Bill & NancyLong

In just the past year, either separately or as a couple, they have been honored by McClave FFA, Las Animas 4-H and the youth chamber of commerce.
With hard work and astute judgment and risk taking, they have prospered in the community, proving the “Acres of Diamonds” tenet that you need not roam to distant lands to find diamonds. You can find prosperity by staying close to your roots.
Their partnership and marriage casts a long shadow too, starting in their senior year of high school, when they became best friends.
But Bill laughingly reveals that his future relationship with Nancy was foreshadowed one day at the gun club as he was setting up clay pigeons for the shooters.
“Three kids came over and told me their sister liked me.”
The sister was Nancy, one of the children of Bill and Bonnie Miller, who lived near the gun club grounds.
While Nancy was a top 10 student and cheerleader, Bill, the son of Jodie and the late Lane Long, “mostly worked.”
Bill says Nancy “worked hard in school and I worked hard at working.
“I played football my freshman year. I worked for farmers in the summer and did not play sports. My father made it clear if I did not do sports I would find some other things to occupy my time.”
When not farming, he worked for Jenkins Motors in the mechanic and body shops and the parts department.
This work ethic traces back to when he was in the seventh and eighth grades.
In those days Las Animas juniors and seniors could study a variety of vocational programs offered by Otero Junior College. Bill studied in the welding program.
After high school Nancy went to work for a local attorney, Oakley Wade, while Bill worked for local farmer Loyde Gardner.
“I had a pretty good job and we were dating so I thought I could go to school (college) later,” Nancy recalls.
Instead of continuing their education, Bill and Nancy married and worked at their local jobs until 1976, when they moved to central Kansas. Bill rented a farm from Nancy’s grandparent. She got a job with the Marion County Attorney and Bill took on two jobs. He farmed during the day, then used his welding skills working the night shift at a trailer manufacturer.
Nancy says they would pass each other in the afternoon, Bill going off to his second job while she was coming home for the day.

In 1978 the Longs returned to Las Animas, where Bill opened a full-time welding and machine shop. Nancy went to work at the VA hospital, one of the then 600 employees there.
Three years later the Longs fortune took a decided turn upside when they bought the local school bus service from Bob and Elva Foulk.
At the time there were 10 bus routes and Nancy quit her job at VA to work with Bill.
“She drove buses, did the books, cleaned buses — whatever had to be done,” Bill said.
As Bill always kept busy, the school buses were put to heavy use in the summer as well.
“We did a lot of work for the Boy Scouts…that’s what we did in the summer.”
The Foulks had also picked up scouts, mostly from the East Coast, at the Denver Airport and transported them to Philmont Ranch, the sprawling Boy Scout adventure camp in New Mexico.
The Longs expanded this operation by also booking side trips for the scouts to other western destinations to extend their Philmont experience.
Bill and Nancy aggressively grew the summer operation.
“We could make as much money in 60 days as we made during the school year,” Bill recalls.
“It got to the point where you had to cross state lines and you needed permits,” Nancy notes.
“It was more difficult to get permits from the state of Colorado than it was the federal government,” Long explains.
The Longs eventually quit the lucrative summer operation when Colorado became too difficult to work with. The operation also took a hit when a bus and a state roadside maintenance vehicle collided.
Bill said the state admitted they were in the wrong, but under state law maintenance vehicles are not liable for damages even when culpable.
So the Longs had to pay for the damages out of their own pocket.
“We would have six to eight buses between Denver and the Cimarron — it was a lot to keep track of and worry about,” Bill recalls.
Not that the Longs didn’t have something else to keep them busy.
About this time Bill was part of a local partnership that wanted to establish a fast food franchise in Las Animas, and the one they decided on was Dairy Queen.
Approved for a franchise, the partnership started work in 1994 — Nancy’s brother Tim did the construction — and they opened just in time for Santa Fe Trail Day.
By 1998 it became apparent that it would be best for one of the partners to take it over entirely.
“We were willing to buy or sell,” Bill notes. In the end, the Longs bought out the partners and they have both managed it since then.
The Dairy Queen is located on the Duckwall’s parking lot. Duckwall’s is in the former Safeway Grocery store, a building that Long purchased when the grocer closed down its local outlet. He leases the store building to Duckwall’s parent Alco, which is planning to vacate the building and establish a larger Alco retail store on north Bent Avenue.
Bill and Nancy like investing in real estate.
“Real estate usually holds its value. In addition it is a source of income that does not take a lot of your time,” Bill adds.
He notes there was a builder who constructed an 8,000-square-foot building with seven rental units that went into foreclosure.
“That was an especially good deal. The mortgage on it was $345,000. We got it for $100,000,” Bill says. He adds that he was surprised there were no other local bidders for the property.
The Longs also purchased an adjoining complex and fixed it up, raising their rental portfolio in Las Animas to 11 units.

He credits two factors for his success.
“Hard work is part of it and using good judgment.”
In 2006 the Longs sold the bus business to the Las Animas school district.
This has freed Bill up to work almost full time on county business.
First elected to the county commission in 2004, he is the current commission chairman, which he treats like a full time job.
“Since we do not have a full time county administrator, I am putting in more time than I was. We do not have the resources for the staff we had three, four years ago,” he said.
Last spring he used his tractor to work alongside Carl Lindauer and Cole Miller over a weekend to get one of the ballparks in condition to open for the season. Last winter, he sometimes drove snowplows to clear streets and driveways.
Bill admits he no longer hunts, fishes or skis.
“I like to go out and do physical work. That is like a hobby.”
Likewise, Nancy was very busy with the three Long children when they were growing up. She was active in the parent-teacher organization and is currently very active in St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
They live in a landmark home on Sixth Street. It was built in 1908 and they are the fourth family to own it.
The Longs plan a one hundredth anniversary party for the home next year.

The three Long children include Lana Gardner, a teacher in Las Animas. She is married to Greg Gardner, whose grandfather Bill once worked for.
Brian, who is in the bee business, recently returned home from California for a short stay before he goes back to help farmers pollinate their crops this winter and spring. His wife is Hannah.
Daughter Erin is married to Mitch Kendrick.
The Longs have four grandchildren.
“We believe in the rural lifestyle and the rural community,” sums up Bill.
“We think rural America is important.”
To that end, he also serves as chairman of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which is seeking to build the $300 million water conduit that would bring fresh mountain water to the local communities along the Arkansas River. It was authorized in the original Frying Pan – Arkansas legislation that created a series of dams more than a half century ago.
Bill is still hopeful that the recently canceled coal-fired plant proposed for Bent County by Xcel will eventually be built.
“We will not rely on just wind energy and renewables.”
He also envisions Bent County becoming a transportation – distribution center if the Colorado Department of Transportation realizes its dream of building a rail line that would bypass Denver and move rail freight down to the Las Animas area where a Burlington Northern branch line turns south toward Amarillo.
The rail line could also interface with the under used Highway 50.’
He thinks Bent County would be a logical distribution center with the convergence of rail and highway traffic.
“In the ‘70s only two trains a day went south (from Las Animas). Now there are more than 20.
“Twenty-eight trains a day go through Las Animas.”
While dreams of water and transportation may take a while to realize, Bill and Nancy continue to live out their dreams in Las Animas.