Chamber offers agricultural tours

The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce is offering its members special tours of area agriculture-related businesses next month.

The free tours, which are scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday, May 5, will take chamber members aboard Dolly the Trolley on a tour of four Bourbon County agriculture businesses: Twister Trailer, 1789 U.S. Highway 54; Good Natured Family Farms Alliance, 208 Sherman St., Uniontown; Agricultural Engineering Associates, 1000 Promontory Dr., Uniontown; and Bandera Stone Company in Redfield.

Chamber officials said the purpose of the tours is to allow chamber members a chance to learn more about several area businesses that operate nationally and even internationally but may not be known locally.

"I think these businesses do some significant business," FSACC President and CEO Vicki Pritchett said. "But a lot of residents may not know what they do. This is a chance for us to showcase some of the fantastic businesses that Bourbon County has to offer."

Kansas State Research and Extension Agriculture and 4-H Extension Agent Delta George, who helped organize the group of businesses that are featured on the tour, said agriculture businesses that are "unique and innovative" were chosen so chamber members can become more familiar with those businesses.

"We created a list of possible businesses that weren't well known in Bourbon County that we could fit in the 4-hour time period allotted (for the tours)," she said. "We picked unique businesses to Bourbon County."

Pritchett said the tours are modeled after similar tours organized and conducted by the chamber several years ago.

FSACC Business Development Division Chairman Bryan Holt added that another purpose of the tours is to hopefully attract more chamber members.

"We feel that some members may not know about some businesses in maybe western and northern Bourbon County," he said. "We want to expose our membership to different businesses in Bourbon County. It's good for our membership, and hopefully it will also help us get new members."

Holt said that while the focus of these particular tours is agri-business, future tours this fall will focus on a different segment of the business community.

"Agriculture is huge to our local economy," he said. "We want to give these businesses the recognition they deserve. We hope for another tour this fall, and to have about one or two of these a year."

The tours will begin at the chamber office, 231 E. Wall St. The first stop on the tour is Twister Trailer, a horse trailer manufacturing business founded by Fort Scott resident Jim Arndt in 1996. The tour continues with a stop at Agricultural Engineering Associates, a company founded in 1974 by local resident John George as a way to help production agriculture clients with technical engineering services. The company's projects have ranged in size over the years from small to very large -- including the entire poultry and swine industries in Romania.

The next stop on the tour is Good Natured Family Farms Alliance, a family farm owned by Diana and Gary Endicott that markets locally produced, natural products. Tour-goers will tour the business' processing facility in Uniontown and learn about the company's partnership with Hen House Markets. The tour will conclude with a stop at Bandera Stone Company, a business that is known for the custom cutting of unique stone found in Redfield. The company produces such products as fireplaces, rock walkways and landscape boulders.

Students and teachers in USD 234 and USD 235 agriculture programs, as well as the Fort Scott Community College Agriculture Department, have been invited to participate in the tours, George said.

Reservations for the event must be made by Friday, May 1. Call the chamber at (620) 223-3566 for more information.