With jobs on the rise, the Development Corporation would like to spread the word about the success of our community. We are asking area businesses to help post flyers, table tents, and even window decals to spread the word of our sister sites: dodgecityhasjobs.com and dodgecityhousing.com.

For those businesses who are hiring, the Development Corporation can not only aid individuals and families in finding a place to live, but also give community tours to help future employees become familiar with our area.

Let us know how we can help you!

For more information, please contact the Development Corporation at (620) 227-9501.

Dodge City Community College and Area Technical Center has partnered with ITC Great Plains, Sunflower Electric and Victory Electric to offer the Electrical Transmission System Technician Program. DCCC has become the first in the nation to offer a technical program of this nature.

Students in the program will learn through a combination of classroom work as well as hands-on lab and field training. The program focuses on systems operations and dispatching, and technicians are responsible for ensuring the reliability of the transmission of electricity to consumers. Upon completion of the one-year program, students will be certified to enter the industry field.

DCCC hired 30-year industry veteran Ron Wilkins to lead the program and classes will begin in January. For more information about the Electrical Transmission System Technician Program call the DCCC Technical Education office at (620) 227-9295.

News Anchor Tom Foreman interviewed a panel of community leaders, as well as the local Dodge City/Ford County Development Corporation’s Director Joann Knight on the successes of the community. Two reoccurring needs, workforce and housing continue to be the largest concerns for the community. When asked about how the community has become successful in a time of recession Jeff Hiers responded, “We took a vote and decided not to participate in a recession.”

The CNN crew televised and interviewed Winter’s Feedlot, Boothill Museum, Dodge City Depot, and community leaders throughout the Ford County area. “These are very exciting times to be participating in,” says Knight. “We are happy to publicize our success and hope to continue the positive impact with the growth we are experiencing.”

“Everyone seems to give everyone else credit,” commented Foreman. “We haven’t seen the “me” leadership, the “I” leadership. It’s the “we,” stated Joe Bogner of Western Beverage. The panel continued to comment on the team efforts of the area. “To be a community you have to embrace the needs of everyone, to invite everyone to the table,” said Jeff Thorpe, Boot Hill Gaming.

CNN aired a clip of the community, as well as published letters to the President Obama about our area. Also airing will be a thirty-minute segment called “Building Up America” which features successful Kansas communities. To view the video segment click here. To view the letters written to the President click here.

(DODGE CITY, KS) January 12, 2011 – One year after the opening of a first-class tourist attraction in Dodge City, Kansas, Boot Hill Casino & Resort is celebrating by offering its guests a Prime Rib dinner for $8.99 every Sunday through Wednesday, and a Seafood Buffet featuring Crab Legs, for $18.99 every Thursday, for the months of January and February.

The Prime Rib dinner, featuring a tender cut of Beef Rib, a stuffed baked potato and an all you can eat Soup and Salad bar, is sure to delight every guest.  And, for the seafood lover, The Seafood Buffet is one of the best in all of Kansas, offering Crab Legs, Whole Atlantic Salmon, Seafood Cakes and a Shellfish Bar.

The Prime Rib Dinner, at $8.99 and The Seafood Buffet at $18.99 is available when the guest presents a Boot Hill Casino & Resort Players Club card.  There is no charge to obtain a Players Club card.  Gratuity and taxes are not included in the special price.

Boot Hill Casino & Resort features 580 electronic gaming machines, 14 table games, 2 live poker tables, a 150 seat casual dining restaurant known as Firesides at Boot Hill , The Saloon for casual cocktails and a variety of imported and domestic draft beers, a snack bar for light fare on the go and a retail gift shop.

For more information about Boot Hill Casino & Resort, please visit us at www.boothillcasino.com, or call us at 1-877-906-0777.

Boot Hill Casino & Resort supports responsible gambling initiatives. Guests must be 21 to enter the facility.

ABOUT BOOT HILL CASINO & RESORT

Boot Hill Casino & Resort, located on Highway 50 in Dodge City, is the first state run gaming facility in Kansas.  A tribute to the

legendary fame of the Old West, the property offers gaming, dining and entertainment in a setting reminiscent of the Wild West era.

Phase I of the $90  million project opened in December 2009, with Phase II targeted for completion in February 2012. The Boot Hill

Casino & Resort is managed by BHCMC, LLC, a subsidiary of  BNSC, a Kansas corporation.  The lottery facility games at Boot Hill

Casino & Resort are owned and operated by the Kansas Lottery.  The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission provides regulatory

oversight for the casino

The 7,000-seat indoor United Wireless Arena, recently opened, is offering headliner national concerts and entertainment, indoor sports and other major events. The facility also includes the Magouirk Conference Center with space for a variety of meetings, conferences and other activities.  Right next door is the Boot Hill Casino and Resort—currently the only state-run casino in Kansas.

If you like outdoor activities, join us for softball at Legends Park quad–plex or championship regional soccer nearby in some of the best outdoor sports facilities in the state. Or maybe you’ll like outdoor motorsports at Dodge City Raceway Park, the premier 3/8-mile dirt track and 1/5-mile asphalt facility in the nation which hosts multiple national events.

Want more sports? How about tennis, hunting, fishing, swimming, bowling, camping, dancing or even water sports, there’s an unlimited amount of recreational activities. HorseThief Reservoir, north of Dodge City, offers a 400-acre lake for even more water fun.

A beautifully-groomed private I8-hole golf course and country club can challenge even the best of golfers (or diners). Our 18-hole municipal course also features a driving range and fine dining facility. Tennis can be enjoyed at our numerous city parks, college and schools. Fitness, walking and bike trails can be found around town. There are two municipal swimming pools, a public sports center and even a private racquetball, tennis, swimming and fitness clubs.

The city features a repertory company, 170-seat dinner theater in the historically-restored 40,000-sq. ft. Santa Fe Depot, a 1,200-seat recently-remodeled Civic Center, Carnegie Center for the Arts, several museums, traveling symphonies, concerts and even the famous 10-day Dodge City Days with the Kansas’ largest and most famous PRCA rodeo, arts and crafts shows, parades, car races, train robbery, concerts, and dances.  Or maybe join us for a few dozen more celebrations and events all year long.

Tourism is a big part of what we do. We have 18 motels with nearly 900 rooms and two campgrounds. Boot Hill Casino and Resort and the neighboring United Wireless Arena and Magouirk Conference Center will be adding to those numbers.

So come kick up your boots on our front porch. Your dogs are going to be a little tired if you’re gonna’ keep up with us.

Dodge City recently completed Ross Elementary School to help relieve overcrowding and improve the elementary experience. The new school has 25 rooms, including four classrooms for each grade level and currently houses nearly 400 students in kindergarten through fourth grade.

With over 5,800 students in the district (Kansas Unified School District 443), nearly 1,700 students attend a new state-of-the-art High School, one of the largest in square footage in the state.

The community is working on a new middle school bond issue to provide more room for its over 800 middle school students. Over 3,250 elementary and 500 Kindergarten students attend eight elementary schools and a newly-renovated combined fifth and sixth grade center.

There is also a Pre-Kindergarten early childhood education center with Head Start program. There are also alternative High School and Adult Education opportunities.

With nearly 1,150 employees, the Dodge City school system offers quality education in updated facilities.

Along with meat packing and associated food processing, the area supports hundreds of agricultural production jobs in the farming and ranching industry. Jobs range from feedlot cowboys to ag publishing, executive and administrative agricultural jobs.

Ag machinery production is also an important area industry. Hundreds of people also support the ag industry with jobs that cover everything from irrigation to electrical to ag construction.

If “ag’s your bag,” you’ve come to the right place. Dodge City is home to agriculture on the High Plains.

The City of Dodge City and Ford County Government have announced the building of a large Special Event Center indoor arena, to be located on the site near the Boot Hill Casino & Resort on the west side of Dodge City.

In the works for several years and paid for by the “Why Not Dodge?” special sales tax fund, the event center indoor arena is expected to have permanent seating for over 5,000 with concert seating on the main floor bringing the total to over 7,000.

The event center, run by a national management company, is expected to host a wide variety of events including concerts, conventions, indoor sports, motor-sports such as monster trucks, wrestling, indoor rodeos and a host of other indoor events.

The entire project is paid for by local sales tax and has no effect on property taxes. Local officials expect to break ground sometime within the next few months and coordinate construction and services with Boot Hill Casino as both projects progress.

From a recent story in the Dodge City Daily Globe:

The Ford County Commission … approved a conditional use permit and development plan for Western Trail Wind Project I, following a recommendation by the Ford County Zoning Board. The company has already acquired the land for the wind farm, which will be located south of Bucklin and move west toward Kingsdown as it expands.

Horizon Wind Energy project manager Mark Lawlor said his company was grateful for the county’s support.

“Ford County has been tremendously supportive of this project, as well as the landowners,” he said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “And that’s really one of the strengths of this project and wind development in the area, is community support and understanding of the economic development that it brings.”

Commission Chairman Kim Goodnight said the project, like the Spearville wind farm before it, was good economic news for the county.

“There was no opposition at all on the wind farm when the zoning board took up the issue,” he said. “Something that there’s no negativity associated with it — that’s the good news.”

The Houston-based company is planning a wind farm capable of generating up to 400 megawatts of electricity, but has not yet determined how many turbines it will need, Lawlor said. The cost of the project is unclear, and a timeline for construction has not been set — although Lawlor said the company would like to be ready to build as early as this year.

Dodge City Medical Center has 25 doctors, one nurse clinician and a physician’s assistant—offering 13 different specialties.

Dodge City Medical Center provides physicians on call 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week and offers an Urgent Care Facility beyond regular office hours.

Dodge City boasts more doctors, nurses and medial care personnel than most other locations in the region. A full-time medical helicopter transport and twin-engine turbo-prop medical air service give fast and efficient critical medical transport  around the region.

A helicopter transport service provides direct transport from field sites to Western Plains Medical Complex, making it the fastest service available in Western Kansas. This special service also provides unique abilities to go straight to the site of medical need, especially important for service to accidents in the agricultural industry and on rural highways and roads.

Dodge City’s medical services are not only an excellent opportunity for careers, but provide peace-of-mind for Dodge City and Western Kansas residents.

Dodge City is a bustling center of business in the American heartland. Enjoy shady neighborhoods filled with historic buildings, famous landmarks and a bubbling history of colorful personalities. It could easily be your heartland home.

Experience a magical mixture of western hospitality, small-town safety, recreation, entertainment, family values and fresh, innovative growth. This progressive pioneer spirit has been the source of its inspiration. Tripling its population since 1955, Dodge City gracefully combines peaceful life on the High Plains with sound community policies that make it one of America’s most desirable hometowns.

Dodge City is Old West, New Excitement. Click away and in a few moments—you’ll learn why we know OUR TOWN should be YOUR TOWN!