens of floats quickly made their way down Main Street while showing off their themed rides. Even with the cold temps and chilly winds, it didn’t stop a great crowd from coming and celebrating with us (pictures here).
Community events like this don’t happen without the support of other organizations coming alongside to play an active role in the program. First, Gateway Fiber is our generous title sponsor, for whom we are extremely grateful! KOFO helped with the speaker system. Sacred Heart handed out cookies, while Neosho County Community College handed out ornament crafts. Arvest Bank had their children’s bike raffle, gifting a boy's and a girl's bike to young kiddos (picture here). JieJie and the Young Professionals group helped distribute hot chocolate and made sure those who had ornaments to purchase/pick up could do so (you can learn more about those ornaments here). Spotlight Dance Academy put on four fantastic performances. Those girls are some of the toughest dancers around (that wind!), and did it ever so gracefully! Messengers Home Furnishing’s Phil Messenger came and read The Night Before Christmas right before Mayor Emily Allen and some of her family helped flip the switch.
If you’ve been coming to this event for several years, you might have noticed that this year’s switch looks a little different from previous years, and you’d be right! Following some recent work done in our office after a water leak, we had to clean out one of our storage rooms. As a result, our previous switch went missing. We’re left to speculate exactly how, but I imagine it is spending time in a landfill somewhere… But that just meant we had a chance to upgrade! Thankfully, I have an uncle who is a retired electrician by trade and a woodworker by hobby. I knew his engineering brain could make something really special, so we tossed the idea his way. He accepted, and spent over a month planning, crafting, and finishing what is now our state-of-the-art downtown switch (pictures here)! I firmly believe a device like this would make just about any community in the nation jealous. With springs to give the pole resistance, power running through the base, and a custom carrying/storage case to keep it safe, it’s everything and more. A ton of thought and care went into it, and I look forward to having this switch help light our downtown for decades to come!
An Evening on Memory Lane
The holiday festivities did not stop at the Mayor’s Tree Lighting, as the Peckhams invited Chamber members to gather on Tuesday at Pleasant Ridge Farm to learn about and enjoy their Memory Lane Christmas Light Display for a Chamber After Hours (pictures here). Harry and Juanita are longtime Franklin County residents who regularly give back to our area. Whether that be through providing Christmas lights and Christmas trees in December, pumpkins in the Fall, serving in leadership roles in civic clubs, or volunteering at our local Visitors Center. We’re blessed to have their farm and kind souls in our community!
Tuesday evening, they shared about their new additions to their light display, and when you all can go visit them for those who missed out. Though the Memory Tree is not a new exhibit, it is bigger and better than ever! With more lights on its branches, it is ever more impressive. They added several new displays throughout as well, including an infinity snowman that gives off an incredibly cool effect. Through sponsors, they also added five musical elves, supported by AdventHealth Ottawa. Keith King State Farm sponsored a My Little Pony display, and Ottawa Sanitation sponsored a Matchbox Toy Trash Truck. All of these come alongside dozens of others throughout their route.
If you are interested in visiting the light display, you can do so Friday through Sunday, 5:30pm-9pm, through Christmas Eve. Hay bale rides are offered on Saturdays for just a dollar extra; I highly recommend them to get the full experience! When you’re there, go shopping in the holiday store, drive through the Christmas light display, and write down a memory at the Memory Tree. Thanks, Peckhams, for lighting up our holidays!
City Outlines Uses for Tourism Funds and Decides the Future of FCDC Support
This Wednesday’s City Commission meeting had a couple of items on the agenda under unfinished business, including a discussion of the City’s first collection of the Transient Guest Tax (TGT) and a review of the 2026 Partner Funding Agreements. During the conversation around TGT funds, it was shared that these dollars are planned to be dispersed in two ways. One way is through annual sponsorships of events and activities that spur tourism, overnight stays, and economic activity in the city limits. It was mentioned that applications for this process will likely open at the beginning of the year, in January, and close mid-February. For organizations who might benefit, be on the lookout for more info coming soon. The other mechanism, along with event-based sponsorships, is that the funds will also support strategic priorities and reduce reliance on property taxes (you can view all that entails here).
Following this discussion, City Commissioners entered a conversation around four Community Partners that had been allocated funds for 2026 based on previous meetings back in June and July, including Prairie Paws Animal Shelter, Elizabeth Layton Center (ELC), Ottawa Main Street Association (OMSA), and Franklin County Development Council (FCDC). ELC and the OMSA partnership agreements were both approved as presented. The Commission chose not to take action on Prairie Paws’ allocation because some contractual aspects still needed revision. Upon arriving at FCDC’s partnership request, staff verbally presented an analysis and recommendation to the Commission for consideration. This analysis argues that if the City of Ottawa took on in-house the economic development duties currently performed by FCDC, there would be considerable savings (half the cost of the current funding agreement with FCDC). The next 30-40 minutes consisted of dialogue on this topic (you can watch it here). This discussion led to the final decision, which included a motion by Commissioner Caylor, seconded by Commissioner Clayton, to use the allocated economic development funding for in-house purposes and to cease funding FCDC. This motion received three of the five votes needed to pass.
There is still plenty to unpack from this decision from the City. It sounds as though there are further details to sort out regarding how these duties will be divided among existing City employees. When this information comes to fruition, I will make sure the Chamber plays a role in communicating this with our business community across the county. From FCDC’s perspective, the City's portion of funding represents roughly ⅓ of its annual budget. This loss of revenue will put pressure on leadership to devise a plan moving forward, as this year rapidly comes to an end.
A Glimpse into 1892
Yesterday marked an important day in our community's history, as our Franklin County Government opened up the 1892 Cornerstone Time Capsule (pictures here). Commissioner Meador mentioned that during this holiday season, all of our community gets an extra present. A gift surrounded by stone for the last 130+ years. If you are unfamiliar with this piece of history, check out my previous newsletter about the time capsule's removal (read it here).
When county leadership deposited this metal box in the County Courthouse pillar in 1892, they chose to mark the occasion by filling it with items they believed best represented the community at the time. These items were not a complete surprise, as they did leave a ledger of what was inserted. Yesterday afternoon, we watched as Historical Society’s Diana Staresinic-Deane pulled out one item after another until each artifact had been removed. For a box that looked about the size of an ordinary shoe box, that thing was stuffed! It felt like the Snoopy’s Dog House of time capsules, as 20-30 different items were retrieved. Some of those items included an array of newspapers from the area, several community organizations' bylaws or constitutions, a book containing a brief history of Franklin County, a picture of the finalized courthouse, a small American flag, and a penny from 1892. A couple of items that really stood out included a sealed letter from the grandson of early settler Jacob Dietrich (Dietrich’s cabin in City Park) and several signed documents by George Washburn, the architect of the longstanding County Courthouse.
All of these items are on display on the second floor of the courthouse. If you weren’t able to attend yesterday, I highly encourage you to give them a look. It’s extremely fun to think about life a hundred years ago and how these items sat patiently waiting to be revealed. Along with these items, several displays throughout the courthouse are worth checking out. You can view a list of what is going in the new time capsule, a mockup of the cornerstone for scale, and copies of letters from local schools (photos here). What a great display that obviously took a lot of thought and care from those who poured into it. Next week, the 2025 time capsule will be inserted back into the cornerstone to be revealed in 2125. Though no one in that room yesterday will get to see it opened (barring any incredible medical advances in the next century), we all will be able to touch future generations by contributing to what will become future history.
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With only a few weeks till Christmas, this weekend I’ll be making sure all my holiday shopping gets done before the good stuff is gone! Don’t forget to look local as you’re picking out those perfect finds. Talk to you soon,
Ryland Miller
President/CEO
Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce
ryland@ottawakansas.org
785-242-1000
