Best of Siloam Springs

Siloam Springs. An example would be the fact that we have a lot of burger establishments here in Siloam Springs. And if a burger outfit comes to us and wants to open up we won't discourage that. But when we are recruiting we are going to be calculating and seek out food service businesses that provide some diversity to the marketplace and hopefully bring something new to Siloam Springs. We believe that this is the smart way to recruit businesses. We are helping to ensure that they succeed, while at the same time bring more variety to our community of consumers." Another contributor to the steady and stable growth in Siloam Springs has been the industries that have provided employment opportunities to the community. Some of them are home grown, having been started by local people, so they are committed to staying in the area. And other businesses come from elsewhere, attracted to the quality of the community and the workers available as well as things like a low tax rate. In the end, Siloam Springs manages a nice balance of smaller entrepreneurs that make up the historic downtown area and the larger businesses that provide the bulk of employment opportunities to the community. A big recent shot in the arm has been the new Simmons plant that is bringing people to the area who want to work at the plant and live in Siloam Springs. Anticipating the growth has been the ongoing strategy of the city and the chamber of commerce and Siloam Springs has been able to stay on top of it. "Actually, one of our biggest challenges in the past several years has been housing because everybody wants to live in Siloam Springs," Mays said. "But we have addressed that and developers are starting to come in and build new homes and duplexes. We now have several hundred new homes either under construction or already built to address the need for housing." The small business entrepreneur has been at the heart of the steady growth of the downtown area. "Small business owners come and look at our town and a lot of times we don't even know about it. Sometimes they come at night or on the weekend doing their own scouting," Mays said. "They eventually come in and talk to us about our business opportunities, which are extensive. And, of course, they can see how quaint and vibrant the downtown is and also how friendly folks are. We send them over to the Main Street organization to look into the availability in the historic district. All together, it makes for a very attractive package – the customer base, the charming setting and the support from the city and organizations." All of the components are working together in Siloam Springs to promote and sustain businesses. And the proof can be seen by going back to how the town has been able to maintain the thing that everyone came to Siloam Springs for in the first place. "Even through our calculated growth we've been able to keep our small town feel," Reed said. "If you go down the I-49 corridor to the towns like Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville and others, they don't have that small town feeling any more. You can't walk down the street and say 'hi' to someone and actually know the people. Ask them about their mom or their dad. The way towns used to be forty or fifty years ago. We still have that. And if we didn't have that we would be just another city in the middle of a population and economic growth spurt." Even through our calculated growth we've been able to keep our small town feel. ~ Nathan Reed Siloam Springs Herald-Leader Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Best of Siloam Springs • 25 479-273-2220 • 1-800-495-2220 Thank You for voting us one of the Best!

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