JC Main Street appoints new interim director

May 18—Jerry Lonergan was recently named Junction City Main Street's interim director.

Lonergan became interested in the position after speaking with JC Main Street board member Theresa Bramlage. He and Bramlage know each other, he said. When Bramlage asked Lonergan — who has experience as a grant writer — to look over Junction City's application when applying to be part of the Kansas Main Street program, he took an interest in the community and later in its involvement in the program.

Lonergan said he took the position "because of how impressed I have been with the leadership" surrounding what was once called the Junction City Downtown Revitalization group and which became JC Main Street after the city was accepted into the program.

Initially, he said, he wasn't sure the directorship was a good fit for him.

"I said, 'I'm not the right person,'" Lonergan said.

But the idea grew on him and he decided he wanted to help lay the groundwork for JC Main Street's future.

"What we have learned in the training and everything we've heard from both the national Main Street organization and the State of Kansas Main Street organization is that the Main Streets that are successful are ones that invest their initial time in getting the organization right and have a plan in place rather than just running out right away," Lonergan said.

He said he had faith in Junction City's downtown in comparison with those of some other small Kansas communities.

"Junction City's downtown is really positioned to take off," Lonergan said. "The buildings are beautiful, it's in good shape. And so we want to kind of reinforce that, get the business owners aware of what's going on."

He wants JC Main Street to hold some "good sized events" to start off with and raise awareness in the community about the group's existence.

"They need to be able to show or articulate that businesses are being created or forming downtown, that jobs are being created downtown," Lonergan said. "This meeds to be an economic driver — an economic engine — for Junction City."

He said he hopes to use his own experience in the business world to strengthen Junction City's efforts to breathe life into its downtown.

Lonergan's experience includes serving as the President of Kansas, Inc., serving as the Director of the Kansas Department of Commerce Division of Existing Industry, and running a statewide research program.

He feels his work with the Kansas Department of Commerce will help him here.

"That gave me the chance to go out into communities and see the kind of challenges that small businesses face," he said. "The challenges that businesses in Kansas face."

Lonergan has spent much of his business career in Kansas City and Topeka.

He knows aspects of this effort will present challenges.

In small communities such as Junction City "there's all kinds of factions all over the place," he said.

Lonergan is well aware of this.

"I think the primary challenge is to convince the community that this is a winnable fight that Junction City is entering," he said. "That they can be a success, there can be business growth in Junction City and just get the community behind it and be a supportive group."

He said there had already been positive conversations with the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce, the Junction City Commission and Geary County.

"If I can accomplish one thing before I leave, it will be a sense that the citizens of Junction City are confident and believe that their downtown can be an important part of their growth and the economy," Lonergan said.

Lonergan, who is originally from Salina, will not be JC Main Street's permanent director, but hopes to help out while he's here.

He said he has shucked any preconceived notions he had about the community before coming here six months ago. He hopes he can help convince the community's younger people — who he said makes up a significant amount of the county's population — to shuck their own negative ideas about the community and convince them to stay and live their lives here.

"I think I see a whole lot of potential in Junction City," he said. "I think the one thing I would hope to do is leave with the community understanding it has a chance to really be a big deal — which I think it does, given the location of the interstate, given the quality of the people that are in the town. I mean, if I can just leave and they feel like they can really take off and they can really be good, then I'll feel like my time there has been well-spent. And it will be the community and the (local) leadership that makes that (happen). It won't be me. It will be the community, the business leaders and the kids that live there."