Gasoline prices have risen over the first half of this year, pushed up by strong increases in world crude oil prices. That’s hurting American
families, many still dealing with unemployment and stagnant wages.

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural
Randy Rundle – Fifth Avenue Antique Auto

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

It’s the opening ceremony of the Pan American Games. Down the street comes a special dignitary: the Queen of England in a vintage 1951 Cadillac limousine. When that car was rebuilt, where do you suppose they found the necessary expertise? Would you believe, at a shop in the middle of rural Kansas? Thanks to Michelle Tessaro of KCLY radio for this Kansas Profile story idea.

Randy Rundle is owner of Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts in Clay Center. His unique auto shop is helping power antique vehicles that travel coast to coast, and even carry the Queen.

At age twelve, Randy became fascinated with antique Chevy trucks. While in school, he started buying, repairing, and selling these vehicles.

These trucks used a six-volt electrical system which would later be replaced by a twelve-volt alternator system in newer models built by the car-makers. Unfortunately those alternators only worked on the twelve-volt system, not the older models.

“I decided all of those six-volt vehicles needed fixing and I was just the guy to do it,” Randy said.

After lots of research and tinkering in the shop, he devised a reliable six-volt alternator system which could successfully replace the older style system. In 1987, Randy opened Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts to market these products in his hometown of Clay Center. His storefront displays an actual front end of a yellow 1949 Chevrolet – with working headlights and auto horn!

To promote his new six-volt alternator, Randy got involved with the Great Race, an annual vintage car rally in which pre-1940 cars are driven 4,500 miles across the United States in just two weeks time. Of course, those cars used the old six-volt system.

Randy got a driver to try his new alternator and the, um, race was on. In 1991, Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts provided a New York driver and his 1929 Dodge Sport Roadster with Randy’s alternator. That car won the Great Race in 1993. Having proven his six-volt alternator, Randy went on to solve cooling and fuel-related problems at the request of other Great Race teams. Since then, Randy has developed more than 40 specialized products to make all types of antique vehicles more reliable and fun to drive.

Watching the Great Race was a Hollywood movie director. He ended up using Randy’s improvements for antique cars in movies such as Devil in a Blue Dress, Lolita, LA Confidential and Indiana Jones.

Another spectator at the Great Race was a representative of the British Crown. Randy got a call from someone identifying himself as the Royal Minister of Transportation, stating that he was requesting Randy’s services on behalf of the Queen of England. “Yeah, right,” Randy thought. “Which one of my buddies put this guy up to this?”

But the call was for real. As part of the Queen’s participation in the 48th anniversary of the Pan American Games opening ceremony, she wanted to ride in the same 1951 Cadillac limousine in which she had ridden with her mother at the very first opening ceremony. Randy helped restore and rebuild this automobile in which the Queen successfully took her ride. He would later receive a note from the Queen on palace stationery, thanking Randy for his services to the Royal Family.

In 2012, the owner of an orange grove in California had a problem with the engines on his wind machines which are used to protect the oranges from winter frost. The repair for those engines was provided by Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts.

Now Randy is celebrating 25 years in business. He has customers in all 50 states, every Canadian province and sixteen foreign countries.

That’s a remarkable accomplishment for a business in the rural community of Clay Center, population 4,525 people. Now, that’s rural.

For more information, go to www.fifthaveinternetgarage.com.

It’s time to leave the Queen of England and the royal car which was restored with help from a business in the middle of Kansas. We commend Randy Rundle of Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts for making a difference with his expertise and innovation. For rural Kansas, it’s a crowning achievement.

Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit https://www.huckboydinstitute.org.

————————————————

The mission of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is to enhance rural development by helping rural people help themselves. The Kansas Profile radio series and columns are produced with assistance from the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications News Unit. A photo of Ron Wilson is available at https://www.ksre.ksu.edu/news/sty/RonWilson.htm. Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit https://www.huckboydinstitute.org.

Story by:
Ron Wilson
[email protected]
K-State Research & Extension News

The Peterson Brothers have released a new video on YouTube. A Fresh Breath Of Farm Air. The Peterson Farm Bros are made up of Greg, Nathan, and Kendal Peterson and they love agriculture!

DEADLINES FOR JUNE 19TH
If a class is full PLEASE put your name on the waiting list. We always do our best to accommodate everyone so if you are not on the waiting list and we add an additional class you will miss out!

TWEEN TAS (5 & OLDER)
BEADED SUNCATCHERS – NEW
You choose the cookie cutter shape, add beads and glue. We will make some sun catchers to hang in the windows of your house. What a cool way to add your own creative design. After you finish your project enjoy some gym time.
Entry Deadline: June 19
Entry Fee: $5.00
Held on: Tuesday, June 25th
Times: 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Ages: 6 & older
Location: Recreation Center
Limitations: Min. 5 Max. 20

SCHOOL’S OUT
Come on out for a day of fun. Each day we have a full schedule of games, trips, crafts, cooking and trips to Centennial Lanes, Mini golf, Area Parks and Hays Aquatic Park. Space is limited so stop by the Hays Recreation to reserve your spot.
Entry Deadline: Wed. before each session
Entry Fee: $10.00 per session
Held on: Session 3: June 19 Wet/Wild
Session 4: June 26 Stars /Stripes
Session5: July 10 Sticky Fingers
Session 6: July 17 Upside down/ inside out
Session 7: July 24 It’s game time
Session 8: July 31 Master the Art
Session 9: August 7 Beat the Heat
Times: 1:00 – 5:00pm
Ages: 6 – 12
Location: Recreation Center
Limitation: Min. 5 Max.24

ADULT LEISURE
RUSTIC FRUIT TARTS – NEW
Strawberry-rhubarb, Ginger-Plum, Apricot Blueberry…the variations are endless! Take advantage of the summer’s in-season fruit for creating quick and easy one-crust rustic fruit tarts. In this hands-on class we’ll explore different pie crust methods, make our own dough, taste-test various filling options, and assemble your own tart ready to bake at home. Yum! Bring a medium mixing bowl, a rolling pin if you have one, and a cookie sheet.
Entry Deadline: June 19
Entry Fee: $25.00
Held on: Saturday, June 29
Times: 10:00 – 12:00pm
Ages: 18 & older
Location: Recreation Center
Limitations: Min. 3 Max. 10
Instructor: Cathy Drabkin

ACTIVELY 55 CLUB
BREAKFAST BINGO
Enjoy a delicious breakfast while trying your luck with a few games of bingo. Win a prize!
Entry Deadline: Session 1: June 19
Session 2: August 14
Entry Fee: $5.00
Held on: Session 1: Monday, June 24
Session 2: Monday, August 19
Times: 9:00 – 10:00am
Ages: 55 & older
Location: Recreation Center
Limitation: Min. 5 Max. 15

SPECIAL POPS
To participate in these activities, a person must:
-be diagnosed with intellectual disabilities
-have a significant learning or vocational problem
Special Pops – PUTT-PUTT
Meet us down at Precision Valley for some fun team putt-putt, darts, and pool! You can choose your teammate or we’ll find you one when you get there. There are snacks and drinks available for purchase at the venue as well.
Entry Deadline: June 19
Entry Fee: $2.00
Held on: Thursday, June 20
Times: 6:30pm
Ages: All Ages
Location: Precision Valley – 1500 West 27th
Limitations: Min. 5 Max. 40

WELLNESS
ULTRATHLON
Ever wanted to participate in an Iron Man Triathlon? Well, now you can with our new 6 week challenge. The goal of the challenge is to complete the distance of an Iron Man Triathlon by the end of 6 weeks. Each participant will complete 26.2 mile run/walk, 112 mile bike ride, and 2.4 mile swim (38 laps at the Hays Aquatic Park). All participants will be allowed to use the HRC Fitness Center and the Aquatic Park to complete this challenge. All participants are required to log their miles completed on the logs provided at the front desk of the Fitness Center and Aquatic Park. All completed miles must be recorded by July 27 to be counted towards totals. T-shirts will be awarded to participants who complete the challenge, and participants will be awarded free admission to our Summer Slam Triathlon, Saturday August 3. For Rules and Regulations please pick up a copy at the HRC Fitness Center.
Entry Deadline: June 19
Entry Fee: $25.00
Held on: June 22 – July 27
Location: HRC Fitness Center & Hays Aquatic Park

BICKLE-SCHMIDT SPORTS COMPLEX
ASA SUMMER SIZZLER FAST PITCH TOURNAMENT
ASA girls fast pitch 9-18U open class tournament. 4 Game Guarantee.
Entry Deadline: June 21
Entry Fee: $200.00
Held on: June 29 – 30
Location: Bickle/Schmidt Sports Complex

UPCOMING DEADLINES
June 26
HRC Swim Lessons Session 2
4th of July T-Shirt
Dash 4 Disabilities Fun Run
Feel the Spark
Head Over Heels Tumbling
Hell Creek on Heels Trail Race Off-Road Duathlon
Introduction to Massage Therapy
Painted Sneakers
Poker Walk
Rock Out Wellness
Roly Poly Tumbling
Shakers
Special Pops Game Night
Travel Lunch to Russell
Volleyball Camp

From the Kansas Room, By: Lucia Flaim, Kansas Room Librarian, Hays Public Library

This article is not only coming out earlier than usual, it is also a bit shorter. By the time you read this, I’ll be back in Missouri, hanging twinkle lights or filling balloons with helium.

I mentioned last month that I’ll be out of the library from May 28 to June 13 for my wedding and honeymoon and that the Kansas Room would remain open. I stand corrected. The Kansas Room will remain locked during the day unless a patron requests that the room be opened.  If you happen to need the Kansas Room opened, just ask someone at the front desk to unlock the room for you, then, let them know when you leave.

In spite of my absence, the Kansas Room does have a couple of events scheduled for June. The first is a musical performance on Sunday, June 2 at 2 PM. Local siblings Tanner, Trinity and Tristan Callis, otherwise known as Tx3, will be giving an hour-long performance in the Schmidt Gallery for all to enjoy. This trio plays a variety of instruments and musical styles from classical and folk to modern pop. If you know the Callis family or if you are looking for a great way to spend an afternoon, be sure to stop by the library on the afternoon of June 2. This will be a great event for the whole family to attend.

The other Kansas Room program for June is the third installment of my Kansas Cooks! series. Since much of Kansas will start harvesting wheat in June, I thought it would be a good month to schedule a bread-themed food/recipe swap. On Thursday, June 27 at 6PM, all are invited to “Kansas Cooks! Bread Recipes” in the Kansas Room. For those of you who don’t know, the idea is to bring a loaf of your favorite tasty homemade bread and your recipe for sharing. We’ll swap samples of bread and recipes for you to take home. These events have turned out well in the past and the more the merrier!

Need more information? Call me at 625-9014 or  email me    [email protected].

Brownback Tax Plan, Kansas GOP Mocked

June 14, 2013

The national headlines were unkind to Governor Sam Brownback and his GOP compatriots this week. It seems the national media i
Here’s a sampling:s catching on to the disaster thatis the governor’s tax plan that raises taxes on working Kansans to pay for tax breaks for the richest Kansans.

Rogue-state: How far-right fanatics hijacked Kansas – Rollings Stone
Is Kansas on the path to financial crisis? – Christian Science Monitor
Watching a train wreck in Kansas – Citizens for Tax Justice
What’s the matter with Kansas’ tax policy? – US News & World Report
And what is the main complaint of these national publications? They’re the same as those Kansas Democrats have been warning of since Brownback took office: Brownback is using Kansas to further his political aspirations, his tax plan shifts the burden onto the backs of working Kansans, and the Kansas budget is set to implode, taking the state’s economy with it.

Brownback’s presidential ambition and political ideology is a highlight of Rolling Stone’s coverage. Rolling Stone accuses Brownback of “using Kansas as a sort of laboratory, in which ideas cooked up by Koch-funded libertarian think tanks can be released like viruses on live subjects.”

US News & World Report sees a tax model that won’t create jobs, but will raise taxes on the poorest Kansans while slashing taxes for the richest Kansans.

As this chart from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows, just replacing 50 percent of the revenue lost by eliminating Kansas’ income tax with sales tax revenue would seriously wallop those with lower-incomes:

Tax Change

They also see these regressive changes being pushed in the hopes of improving Sam Brownback’s presidential standing with GOP presidential primary voters: “It may be that poor Kansans are simply being asked to pay the price of Brownback’s political ambitions.”

Citizens for Tax Justice see no relief over the horizon either. They note that “good policy is not even on the priority list for Kansas lawmakers who “for two years running, have been falling all over themselves to pass tax cuts of disastrous proportions, despite red flags from experts, editorial boards and their colleagues in other states.”

Finally, a review of Gov. Brownback’s dysfunctional tax plan and budget by the Christian Science Monitor doesn’t believe the governor’s magical claims of unfettered economic prosperity, arguing that “Kansas is setting itself up for a period of ongoing budget crises and uncertainty that seems likely to undermine the attractive environment for business lawmakers are trying to create.”

Kansas has already started seeing the effects of ongoing budget crises, highlighted by the $66 million higher education cut that Kansas GOP legislators rammed through this session.

So there you have it: political ambition before good public policy, devastating budget cuts to education, and a tax plan that soaks working Kansans and fails to create jobs. National observers are waking up to Brownback’s Kansas – now it’s our job to make sure Kansas voters wake up too.

– See more at: https://www.ksdp.org/blog/kdp-weekly-wrap-4#sthash.h7SDwIQ0.dpuf

Stacy Campbell
K-State Research & Extension
June 13, 2013
Turnips for fall grazing
In writing this I fully realize we are still in the midst of a drought and no one knows when it will end. So the idea I am putting forth may not seem plausible, on the other hand if some timely rains fall it could work. Planting turnips or a mix of turnips and radish into wheat or oat stubble for late fall and early winter grazing could yield some valuable fall forage and ease the burden on pastures and hay feeding.
Turnips are a high quality, high yielding, fast-growing crop that is particularly suitable for grazing by livestock. Turnips often have digestibility of 70 to 80% with crude protein from whole plants of 14 to 22%. Stocker cattle gains of 1.5 to 2.0 pounds per day have been recorded. Turnips are 85 to 90% water, so it is beneficial to have some dry hay, grass or stalks for roughage to the diet. Although cattle have performed well on grazing turnips alone, cattle have done very well when added in a mixture of cool season grass such as triticale, wheat, or oats.
Turnip seed is inexpensive currently about $1.55 per pound and the ole “Purple Top” variety that has been planted in gardens for years seems to yield just as well as any others. Another brassica that might work equally as well is Dwarf Essex Rape and it is cheaper about $1.00 per pound. Radish seed will be more expensive about $2.25 per pound. Bottom line is that turnips and/or rape could provide some cheap fall and early winter grazing.
Planting a brassica such as turnip, radish, rape or kale for fall grazing would take place in late July through late August. When planted with a drill, just scratch the surface with your openers covering only slightly, and seed turnips at 2 to 4 pounds per acre. Drilling it no-till into stubble might be the preferred planting method, given the current weather conditions. But if no-till is not an option then broadcast 2 to 4 pounds of seed per acre and go over with a cultipacker or harrow. Covering the seed with more than 0.5 inch of soil will suppress emergence, and as always plant into a weed free seedbed. Good early weed control is essential. Turnips or any brassica do poorly if weeds get ahead of them, but once started, turnips compete very well. Since no herbicides are labeled for turnips, weeds must be controlled either by tillage or by using contact herbicides before planting. Then plant quickly to get them off and running.
Forage yields of turnips in Saline County on non-replicated farm strip plots in 2004 and 2005 averaged 4,800 pounds of dry matter per acre, this included the tops and bulbs. The turnips out yielded the other forages in the test being wheat, triticale, oats, canola, forage canola, and forage peas. Eighty pounds of nitrogen preplant was applied. Taking a soil sample is recommended to determine amount of nitrogen and phosphorus needed for your yield goal.
Turnips are ready to graze when plants are “rooted down” enough not to be pulled up. This may be 70 to 80 days after emergence, and should be utilized by the time temperatures reach 18 to 20 degrees. Once leaves are all grazed, cattle will pull bulbs and eat them, choking on bulbs has been an extremely rare problem. Some use a field cultivator to lift bulbs to the surface after tops are grazed off, resulting in almost complete utilization of the plant.
Oats or triticale can be added to the mix, the oats would probably be best where you would fall graze only…triticale would be best if you desire some late winter grazing as well, or both could be added to the turnips and radish. Cover crops are a hot topic among some no-tillers right now and this could serve as a cover crop and provide some much need forage.
If you do add some triticale or oats with the brassicas, planting both at the correct depth becomes a challenge. Some folks run the brassicas on the surface just ahead of the packing wheels if they have a small seeds box or the air seeders have two boxes.
Brassicas can be prone to having high levels of nitrates especially if precipitation is limited. Before turning cattle out to graze it is always recommended to get a forage nitrate test.
In Saline County where grazing plots were planted to single forage of either oats, triticale or turnips, the cattle ate the oats and triticale first before the turnips. If turnips are there only option, cattle will acclimate to it very rapidly and do just fine, but it won’t be their first choice probably due to the rougher leaves turnips have.
If this is your first time to try something like this, then I would recommend planting a limited number of acres. More information on growing turnips can be found at www.ellis.ksu.edu
And as always if you have further questions give your local County Extension Office a holler.

Commentary: Clueless Consumer

Dan Murphy  |  Updated: 06/12/2013

What’s the biggest contemporary problem for livestock producers?

That’s easy—if, like me, you’re an outsider looking in, that is.

The No. 1 problem is that even the most articulate producers spend way too much time talking to each other, or to scientists, veterinarians, policymakers and members of the trade media. The majority of those professionals have an understanding of the dynamic and the economics of livestock production; many, in fact, are more than equipped to engage in protracted, technical discussions about inside-the-industry issues that when “translated” to a lay audience are ripe for misinterpretation and misunderstanding.

Take the case of one Jeremy Ranck, a 30-year-old Pennsylvania hog farmer and subject of an insightful profile in the Des Moines Register as World Pork Expo gets underway in Iowa’s capital this weekend.

“Any farm, that’s your life, that’s your passion,” Ranck was quoted as saying. “We do everything we can to have the best production in crops, the best production in hogs. It is very frustrating when there are activist groups and social media blitzes of blatant lies.”

That quote could probably have come from any of thousands of producers across the country, and indeed in its essence, Ranck’s observation informs a whole lot of conversation among attendees at virtually any industry trade show or conference I’ve ever attended.

That’s the problem: When producers try to state what they believe to be the obvious advantages of modern production, consumers come away with a far different interpretation—they buy the lies.

Just don’t do it

Nowhere is that phenomenon more evident than in debates over the use of antibiotics.

For more than a decade now, consumer groups and industry critics have joined forces with an activist segment of the scientific community to decry what they deem the “overuse” of antibiotics in animal agriculture, blaming it (and the producers who have embraced such inputs) as the culprit in the rising incidence of antibiotic-resistant microbial pathogens that are plaguing human medicine.

Here’s the problem: The concepts of dosage, specificity and prophylaxis escape 99.99% of the public when they happen upon media coverage of the antibiotics issue. To most people, the activist mantra—an anti-Nike slogan that boils down to “Just stop it”—makes perfect sense.

People fail to recognize that if one of their children develops an infection, they’re demanding that their doctor prescribe antibiotics—the connection with veterinary medicine never occurs to them.

Likewise, arguments that the industry’s well-intentioned spokespeople make about sub-therapeutic usage keeping animal healthier, and thus limiting the need for more powerful antibiotics (the kinds that cause resistance problems), simply don’t resonate with shoppers pushing their carts through the local supermarket.

There was a great example of that in the newspaper article. Ranck described how he and his dad (who also raises pigs) removed an old barn two years ago and replaced it with a new $500,000 steel-framed facility. The investment resulted in more uniform growth rates, fewer bouts of illness and death among the animals, and thus a sharp drop in overall antibiotic use.

If you’re a producer, your head’s nodding. Of course—that’s why the industry’s gone to controlled housing and more sophisticated management, you’re saying to yourself—as if that settles any arguments.

But what do consumers think when they read about that anecdote? That a scenic old barn—the kind we love to spot on our infrequent drives through “the countryside”—was torn down, and now the poor pigs are trapped in a steel-and-concrete prison, never seeing the light of day and spending their waking hours crammed into tiny, sterile pens.

The notion that producers are “pumping pigs full of antibiotics” because they’re crammed into crowded, unhealthy housing actually makes a lot of sense—if you’ve never been on a farm, never seen the inside of a modern hog barn and don’t have a clue what animal husbandry’s all about.

Which describes pretty much 9 out of every 10 Americans.

The solution is twofold: One, open up those barns. Show people what goes on inside and the clean, sanitary environment in which pigs are raised. Yes, that involves issues of biosecurity, but under controlled conditions, the precautions that have to be taken before people enter a barn help underscore, not undermine, the message that modern housing isn’t dark and dirty at all.

And two, more farmers and producers need to speak up, along with fewer scientist and spokespeople. Industry experts are important voices in policymaking debates, but rarely can such folks communicate effectively with people who have basically zero technical or scientific education.

What the industry needs is more messaging that reflects how ad agencies handle copy: Aim it at seven-year olds, and you’ll be right on target.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.

Did I read that right? On May 30th State Rep. Sue Boldra was one of only eighteen members of the Kansas House to vote for a massive tax increase estimated at $767 Million over the next four years. Among other things the bill would have permanently raised the Kansas sales tax from 5.7 to 6.3 percent, cut the standard deduction for married couples from $9000 to $6500, and cut home mortgage and charitable contribution deductions by fifty percent.

And that’s the same Sue Boldra who only last fall, with her State Chamber-funded advertising, falsified and vilified Eber Phelps’ record, portraying him as some wild-eyed big-spending liberal because he voted for a temporary sales tax increase? Wow! No wonder many feel so cynical towards politicians.

Alan Jilka
Salina

Released: June 12, 2013

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural
Matt Wilson – Invena

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Rough seas off the western coast of Africa are making it difficult for a company to complete its work. Where would such a company turn for a solution? Would you believe, to a business in rural Kansas?

Matt Wilson (no relation to the author) is owner and founder of Invena Corporation in southeast Kansas. Matt grew up in Eureka, graduated from what is now K-State Salina and earned a mechanical engineering technology degree from K-State Manhattan.

“I had mentors, professors who made a great impression on me,” Matt said. His corporate career took him to large companies in Allentown, Penn. and Dallas, Texas.

In 1997, Matt’s father was diagnosed with colon cancer, so he moved back to Eureka and set up shop as an individual consultant with his mother Carma doing the books. They named the new business Invena, as a play on the word invention.

“That’s what we do. We invent things,” Matt said.

“We had a nice website and fancy business cards,” he said. “We just never invited anybody to the corporate headquarters.” That was because, for the first two years of operation, the corporate headquarters was the guest bedroom of his parent’s house.

“I lived on the road,” Matt said.

Over time, the business evolved beyond consulting. “We would design something for a company, and they would say, `Looks good. Just go ahead and get it built somewhere.’” So Invena staff started producing these products through subcontractors and eventually moved into doing the manufacturing themselves.

Matt bought the old train depot in Eureka and remodelled it into the corporate office. Since those first years, Matt has remarried, his mother Carma retired, and his father survived the bout with cancer. The company has grown to 35 employees with more than $10 million dollars in annual revenues.

Invena is known for design and precision fabrication of equipment and controls for the energy and aerospace sectors, but the company remains flexible. Essentially, Invena is an engineering problem-solver.

“There’s a lot of opportunity,” Matt said.

For example: After the earthquake in San Francisco, Calif., authorities required that all buildings and fixtures be earthquake-proof. Invena was called upon to do the required analysis for one company’s wheel racks.

When an Argentina firm acquired a used cryogenic plant but found that the equipment manufacturer had gone out of business, Invena “reverse-engineered” and built the necessary equipment. When a large customer in Houston had a big fast-track design project, Invena set up a remote office at the customer’s facility and quickly hired and trained a dozen CAD designers and engineers to execute it. Then Invena set up another remote office at the manufacturing plant in Tulsa to work with the folks on the shop floor.

Invena’s customers are mostly Fortune 50 companies – not Fortune 500, Fortune 50 – so they are very successful.

“Eighty percent of our business is export,” Matt said. He estimates that Invena has worked with customers in 54 countries.

That’s quite remarkable for a company in a rural community like Eureka, population 2,940 people. Now, that’s rural. For more information, go to www.invena.com.

What are the challenges of doing this international work in a small Kansas town? “We have to plan ahead – can’t just run downtown if we need some unusual part,” Matt said. “But we love it here. I couldn’t stand to move back to the city. We recruit people from the west coast where there is lots of crime and a high cost of living. When they come here, it’s like a dream. Our rural location can work to our advantage.”

Matt is now working with the K-State Department of Architecture on designs for downtown redevelopment in Eureka.

“If all I accomplish at the end of my days is to say I helped save my hometown, that’s good enough,” he said.

It’s time to leave this platform off the shore of West Africa, where Invena helped solve the problem of the rough seas. We salute Matt Wilson and all the people of Invena for making a difference with their entrepreneurial engineering. Their business is helping rural Kansas make waves.

Have you seen the new Star Wars Trailer?