Daily Archives: July 25, 2011

Air Capital RV Park coming to Emporia and 47th Street South area

July 25, 20114:35 p.m.

WICHITA — More than 20 years after buying land near the intersection of Emporia and 47th Street South, Bill Morris is ready to build on it.

He plans the Air Capital RV Park next spring.

“We’re going to go all concrete and sod grass,” Morris says. “There is no RV park in the city of Wichita that is built that way.”

Most of them are dirt and gravel, he says.

Morris will use concrete for the roads in the park and the pads on which the RVs sit. There will be 91 spaces.

Morris, a real estate developer who also was a mechanical contractor for 35 years, has owned and operated mobile home parks here in the past and an RV park in Texas.

“The timing is right,” he says of building the park now.

For one thing, he says improvements to the Kansas Turnpike interchange in that area are scheduled to be completed around the first of the year, so he hopes to have the park open by February or March.

“We’ll get a lot of people . . . off the turnpike.”

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By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , Filed under New business, Real estate | Comments Off

You don’t say

July 25, 20113:04 p.m.

“I am here to report that there is life after big ‘Corporate’ broadcasting.”

— An e-mail from former Clear Channel Radio Wichita vice president and general manager Tom Glade, who is thrilled with his new “dream job” managing seven stations near resort areas in St. George, Utah

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , Filed under You don't say | Comments Off

Home Safe Hearth and Chimney owner to volunteer at the White House

July 25, 20111:51 p.m.

WICHITA — A part-time job that turned into a career is now Bart Ogden’s ticket to the White House.

He’ll be put to work when he gets there, though.

Ogden co-owns Home Safe Hearth and Chimney and has been selected to be part of a small team of volunteers to clean and inspect the more than 20 fireplaces and chimneys at the White House next month.

“It’s a pretty elite team that gets to go,” Ogden says.

He started in the business in 1979 as a way to make money while going to college. Ogden has a degree in radio, TV and film with minors in business administration and business management.

“I was always expecting to do something in business . . . but for sure didn’t look at doing this.”

He tried radio news but didn’t like it. When the opportunity came up for Ogden to buy Home Safe Hearth and Chimney, he took it.

Through the years, he’s been active in local charities and served on a number of committees and task forces with the National Chimney Sweep Guild and the Chimney Safety Institute of America. It’s part of what led to him being selected for the White House team.

Ogden is thrilled to help.

“As mundane as chimney sweeping sounds, when you’re in perhaps the Lincoln Bedroom or perhaps the Oval Office, there’s not many . . . people that actually even get to be in that room,” Ogden says.

“For us, it’s a big deal.”

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off