A Pratt County town has a chance to beat the odds that once a town begins a downhill slide, it continues until little is left of a once thriving small community.
Preston, home to about 170 residents and two businesses — a branch of the Cairo Co-op and T and W Meats — could make that rare turn-around. Already it has gained some population and a mortuary slated to open in January could be the beginning of a commercial rebirth.
Ken and Donna Stanton are behind the revitalization effort that was a dream of her father, Don Cox, who died last August. They bought a former bar and grill on Preston’s Main Street last November, recently sold their mortuary in Mesa, Ariz., and are ready for the slower pace of small town living — once the remodeling is completed. With everything there is to do before the planned opening early in 2010, the pace doesn’t seem so slow right now, Ken Stanton said.
They’re familiar with the area, having vacationed in Preston for the past 35 years. They bought a small house five years ago, so they would have a place to come to, and it will serve until the business is up and running and they have the opportunity to build a new home.
When one family moves to a town this small, residents notice; the Stantons, however, have brought several family members along, and hope others will follow, eventually creating an influx of about 30 people. They purchased nine city lots for homes for themselves and their children.
The business community could increase as well. A son would like to start a diner; the mother-in-law of their youngest son, who died a few years ago, could open an antique shop. A son-in-law is a diesel mechanic who also does custom motorcycle work.
The funeral home itself could be the catalyst for several jobs.
“We need florists, limos. When people come from out of town to a funeral, they need places to stay and eat,” Stanton said.
In Mesa, he was approached by an elderly man who liked to do woodwork and had ideas for custom-made wooden urns. Stanton started showing them, and they sold. Someone with a talent for making memorial items could find a niche, he said.
Stanton has hired a funeral director who will move to the area when the business opens and crematory will be added later on.
An ordained minister with a Doctor of Divinity degree, Stanton also hopes to re-establish a church in Preston.
That’s in the future; right now a bar is being transformed into a mortuary. Donna Stanton’s uncles, Dean and Kerry Cox, have framed new walls to divide the space into a family room, chapel that will seat about 150 on antique church pews being brought from Arizona, office, casket and urn rooms and a preparation room. Stanton’s brother-in-law and his partner in the construction business have committed three or four weeks to the project and other family members are helping out as well.
Once his Preston neighbors see what a little material and labor will do, he hopes they will follow suit. On a Main Street only two blocks long, most of the buildings are vacant, but some wouldn’t take much work to clean up the front and make them more inviting.
“We’re willing to help,” he promised.
Preston’s location on K61 is a positive factor, along with its proximity to a number of area towns. In the early 1900s, Preston was a flourishing little town. Stanton believes it can be again, and emphasized, “we’re not trying to make a one-man band of this. We’re looking for people that can catch a vision and say, ‘let’s bring some life back to this little town.’”
“We’re totally elated about it,” said Mayor Wayne Scott. “I think it’s a godsend. Most little towns our size keep dwindling away. We have an opportunity to get back on our feet.”
