A Buc-ee's in Russell, Kansas? The Good and Bad News

At the beginning of the year, a communitywide effort to recruit the well-known travel destination Buc-ee's to Russell County launched.

The goal was to draw the attention of Buc-ee's leadership and highlight Russell as a candidate for their expanding business.

Several hundred comments were submitted on the Buc-ee's website promoting Russell County from local communities, the surrounding counties and even out-of-state supporters, and it worked. Buc-ee's leadership reached out to Russell City Mayor Jim Cross and a meeting was scheduled with the Vice President of Buc-ee's and a team of representatives from the City of Russell, Russell Development, Inc. and Russell County Economic Development and CVB.

The bad news: Buc-ee's is a large-scale travel center and requires a minimum workforce of 300 employees, and frankly, Russell County couldn't meet that requirement.

The good news: from the discussion with the Vice President, Russell's location, traffic numbers and quality of life were all well received. Russell County met several of the requirements for consideration, but just doesn't have the population or workforce.

With that being said, recruitment efforts have not stopped. Officials are adjusting the scope of recruitment plans and keeping the momentum going with the information gained from this experience. They know that community involvement in recruitment can work and they plan to continue to utilize it with future endeavors.

They appreciate the community collaboration on this project and look forward to the next joint effort.

Contact Mike Parsons at Russell County Economic Development and CVB at 785-483-4000 or rced2@russellks.net if you have any questions.

(Information courtesy Russell County Economic Development and CVB.)