By Dennis Minich
This is a very special week at The South Cass Tribune, one which we had hoped we could share with everyone with a party, but unfortunately social distancing guidelines are going to delay the party a little while.
This week we have officially moved to our new office at 305 W. Wall St., Suite C. Some may know it as the Pearson Investments Building. We are excited about our new digs because we have our own parking lot in back, easy street access from the front and room for our staff to move around.
Our offices had been located in the Chamber of Commerce building on the
square, leading some to think we were affiliated with the chamber. We were not, we simply rented space there. In fact, the space was first rented by Pat Thomas when he established The Harrisonville Star, our forerunner, in April 2017.
I would like to take a few lines to thank the chamber for helping us get started and for the community to recognize what a valuable resource the chamber is.
Many start-up businesses fail because of the costs of getting started. Not only is there rent or mortgage, but also utilities, Internet and a variety of overhead items hard to predict. The chamber provides a business incubator of sorts, providing space for new businesses with utilities and a reception area at a modest cost.
We are not the first business to have started in a chamber space and expanded out and we will not be the last.
Many people fail to see what the chamber does do in support of the local business community. Executive Director Bing Schimmelpfenning has been working tirelessly in recent weeks to keep up with the latest business issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak and be in a position to help area businesses.
The Harrisonville Board of Aldermen last week voted to hire an economic development director ASAP to also help businesses recuperate from the Coronavirus effects. Along with the banks and other businesses providing resources, I hope the time it takes for the local business community to recover is short.
The past few weeks have been hard on many businesses and ours is no exception. While deemed an essential service, trying to get the paper done the past few weeks has been no easy task. We know people are tired of
Coronavirus stories, we as well look forward to getting back to business
as usual where we get out more, talk to people and bring a broader spectrum of stories. With luck, that will be sooner rather than later as well.
But at the same time, we know that many of you count on us to provide the
latest coverage on topics such as the virus.
We promised early on we would be here every step of the way and we have
worked to deliver on that promise. By your feedback, we feel we have achieved some success.
In our new office we will be able to deliver the same services as before and
hopefully more. We hope folks recognize us by the big sign on the side of the building announcing The South Cass Tribune.
When you can do so safely, feel free to come by. You can pick up single copies of the paper, purchase previous editions, subscribe or renew subscriptions, buy advertising, drop off news items or just say hi.
And if you can’t come by, you can mail us at the office or at our post office box (P.O. Box 275, Harrisonville) or you can email us at news@southcasstribune.com. We also have two phone numbers: 816-
793-0540 and 816-680-1992. You can also contact us via Facebook.
As we have said since April 2017, we want your news. We want to know about births, engagements, weddings, promotions, business news, civic club news, contests: as Pat used to say, “If its news to you, its news to us.”
We are grateful for the past three years and we are excited about the future. And I do promise, when the time is right, we are going still going to throw that party.
