Business View Magazine | August 2020

239 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 JUNCT ION C I TY , KANSAS Geary County, especially for: manufacturing, transportation/warehousing/distribution, robotics/automation, ag & bio-based products, unmanned aviation systems, and defense-based businesses. Residents benefit from proximity to Kansas City and its cultural amenities, while enjoying a reasonable cost of living and small town atmosphere. With 35 public parks and fields and an excellent school system, Junction City is also a great place for families. Kansas State University, an R1 research institution with 65 academic departments in nine colleges, and the oldest university in Kansas, is located minutes away from Junction City. There’s also Manhattan Area Technical College, which provides high quality technical, general, and adult education, and the new, $1.25 billion National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s foremost animal disease research facility, scheduled for completion next year. Current major employers include Smithfield, which employs about 400 locals at its Junction City processing plant, and Footlocker, whose distribution center employs 340. “Another one we recently added is a company called Camso,” says Finance Director, Lindsay Miller. “They make rubberized tracks for agricultural purposes. Over 50 percent of their workforce is retired military – that’s been a great retention tool for us.” City Clerk, Tammy Melton, adds that Junction City’s historic downtown is looking forward to revitalization under the purview of its private business owners. “They’re trying to come up with a plan where you can have a place to eat, sleep, and work in that area with living quarters and apartments for people,” she notes. “They also want the downtown to have grocery shopping so people don’t have to drive. They want an arts district to entice people to come there and so the younger generation would want to be there. We already have the Opera House, downtown, and they’re bringing in lots of events and attracting people from outside the area.” The C.I. Hoover Opera House has been a vibrant Rathert Stadium Geary State Lake Milford Lake