By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Fall semester classes begin Monday at Kansas State University. In Manhattan that's good news since it means thousands of KSU students are arriving in the community.
There is increased traffic and longer lines in stores and restaurants but the addition of thousands of students is considered by many welcome news.
Community and Economic Impact
Jason Smith, Chamber of Commerce President, said Manhattan is a college town. "So we sort of feel empty when we don't have students here. So just culturally I think the town feels more vibrant and engaging when the students are here. It's who we are."
Smith noted that's important economically because students shop and their return helps the local businesses and restaurants. Many of the students work in the local establishments as well. "Certainly now when we're in the labor crunch we're in across the country, being able to have workers of all types is important and we have a lot of students that fill those spots."
Smith noted that just having the students back make the residents feel better and makes Manhattan who they are as a community.
Aggieville
Dennis Cook, Aggieville Business Association Executive Director, considers Aggieville the heart of the town and the "excitement part of coming back to K-State." We have a lot of businesses that depend on the college students to not only come down and be a part of who we are but they're also a big number of our employees so we're anxious to have school back."
For the businesses in Aggieville Cook noted that the biggest part of the year is the fall. "The fall semester, this is where businesses really make it so we're excited."
Students coming into Aggieville will find a brand new parking garage that holds more than 450 vehicles. "We're going to be encouraging people to use the new parking garage because one of the main streets, North Manhattan Ave., is under construction and it will be for probably the whole fall and part-way through the spring semester. So it's important for people to come down here and use the parking garage. It's very accessible and it's going to be free until the end of the year."
RCPD
Riley County Police Patrol Captain Greg Steere noted that there is a lot of construction under way in the community and that changes on a week-to-week and month-to-month basis. Motorists should be mindful of that as they travel in and around Manhattan.
Steere said a lot of students are coming back for school so more people will be on the roadway. "Also in the last year or so we've had a bit of an increase in our overall accident numbers so we're trying to do everything that we can to just let folks know that we need their help to do everything they can to be safe and be aware of other motorists."
Police are starting an accident reduction initiative called ARC, Accident Reduction Citation. "We're going to be out doing a little more enforcement and we're trying to focus on behaviors that we know cause accidents." Steere added that almost always, some kind of distracted driving or inattention play a big factor. "Our historical three things are almost always related to following too close, failure to yield or other aggressive driving actions like speeding or things like that." RCPD is trying to focus on measures that will affect some of those behaviors.
Twenty mile per hour school speed zones will be in effect at locations across the city and where large groups of people can congregate at locations Steele encouraged people to be aware of their surroundings. "We always encourage students especially, to try as much as you can, especially late at night. Be together, stay in groups is always a good thing to do." If you see something suspicious call the Riley County Police Department.