McMullen: Sedalia in a state of change

Some might say that it’s hard to recognize Sedalia these days with all the changes its been experiencing the past few years.

The original Wheel-Inn Drive In has been leveled. The State Fair Cinema is no more. Both the Scotten’s Video locations have closed. I had one of those fundraising discount cards that the kids sell, and there were at least three businesses on it that didn’t exist by the time it expired.

The building that used to stand near the Motel 8 that contained a Western Sizzler, a Chinese restaurant and a bathroom fixture emporium has been torn down and in its place stands a modern strip mall complete with the store that has the tech savvy of Sedalia salivating — GameStop.

I walked in there the other day and it’s quite funny to see a retailer that normally deals in second-hand merchandise stocked to the ceiling with the newest and most expensive games. It would probably be a good time to get some things sold before the store is inundated with copies of digital junk like “Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp” and “Billy the Wizard: Rocket Broomstick Racing.”

Strip malls such as the one that houses GameStop have been popping up all over Sedalia, but it doesn’t even seem like we have enough tenants to fill the ones we already have. It’s a business crapshoot — one pleasant, industrial box space might get filled every once in a while but they are emptying out just as fast. It’s harder than we all think to create and maintain a customer base. Cleek’s and Goody’s both left giant retail spaces that are now doing us no good.

The Sedalia Quiznos shut down while multiple Subway locations and a Jimmy John’s seem to be surviving just fine. Sure, an oven malfunction was cited as the ultimate cause but a business with enough community support could have survived that. Our brand loyalty can be fierce and unforgiving.

The giant space that once contained the Osco drug store now features a Big Lots. I remember going into Osco. I remember how it looked. There are houses all over Sedalia that still have old boxes of Band-Aids with yellowing Osco price stickers on them in their bathrooms and their medicine cabinets.

I can remember when the JC Penney building was a Consumer’s grocery store, Aldi was tucked behind strip mall row at the corner of Thompson and Broadway Boulevard and the Truman Inn still sported a Ramada red coat of paint.

They’re building a Menard’s and our town is growing in every possible direction. Next thing you know, they will extend the city limits out a few miles and it won’t take nearly as long to get to Warrensburg.

The 7th Heaven building has been turned into a funeral parlor, which I think is appropriate — a little bit of Sedalia’s reputation died on that very spot. There are three things we have a lot of in Sedalia: hardware stores, pizza places and funeral parlors. We do a lot of fixing, eating and dying, I guess. It’s quite handy though because the Ewing-Schutte-Semler Funeral Home branded bank bag that I got from a garage sale is pretty much the best newspaper transport system I’ve found.

Some people might not like that McLaughlin’s Funeral Chapel isn’t going to be owned by the family whose name it bears, but there’s no real reason to get misty simply because ownership is going to change hands. All the appropriate vetting has probably been done by all the appropriate people — they aren’t going to hand over their pride and joy to someone who doesn’t have the proper qualifications and motivations. We all must realize that we can’t hold on to anything forever and it’s difficult these days to keep a family business in the family in perpetuity.

But the biggest and most potentially problematic change that faces Sedalia is the loss of our city administrator, Keith Riesberg. After more than four years in one of the city’s top positions, he has decided to leave us for a job in a St. Louis suburb.

Some might say that he was great at what he did and was one of the brains behind the administration of the city of Sedalia and an integral part of many positive programs and changes — others would insist that we’re better off and he was really a man serving his own interests first. I’m not so sure either extreme is the proper conclusion.

In any case, he has sold his services to the highest bidder and like most humans will gladly ditch any loyalties in exchange for cold hard cash. We live in a capitalist society and most people would be willing to give up most anything for a better living.

On the other hand, you can’t blame him. Everyone aspires to move up in the world and a disturbing number of people are using Sedalia and similar communities all over the country as a launching pad or something of a transitional home. People stay in Sedalia until they get called up to Kansas City or St. Louis.

We’ve seen a lot of change, but there’s one important change that must be made: It seems like we’re no longer a destination or a desirable place to be — we’re a stepping stone, and something must be done.