Topeka Area Makes Waves

Although as far from a major body of water as any city in America, the Topeka area has done a good job of making waves throughout the nation’s development community.

Ingram’s Magazine was honored to welcome an exceptional gathering of the Topeka area’s most active wave-makers to the Washburn University campus, our host for the event. And what a productive gathering this one was! Some 25 leaders from all over the area laid out the blueprint for greater Topeka’s future.

This assembly was part of Ingram’s ongoing effort to highlight economic development progress and issues in the greater metropolitan area, in which Topeka and Shawnee County play an increasingly more significant role. Chairing the event were David Kerr of Security Benefit and Carl Koupal of Community National Bank.

Although there was some useful talk about the challenges the area faces, participants eagerly discussed the progress in their respective areas and expressed their unanimous enthusiasm about the exceptional progress the area has been making as a whole.

Washburn University President Jerry Farley launched the proceedings by welcoming the participants and explaining Washburn’s increasingly conscious role in the economic development of the community. Each year, he noted, the university brings in as many 400 new students from outside the area. All these students bring money with them, “their parents’ money, usually,” he said.

They spend about half of it at Washburn and the other half with merchants in the community. The real benefit comes, however, with those newly college-educated citizens who choose to stay in Topeka when they graduate.