NEOSHO, Mo. -- Kum & Go LLC plans to build a store in Neosho, Mo., a company spokesperson told The Neosho Daily News. According to Kum & Go director of communications Meggan Kring, construction is scheduled to begin this spring.
Newton County courthouse records show the property was purchased about a week before Christmas in two separate transactions. One was on December 17 with Neosho Developers LLC, which owns a small corner of land. The other deed contract was with Helen Wylie, who at the time owned roughly 15 acres of surrounding land, and was signed [image-nocss] on December 18. Together, the portions of the two tracts make up Kum & Go's property, said the report.
Kring said the convenience store would feature six multiple-product gasoline dispensers and three truck diesel fueling stations.
The West Des Moines, Iowa-based retailer picked Neosho as a good location for a new store because of the city's "good population and employment base."
"We're growing in that area," Kring told the newspaper.
At present, according to the report, there are 12 gas stations within the Neosho city limits. Kum & Go already has two locations in nearby Joplin, Mo., said the report. The Joplin City Council last week rejected a request by Kum & Go to build another store there, added a separate report by The Joplin Globe.
Kring also noted that U.S. Highway 71 is "the main corridor for car/truck traffic" from Joplin to Bentonville, Ark., which she said played a factor as well in the decision to open a store in Neosho. The Neosho Kum & Go would be conveniently located less than one-quarter mile away from that highway's exit and be clearly visible by passing traffic.
In other company news, the manager of a Kum & Go location in Clear Lake, Iowa, came to the aid recently of a stranded church motorcoach of senior citizen last summer when the bus broke down, Globe Gazette writer Dick Johnson wrote in his latest column.
"My driver and I started brainstorming on how to get 40 people 1.5 miles to the hotel with a threat of a rainstorm around us," said Vickie Riggs, senior adult minister at First Baptist Church in Norman.
The assistant manager and an off-duty employee volunteered to shuttle the seniors and their luggage to the hotel.
"I fondly refer to them as our Kum & Go Shuttle," Riggs said. "They could have very easily stood behind the counter and sold us snacks and refreshments and then let us find our own way somehow. But no. They volunteered to make a difference in our lives. They touched 40 senior adults in a simple way. This may not have seemed like a big thing to the employees who helped us, but it was an overwhelming sigh of relief to all of us. It was the neighborly thing to do. With no strings attached."
Kum & Go operates about 430 stores across 12 states throughout the Midwest.
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