06/01/2026
On the conversation of road work- One of our employees sent our group text a message that stated, “I’m about to lose my crap already and they just started!”
. and we laughed. Because it’s true right? On day 1 🤪
There are definitely a lot of fears about this project from many of us businesses in the square. Most of our parking is gone, making the extra time and effort a bit more frustrating.
But while I have plenty of opinions, I've chosen to look for the positive where I can.
1) Washington Avenue isn’t shut down, so parking for both Sharkeys, El Charro, and our corner of the square can be easily driven on.
2) I spoke with Tom, the project manager for the first phase, and learned that work will continue toward Daylight Donuts, and if the project progresses that far, the City will take over from there toward the 54 overpass.
3) The second phase, which began today, is being completed by Bettis Asphalt. As someone who owns a small business, I also appreciate seeing local and regional companies hired to do this work. Community development isn't just new roads and infrastructure, it's also supporting businesses that employ our neighbors and reinvest in communities like ours.
None of that makes the inconvenience disappear. It's still inconvenient. Parking is still limited. Traffic patterns are still changing.
But sometimes when we can't control the circumstances, we can control the perspective we bring to them.
Yes, we are worried about numbers. Data in Kansas suggests that roadwork like this takes out 30% of small businesses within 18 months.
Allen County, Thrive, and Iola Chamber have been working on action plans for us businesses down here, we’ve really been trying to be proactive about the start of today months in advance. I was happy to be part of those conversations and HEARD in them.
We don’t know what the future holds and the repercussions it will have on our business, but i do know that this town and community has been loyal and will do their best.
Some options to support us: our supper club dinners, catering, lunch meetings, coming out to our gelato cart and flower bars.. small things like that make a huge difference.
Hang in there Iola! We got this! Let’s choose to be positive even when it can be really hard!
Perspective changes everything.
