2/19/2012
By TIM UNRUH Salina Journal
Salina leaders have boasted for years that this city in the middle of the state and country, at the intersection of two major interstate highways, has managed to avoid economic extremes -- booms and busts -- through the ages.

When times were great in other places, they said it was merely good here, such as periods of the 1990s, when markets soared.

Conversely, unemployment lines weren't quite as long, and soup kitchens not as busy during grim periods of history, such as the Great Depression in the 1930s and '40s.

When unemployment eclipsed double digits on the coasts and in large urban areas -- during the Great Recession -- that dreaded number hovered well under 10 percent in Salina and has primarily stayed in single digits throughout Kansas.

In other words, throughout Salina's history, it has been touted as being middle of the road, safer than most.

"We've got a lot of success stories, a lot of businesses that have been born here and are still growing," said Steve Ryan, a former Salina mayor and city commissioner.

"Salina has weathered the storm because of the strength of the different larger employers that we have," said Ryan, president of Ryan Mortuary, 137 N. Eighth.

Numbers to back it up

As it turns out, there is some statistical basis to what promoters have espoused, said Inayat Noormohmad, lead economist for the Kansas Department of Labor in Topeka.

When compared to other Kansas towns, Salina fares well in terms of swings in population, per capita income -- both analyzed from 1970 to 2009 -- and unemployment rates from 1990 through 2010, Noormohmad said.

The past 10 years are good to compare, he said, because they encompassed most of three recessions.

"The variability in unemployment is not as high as some other parts of the state, or statewide," he said. "If you compare the percentage change in population ... Salina is a little more stable."

From 1990 through 2010, Salina's unemployment rate ranged from a low of 3 percent in 1999 to 6.4 percent in 2010. In Saline County, unemployment hit 7.2 percent in February 2011, but it fell to 5.7 percent in October and November.

Unemployment in the county grew to 6.1 percent in December. That equates to 2,057 people who are looking for work, said Larry Powell, director of business retention and expansion at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce. Some of the unemployment increase is attributed to seasonal layoffs from the Christmas season and the final layoffs of Hawker Beechcraft workers, he said. The Wichita airplane maker is closing its Salina operation at the end of February.

Why is Salina so stable?

Statewide, unemployment fell from 6 percent in November to 5.9 percent in December.

Looking at the volatility -- the rate of swings from high to low -- compared to 15 other cities in Kansas and statewide, Salina is 14th. The city's unemployment was less volatile than Leavenworth, Wichita, Lenexa, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, Garden City, Emporia, Leawood, Topeka, Hutchinson and Lawrence, as well as statewide.

Cities ranking less volatile, or slightly more stable, were Shawnee, Manhattan and Dodge City.

A lot of factors contribute to Salina's stability.

"I don't think it happens by accident. It's a stable community, and it's gotten there deliberately," said Dennis Lauver, chamber president and CEO.

"It can work both for and against the community," Lauver said. "But in the long run, I think people will tell you that slow and steady is going to win the race."

Need more excitement

Stability is good and makes Salina appealing on some levels, said Rob Exline, owner and president of Exline Inc., 3256 E. Country Club, but he admits to wishing for slightly bolder times.

"Honestly, I would like to see a little more volatility, although what we've seen is nice to have," Exline said.

The 140-year-old company, started by his great-great-grandfather, Exline is in the industrial machine repair, service and manufacturing business. He's been in charge for 18 years.

"You can't knock stability. It's pretty predictable, but I'd sure like to see more excitement and new opportunities entering our community," Exline said. "It would help our workforce availability. We're having to continually attract workers to our area, because we don't have that growth."

Ag economy is helping

The housing and banking scandals that sent the country into a recession in 2008 caused pain in Salina. But the fact that many of its roots are still in agriculture, which happens to be enjoying high prices, along with farm-based manufacturing such at Great Plains Manufacturing, is helping the community to pull through.

"One year, wheat's running high, and the next year corn is king," said Don Timmel, of Salina, retired president of Wright-Lorenz Grain Co., now based in Overland Park.

Add that to strong sales in the cattle market and "the farm economy has done fairly well," he said. "We have wheat for flour, grains for cattle and we want to eat meat. It's something that is here. We have land and the ability to produce crops that other people want."

Salina did a little better

Federal Labor Department statistics weren't kept specifically for Salina from the mid-1930s, when the entire nation was in the throes of the Great Depression. In 1933, nearly one in four American workers was jobless.

Folks in Salina suffered like everyone else, according to the recollections of two men who were reared in these parts during that era. But they agree that Salina was better off than most.

"It wasn't that bad around Salina. There was always work there, milling and other industry. There was something going on all the time," said Pete Saunders, 85, of Minneapolis.

Raised in Barnard in Lincoln County, the situation there was dire. He was one of five children, the son of a farm worker.

"If it hadn't been for the county or WPA, we'd have starved to death," he said. WPA stood for Works Progress Administration, a federal program that put people back to work during the Depression.

"Each week, we'd go out and shoot a jackrabbit. We'd cut pigweed and eat it like spinach. That was our food," Saunders said. "You just lived off the land."

We had food to eat

Jack Stewart was the son of a Salina businessman, Norton T. Stewart, who bought and sold road machinery. Jack, now 83, was one of three kids.

"We were lucky. We always had something to eat," he said.

Many others in Salina were less fortunate.

"Very often someone would knock on the door. My mother (Lucile) would give them some food. That happened, I bet, two or three times a week," Stewart said.

Two factors helped Salina during the Depression. First was milling. The city was among the largest milling centers in the world.

Military was a factor

During World War II in the 1940s, Salina became a military center, with Camp Phillips southwest of town and the Smoky Hill Army Air Base just to the west. It was later named Schilling Air Force Base.

"That fueled the economy a lot," Stewart said. "There were a lot of soldiers and airmen."

The air base "made Salina," Saunders said, and federal money injected into the economy eased the Depression-era sting.

Schilling, with 3,200 acres, would have a lead role in making Salina what it is, first as a powerful economic engine, then as a drag on the economy in 1965 when the base closed, taking with it a fourth of Salina's population and a $12 million annual payroll. Roughly 5,000 soldiers and airmen were stationed here.

After the government gifted the former base to the city, Salina's economy diversified, and manufacturing and aviation were added to its agricultural base.

"We had a very strong congressional delegation that attracted the industry that we did," Ryan said.

Then slowly, with stalwart leadership, the Schilling area was rebuilt to the point that the economy counts on it. One of the occupants, Tony's Pizza, with more than 1,600 employees, is Salina's largest employer.

Today it accounts for 3,700 jobs in more than 70 businesses and $130.4 million in payroll, according to Salina Airport Authority figures.

"We're not in a large market, and a large anything requires a workforce," Ryan said.

A declining population

Railroads and the interstate highways are important assets, he said, but what sometimes works against Salina is the declining population in north-central Kansas.

"We don't have the population base. It has shrunk because of the decline in the agricultural base that we're sitting on," Ryan said. "You look at the growth in the region and you wonder why we're doing as well as we are. We're a tremendous retail area, but our area's declining."

What Salina doesn't have is metropolitan status, a population of 50,000 that would attract more national businesses. The 2010 census counted 47,707 people in Salina, which is 2,293 short of the coveted mark.

"With a population over 50,000, we become more exciting as a potential area for retail and restaurants," Exline said. "It's pretty stable around here, and it has been for a long time. If we're growing, we have more business opportunities."

-- Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by email at tunruh@salina.com.

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