Rural Prosperity Listening Tour Comes to Atchison

Residents are invited to attend as Atchison will host a stop on Lieutenant Governor Lynn Rogers’ Rural Prosperity Listening Tour. From 5:30-7 p.m. on Thursday, June 20, Rogers will speak with area residents at the Atchison Event Center located at 710 S. 9th St. in Atchison. The Rural Prosperity Listening Tour is part of a new initiative approved in the last session of the Kansas State Legislature to address issues in rural Kansas.

The listening tour is the first step in the new plan to help rural Kansas, which Kansas Governor Laura Kelly described as “Neglected,” and “overlooked and unheard of for far too long.” The meeting’s purpose is to compose new ways to help rural Kansas communities by hearing directly from the residents themselves. Discussion topics include:

• Developing rural housing
• Revitalizing Main Street corridors
• Investing in rural infrastructure
• Supporting rural hospitals and medical professional recruitment
• Making state government work for rural Kansas
• Incentivizing active tourism
• Supporting agribusiness

The Office of Rural Prosperity states on its website that the problems faced by rural communities like Atchison are unique and cannot be solve by a blanket one-sized-fits-all policy. By hosting talks like this on June 20, officials with the Office of Rural Prosperity have stated that they seek to discuss the problems in Atchison and how the State of Kansas could aid in fixing them.

For more information contact Joe Warren at (913) 367-5500, or Joew@cityofatchison.com.