Minor Wines deliver Major taste .

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How do you beat the summer heat ? Page 7

The Granada Theater is one of the most well-known and beloved buildings in downtown Emporia .

Emporia wins USA Today ’ s Best Main Street contest

By Zach Hacker zach @ emporia . com

Now it ’ s official .

Emporia can declare that it has the best Main Street in America according to a USA Today poll .

“ It ’ s a great thing for Emporia ,” Main Street executive director Casey Woods said . “ The grassroots effort that we saw — this isn ’ t our award . This is about everyone who has opened a business here , everyone who organized an event , everyone who voted and created advocacy for Emporia online . What an awesome validation for an active , doer community .”

Voting in the contest ended at 11 a . m . Monday morning and the winner was not announced until Friday . Emporia was in the lead with just a couple minutes to go , but once that deadline hit , the screen informed viewers that they ’ d have to wait . Even Woods didn ’ t know until the 11 a . m . Friday announcement .

He admitted the four days in between came with a little bit of tension .

“ There ’ s a little pressure ,”

Woods said . “ I mean , we had a lot of people voting and encouraging other people to vote . There was just this giant ownership in the city of Emporia . We had people all over the world voting . We had people who rode in the Dirty Kanza , people who have played in the Glass Blown Open , former students at Emporia State and all of our local businesses that have been following this . I ’ ve had a lot of people coming up to me and saying , ‘ Well , you know right ?’ No . I didn ’ t . But just that fact that we ’ re this excited about it shows that we won no matter what the poll says .”

Patrice Frey is the President and CEO of the National Main Street Center , which runs a network called Main Street America that focuses on revitalizing downtown areas in cities throughout the country . They work with city leaders or Main Street directors on the local level to provide training , technical assistance and any other resources they might need in improving their own Main Street .

USA Today reached out to Frey and the National Main Street Center to help choose 20 nominees for the contest . Doing so , Frey said , was no easy task as Main Street America has a network of about 1,100 communities .

“ We got together as a team and came up with a list ,” Frey said Thursday in a phone interview from her Chicago office . “ It was a tough list to create with so many great communities in our network . What it came down to was — we were looking for places that had a true , hometown feel in their downtown , a strong sense of community , places where you could tell that revitalization was a community effort and everybody loves a comeback story ; so places that maybe started out in a difficult situation but have come a long way .”

Zach Hacker / Gazette

Emporia Main Street employee Jessica Buchholz leans back in her chair as she nervously anticipates the results of the USA Today Best Main Street contest Friday at the Emporia Main Street office on Fifth Avenue .

The contest began on May 23 and Emporia got out to a strong start . It sat in positions 4 through 6 for the first couple weeks until the aforementioned

Please see Win , Page 3

By The Associated Press

and Jessie Wagoner jessie @ emporia . com

School is in session .

Kansas legislators have passed an education funding plan that boosts aid to poor school districts to satisfy a state Supreme Court mandate and end a threat that the public schools might not reopen next month .

The plan approved shortly after 8 p . m . Friday night increases aid to poor school districts by $ 38 million for 2016-17 by diverting money from other parts of state government .

The votes were 116-6 in the House and 38-1 in the Senate , sending the plan to Republican Governor Sam Brownback .

“ I ’ m pleased and I ’ m relieved ,”

Representative Don Hill said . “ It was a good day .”

Brownback said the Kansas Legislature has done a “ fantastic job ” in passing the school funding plan . Brownback told reporters he will sign the bill that lawmakers passed .

“ I am feeling good ( about the plan ),” Hill said . “ It was one of those things that you knew from the beginning that there wasn ’ t going to be an ideal outcome . We just had to be cognizant of politics and the art of the possible and — given the dire financial situation that we are in — I think what we passed was very likely the best that we possibly could have under the circumstances . It is hard not to be pleased at that .”

An attorney for four school districts suing the state said the plan solved issues identified in the Supreme Court in a ruling last month .

The court said on May 27 the education funding system remained unfair to poor districts and warned that schools might not be able to reopen after June 30 .

Brownback said : “ I will sign it , and this will be finished .”

Before picking up discussions on school funding , the Kansas Senate attempted to advance a constitutional amendment blocking the closure of public schools by the state ’ s judicial or legislative branches as a remedy in litigation on school finance issues .

The bill failed to pass , falling short by one vote . The bill drew criticism from both Democrats and Republicans , including Senator Jeff Longbine of Emporia . Early Friday morning , Longbine predicted that the bill would not pass . Longbine voted against the bill , joining four other republican lawmakers .

“ I think what we passed was very likely the best that we possibly could have under the circumstances . It is hard not to be pleased at that .”

Rep . Don Hill State Representative , 60th District

“ I think it is unlikely the bill will pass ,” Longbine said Friday morning .

Now that school funding is addressed , legislators must again face the financial uncertainty of other areas of the state budget .

“ The next big job will be coming back in January and working on getting responsible revenue work done and working on a brand new school finance plan ,” Hill said .

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