There's no business like new business

With all the daily chatter and occasional ranting on the Mountain Home News online Web site, sometimes someone posts a real thought-provoking question followed by plenty of discussion.

Case in point: About two weeks ago, one of the site's regular visitors asked what type of new business Mountain Home needed. Over these next several days, people fired back some very interesting ideas.

The Mountain Home News staff took this constructive dialog a step further and developed a brief survey to encourage others to chip in their 2 cents. We asked folks, "What type of business do you feel Mountain Home needs?"

In the end, our site received 215 responses in about a week -- not too shabby for our small newspaper. Although the survey was extremely unscientific, the results did raise a few eyebrows.

Out of these votes, nearly a quarter of people said a family fun center topped their list of what the city needs. Note: Don't confuse this idea with the ongoing call for a new YMCA or community fitness center. The fun center is a very different and unrelated idea.

What most people envisioned was a combination indoor and outdoor center featuring laser tag, go carts, roller skating and more -- something similar to one in Boise. People felt Mountain Home needed "something for the kids to do and keep them out of trouble and something our (high school) seniors would love to do," one person commented.

While a noble idea, it does hit a few snags.

Money -- or more to the point charging admission -- is probably the biggest hurdle and a tough sell for a lot of financially strapped families in town. With the U.S. economy currently swaying back and forth worse than a palm tree in a Category 5 hurricane, there are only a few people in Mountain Home willing to shell out the bucks for their kids to go to a place like this on occasion, let alone every week or every day.

Then there's a bigger issue of whether people will actually use something they wish for in a survey like this. This happened a few years back when a poll of local teens overwhelmingly supported an idea to build a roller skating rink in town -- a place where they could hang out. It seemed simple enough until someone actually built the skating rink and went out of business several weeks later because no one bothered to go there.

While many wanted the fun center, nearly 25 percent more wanted a another chain restaurant here. A few suggested keeping a place open 24 hours a day while others wanted a fine-dining establishment. Again, the question remains whether or not people would choose to visit a place like this frequently or opt to check out the other fast food and sit-down restaurants once the newness wears off.

The next business option people ranked in the top three was a shoe store. With many stores featuring different types of clothing, it made perfect sense, especially folks hunting for a specific pair of shoes and those needing a pair for their teens that doesn't breaking their wallet.

But there was one idea that gained a lot more traction than others -- creating a "business incubator" in downtown Mountain Home. The concept is fairly simple. Take one large, unoccupied building and fill it with small vendors or newly formed mom-and-pop businesses.

The incubator concept gives these folks a chance to test the waters to see if they're ready to open their own store either downtown or elsewhere in Mountain Home. Eventually, the goal is for these up-and-coming owners to move into a larger store front, opening up space for another starter business. If they've done well, their customers would follow them.

Some people responding to our survey want to see the old King's building renovated and converted into this fledgling business builder. However, that's no small order. The building needs an extensive amount of work to bringing it up to code. That includes removing the asbestos in the walls, upgrading all the wiring and adding an elevator, since it's a multi-story facility.

Tearing down the building and starting over doesn't work either, since its existing parking lot doesn't comply with the city's current parking ordinance. Oddly enough, if it's renovated, it's exempt from this law.

The bottom line is Mountain Home needs new business, especially if it hopes to save the downtown area. People here want variety and more options, which remain readily available in Boise. It's the main reason why so many shoppers make that 90-mile round trip. Our town needs something people here want to encourage them to shop locally

When Walmart opened on the city's north side, it attracted businesses on that side of town and drew customers away from the downtown area. Currently, the city lacks another business anchor in the downtown area to maintain a balance of where people shop.

That's expected to change over the next 10 to 20 years. Depending on if commercial or industrial growth picks up in Boise or in rural communities like Glenns Ferry, we stand to benefit either way with new retail and business growth along the old Highway 30 route. It's possible this growth will appear on Sunset Strip while some are hedging their bets that developers will foster growth along the section of the former highway leading toward the Exit 99 turnoff. Regardless of which way it goes, it puts the city's downtown area in the middle of this expansion.

Either way, the city's downtown area stands to benefit since it falls smack in the middle of all this development. We need to be ready.