FAIRBURY, Neb. - A group of leaders in local business and politics in Fairbury gathered at the city park’s community center on Monday for a conversation with economics students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It was an opportunity for the local citizens to discuss some of Fairbury’s strengths and weaknesses, and for the students to be able to paint a clearer picture of the area’s opportunities for growth.  

More than a dozen students in UNL’s Rural Community Economics course (AECN376) made the trip south from Lincoln to get a first-hand look at the town they’ve been studying. A formal conversation with many of the people who help Fairbury function served as chance for the students to check some of the information that they found online, and also learn a little bit about the community – things that they couldn’t find online, instructor Daniela Mattos said.  

Students in this course have been to bigger towns and places closer to the I-80 corridor such as York and Milford before, and this month, it was Fairbury’s turn. More than a dozen high-ranking leaders of local businesses, members of organizational boards, and elected city and county government officials were on hand to share their insights, and nearly everyone agreed: chief among the problems Fairbury faces are a lack of widespread, affordable housing, and both attracting people to – and keeping them in – a small community in Southeast Nebraska.  

“I think people come to or stay in Fairbury for that closeness, the small-town values, the peace of knowing that if you left your car unlocked while you went grocery shopping, you’d be OK, and it takes you five minutes to get to work,” said Jaime McDaniel of Lambert Vet Supply, who just began her first term on Fairbury’s city council. “But I also think there’s the other aspect where they don’t know how to get out of Fairbury – even if they wanted to leave, they can’t afford to move somewhere else. I think that’s sometimes why people stay here. Maybe they can’t break the cycle.” 

“Getting people down here is a challenge. We’re sitting here, we’re not on the interstate, we don’t have this Gothenburg, Cozad, Crete, kind of population. We’ve got some good businesses here in the community, and I think a bigger project for us here, rather than trying to bring in a new industry, I don’t know many industries that are going to come in here with our population,” said Charley Endorf, who has served for years on the board of the cemetery association and just began his first term on the city council. “I think we should spend more time developing the people who have businesses here and do everything we can to keep those businesses here. I don’t want to see them leave town.” 

“We’re trying to pair this up so that we can get developers to build workforce housing not at a loss. That’s the biggest thing – it needs to benefit them so they can benefit the city,” said Laura Bedlan, Fairbury’s development services director, who coordinated the speakers at Monday’s event. “People are really excited to keep Fairbury on the map, but to do that there’s a lot of work with the commissioners, the city council, to keep that infrastructure up to support workforce housing and the workforce. And that’s what we’re charged with every day.” 

Any of the shortfalls facing a place like Fairbury are hardly unique – in fact, as Jefferson County commissioner Mark Schoenrock noted, they’re pretty common across many of the other places the UNL students have researched or seen already. 

“A lot of these challenges, they don’t know a county line. Just because we have a challenge here in Jefferson County, if you went west to Thayer County, you’d find pretty similar challenges,” Schoenrock said. “It doesn’t know a state line either: if you go south into Kansas, Washington County, Republic County, there’s a lot of the same challenges.” 

On the flipside, many of Monday’s speakers – most of whom have lived and worked in Jefferson County or elsewhere in Nebraska for much of their lives – all pointed to the community’s values, dedication, history and sense of unity as major selling points.  

“There’s a lot of business owners in Fairbury that are very involved, and very open to volunteering and helping,” said Blake Sadd, CFO of Livingston Enterprises. “I’m a big believer in ‘tone at the top.’ If the most prominent members of your community are visible, you see them out there helping the community, I think that is the start of a very strong foundation to your community, and the more the better.” 

“We have a really good tradition here: when something needs to get done, there are people who will step up and get it done,” said Lana Likens of Jefferson Community Health and Life,  pointing to progress made on the cemetery, Bonham Theatre, and the park’s playground as prime examples. "Fairbury Frontier Park was built by 1,800 people who showed up for a week, and stood by people they would typically not see in a social setting and did things that they would not necessarily get to do as part of their jobs. I got to take a big old sander and sand things – and that’s not something I get to do on a day-to-day basis. When things really need to happen, this community will step up and get it done, and I think that’s a big strength.” 

“When I look around the room and see who has volunteered today, it doesn’t surprise me, because you all are the people who volunteer for many things,” said Mike Garton, regional branch manager at Heartland Bank. “If we had a wider range of people to give back to the community, I think that would be a great help for us.” 

Schoenrock cited a recent survey that indicated 78% of local graduating high school seniors wish to stay in the general area, which prompted a key question among all of Monday’s participants: how can Fairbury both attract new people to the area while also holding on to the people who are already here? Some solutions are already in place, such as an apprenticeship program at JCH&L or trade school partnerships orchestrated by car dealerships like Riverside Chevrolet, but those on-ramps for new or entry-level workers haven't always provided answers for people looking for somewhere to live and work long-term. 

“Housing is a big issue for us. It’s tough to get young, entry-level workers to come to our small community,” said Dick Newton, whose family has run Riverside Chevrolet for nearly 100 years. “We’ve tried so many different things, job fairs, whatever it might be...the young people look for that big city, and the small town has so much to offer, I feel.” 

“We’ve got to find a way – trade schools, whatever it takes – to get these kids to stay here in our community,” Endorf echoed. “We need linemen, electricians, people in the water department, plumbers. We need those kinds of people here.” 

From here, the course’s objective and the students’ directive is to create an analysis and a plan of action to give back to these figureheads so they can help Fairbury improve and grow. The class concluded its day in Southeast Nebraska with a tour of downtown Fairbury and the surrounding area, getting a first-hand look at some of the businesses, buildings and locations that make up Fairbury’s past, present and future.