Saturday, September 20, 2008

Progress in Kodiak

In any town there is always some excitement when a new business 
opens or there is a change in the way the city operates. That is especially
evident in the town of Kodiak. Although we boast a population of almost 
10,000, if you count the outlying areas, we are quite supportive of new
businsses. This was particulaly obvious when we had a new eating
establishment open. The turnout on opening day was phenomenal! Even
the owner commented that other openings had not had near this 
enthusiasm. With the grand opening there were cars filling the parking lot
and people in line to order. Yes, Taco Bell had come to Kodiak and
people were excited. In fact, the demand was so great that the wait in
line was up to 2 hours. And someone else reported that they waited 3
hours in the drive-thru lane. The last time I drove past, on Friday evening,
most booths were full inside and there were 7 cars waiting in the drive-
through lane. Where in the lower 48 can you see this much support for
the local economy? Maybe it was the combination with Kentucky Fried 
Chicken that brought the people. We really don't know, but everyone 
agrees thatwe are seeing progress in the town.
This opening does not come close to one a few years earlier. This 
store brought so much community support that their grand opening at 
midnight found cars filling the parking area, people standing in long 
lines at the door, and cars lining the street for over one mile with 
people anxious to see what the store had to offer Kodiak. This support
was for our own mini-Walmart. It's not nearly as large as most, but 
can you imagine if we ever got a Super Walmart what would happen?
New eating establishments aren't the only progress here.  The city
just completed some road rennoavations. This prior intersection had a
flashing red and yellow light. With the completions we now have
our first traffic signal that changes from red to green. Wow! We also 
have a police car nearby to remind citizens that the lights is different 
from the prior one. Now, we have to remember that a few years ago the
city tried to make this change. There were 4 car accidents in one
morning. By the afternoon they were back to the blinking light. We will
have to wait and see what happens this time. The only other intersection
that comes close is the 3-way stop sign near one of the elementary
schools (we have 4).
As the city continues to plan for the future we hope to see more
progress occurring. But as things go now, we wil just have to wait and 
see. If you would like to see a few recent photos of our city, here is a 
gallery of photos:

http://gallery.me.com/criokodiak#100294

1 comment:

Yvonne Kizerian said...

AWESOME!! I see that the Kodiak-ians also find it hard to live without a good 'ol fashioned bean burrito sometimes. What's wrong with that??