The Fulton City Council welcomed a special visitor at its Nov. 24 meeting.
Fulton Mayor LeRoy Benton introduced Jonathan L. Kaipay - a senator from Grand Bassa County, Liberia - during the public forum portion of the meeting.
Kaipan, a Liberty Party partisan elected in December 2014, said he briefly met with Missouri senators in Jefferson City during a trip to the United States in June to build relationships with state officials. The Liberian senator said he wanted to return to Missouri in August, but the trip had to be delayed.
Kaipay said the purpose of his Fulton visit was to meet and propose to the Fulton City Council a "reunion fellowship" or a community partnership between the city of Fulton and the city of Buchanan. The goal, he said, is to build a relationship, learn from each other and "see how we can make a difference in the country, beginning with the county."
"We (Liberians) have committed ourselves to using our county as a motor county to forge ahead with development and to do that is to come back home where our forefather came from, and see where have we gone wrong, where do we learn from them and how do we move ahead in strengthening our county by extension of our country," Kaipay stated from the podium.
Kaipay told council members and meeting attendees: "I feel it is about time we move in public partnership into community partnership and see how we narrow our bilateral activities to a particular geographical community and see how we monitor that and see how it grow. That will serve as an opportunity to picture into the rest of the country."
Kaipay provided insight about the framework of the Liberian government and political leaders in Buchanan, the capital of Grand Bassa County. He touched briefly on the local administrative governments, citizen demographics, education in Grand Bassa County. The senator expressed his gratitude for U.S. assistance in Liberian affairs, but said the nation still faces several challenges moving forward in the devastating aftermath of civil war.
"We have a city that's very old - still underdeveloped," Kaipay said, referring to Buchanan. "We have been challenged by the issue of corruption; we have been challenged by the issue of not having law for country that have led our country the way we have been led."
In other council news, the Nov. 24 meeting marked Fulton Assistant Director of Administration Jerry Sorte's last council meeting. Benton thanked Sorte for the "fine work" he's done for the city.
In addition, Holts Summit Mayor Landon Oxley and City Administrator Brian Crane joined Fulton officials to listen to a presentation by Walker Wright, a representative from The Retail Coach. In recent months, city officials from both cites heard presentations from several retail recruitment firms and discussed partnering together for a three-year contract.
The Retail Coach will analyze three retail areas in Fulton: the Brick District, Business 54 south and North Bluff and conduct area market, community market and consumer market analysis reports. Wright talked about the importance of expanding Fulton's retail trade area, identifying sites and properties for development and scheduling private community stakeholder meetings with property owners, developers and brokers.
"In those meetings, we get a really good idea of who the community is and what the needs are and also their ideas on things and what could be beneficial," Wright said.
After completing the research process, including a retail gap analysis, Wright said The Retail Coach consultants will compile a list of about 20 retailers they think would be a good fit based on their findings before sending it to Fulton city officials for review and approval.
"Once we get those 20 retailers down that we want to target, we're gonna create a package for each one of them," Wright said. "It's gonna have Fulton's logo on it, Fulton's contact information and it's also gonna have the retailer's logo, so it'll all look really nice ... It will also have the criteria specific to each retailer: what they want to see, what's important to them. We don't want to put a lot of fluff in there that they don't want to see. We want it concise and to the point, and we'll do the same with developers."
Wright added that The Retail Coach will create an interactive mapping tool on the dashboard on city's website that will present data that appeals to potential site developers and retailers.
"Usually we're looking at 12 to 16 months typically before we see a retailer on the ground," Wright said.
Following Wright's presentation, Crane told the council about Holts Summit's aggressive plan to attract more retail development this year.
"I can make calls to retailers to try to give them the data that they need, but just getting a phone call back was really tough, so we thought the approach of bringing in the professionals that are in the retail strategy consulting business was the best approach," Crane said.
Crane explained that in this past year, the Holts Summit Board of Aldermen heard from several retail consultant firms and decided to partner with The Retail Coach. Crane told the company that Fulton may also be interested in participating.
"I think our board is ready to move forward with this project and with the long-term goals of our economic growth in mind," Crane said. "What we'd really like to see in the future is reports that come to you that are you are meeting and exceeding expectations."
Fulton Director of Administration Bill Johnson said he and other council members listened to some of the retail consultant presentations in Holts Summit and said he was thrilled that Holts Summit city officials also preferred The Retail Coach.
"What we're looking at is partnering," Johnson said. "Based on the demographics in the two communities and the needs in the two communities, we don't see us being in competition with each other, but if The Retail Coach is able to secure two communities (that are) 15 - 20 minutes apart in the same county, sharing a common major road, there's gonna be some serious cost savings."
Johnson elaborated on the Fulton-Holts Summit contract, explaining to council members that either city may choose to opt out after one year without affecting the other's contract. Once the project is underway, Johnson said, Callaway County Chamber of Commerce President Bruce Hackman will be the project's primary contact.
Fulton council members inquired about focusing on downtown business retention. Wright told them about a downtown workshop that The Retail Coach offers - a gathering for downtown merchants and local entrepreneurs to brainstorm ideas and share data to improve merchandising in the area.