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John McGhehey: I think it's a wonderful symbol for us. It's something that draws people, at least out of curiosity, to the area. It's an opportunity to maybe get somebody to look at Alliance differently than just passing through, because they're going to come visit Carhenge. We've got a Carnegie Art Center here in town, developed our creative art district, and last year they had their very first mural event out at Carhenge and brought in muralists, famous muralists from around the country, to paint a couple of the cars at Carhenge, and also did some murals in town as well.
Dale Johnson: Alliance was founded in 1888 specifically to be a Burlington and Missouri River railroad junction. Nearly 140 years later, is Alliance still a railroad town?
McGhehey: Oh, I think you have to say that for sure. Our most significant employer is BNSF. It still obviously provides tremendous amount of economics and economic boost to the to the community.
Johnson: The 2000s have seen a big spurt in development in Alliance, recognized three times as an economic development certified community. I saw a remark from Nebraska's former Director of Economic Development Anthony Goins. He said, communities the size of Alliance aren't people magnets like Lincoln or Omaha. They earn each family and every new business that comes to town. How is Alliance doing that successfully?
McGhehey: Well, first of all, you have to have jobs available for the people to come to and fortunately, we have some great employers here in town. You've already identified BNSF as one of those. And then we have a nice, large hospital here, Box Butte General Hospital. The article you referred to mentioned the expansion they did a few years ago, which made them even more significant as an employer in the community. That certified community that you referred to, that's an exercise that DED has you go through to help you make sure you're prepared to bring people there or bring businesses to your town. One of the things is having either a building available for someone to move immediately into, or land available. And that's something that Box Butte Development Corporation did several years ago. They bought some land on the east side of town that is available for development, and we received a new business Nutrien came to town about four years ago and built a facility here in Alliance. So that community exercise prepares you to bring people here.
Johnson: Mayor, I want to talk about downtown. As goes downtown in smaller communities, so goes the community. Characterize the downtown region of Alliance.
McGhehey: About 10 years ago, we received some grant funds and did a downtown improvement. So we improved the look of downtown dramatically with new sidewalks. We buried all of the electrical wires and everything so that it had a much cleaner look and put in new street lights. We thought that was a first step to making it more attractive to be downtown. But we have the same issue that most small towns have in that we've lost a lot of the retail downtown, and it's become more of an area for service and that type of business.
Johnson: What's the latest update on Highway 385, the 25-mile route between Alliance and Scottsbluff, turning it into a four-lane divided highway?
McGhehey: So they completed the portion from Alliance, the south end of Alliance, down to what's called Angora Hill. It's about a 16-mile stretch, about four years ago. So we've got four lane from that point, the next stage of that Heartland Expressway is from that point, from that Angora Hill down to a small town just outside Scottsbluff, which connects that four lane all the way from Scottsbluff to Alliance.
Johnson: Why is that important?
McGhehey: Well, obviously you choose your route, particularly for trucking, where most of material today is moved by truck, and we have a lot of agriculture in our area, particularly during harvest seasons, we have a lot of trucks out on the road which impede the flow of traffic and make it a little bit a little bit tighter. So having four lanes rather than two lanes, opens that up. It’s more likely that people are going to choose that route for their travel and bring them by your community.
Johnson: In conclusion, mayor, what does Alliance need that it doesn't have?
McGhehey: You probably referred to that right off the beginning, and that's people. We've got a 3% unemployment rate in Box Butte County. The counties all around us have similar unemployment rates. So I think the biggest challenge is we need people, and to get people, we also need housing.
Johnson: What is the housing situation in Alliance these days?
McGhehey: We've got housing available, obviously, we always do, but it's limited, and it's spread out anywhere from a $40,000 house to a $400,000 house, and there's not a large volume in any one particular area. So we're looking into potentially establishing a land bank, which would allow us to maybe purchase some properties that are underused right now and maybe see them get developed.
Johnson: Mayor, thank you very much for carving out time. I appreciate this conversation.
McGhehey: It's been my pleasure.
Johnson: Alliance’s Mayor John McGee on Nebraska Public Media. Thanks for listening. I'm Dale Johnson.