Brennan and Allison Johnson are Rural by Choice (Courtesy photo)Brennan and Allison returned to her hometown of Lincoln a little over three years ago when Allison was offered a job as a Speech Language Therapist based at the Lincoln County Hospital. While Allison’s home base is in Lincoln, she travels across North Central Kansas to visit patients. Brennan started his own construction company, Elite Construction, and stays busy working on roofing and remodeling projects throughout the area.
Brennan says small town living drew them to Lincoln County.
“We lived in the big city for a while, and both being from small communities we always knew we wanted to get back to a small town,” Brennan said. “Allison was raised here, I saw an opportunity to start a business here. We had talked about it some, and then Allison was offered a job here as well, so things kind of fell into place.”
Brennan said he values the sense of community.
“We love it here. It’s a small community – that means everyone knows you, or at least who you are. There’s a real sense of belonging that you just don’t have in a big city.”
But while the Johnsons love the small town, they want people to know small town living doesn’t mean limited opportunity.
“There are way more opportunities here than you might expect,” Brennan said. “People think of small towns meaning farming families only, and that’s not true at all. It’s a great place to raise a family. We don’t have kids yet, but someday we will – and we can’t imagine raising them in a large city, going to a school where their own teacher might not know their name. We were both brought up in small towns, and it truly does take a village to raise a child, and this is a great village.”
