Comments from a man who soon will move his Lawrence-based business to Olathe offers some food for thought for local leaders.

For a number of years, Lawrence has been focused on attracting “good” jobs to the community. Those jobs were defined as being well-paying, often high-tech, opportunities that would provide employment for some of the Lawrence residents who currently are traveling to other cities to work.

To that end, much attention has been focused on trying to capitalize on Kansas University research that could be translated into commercial ventures. Lawrence has been seen as having a unique opportunity to work with KU to plant the seeds of companies that could be nurtured and contribute to the local economy.

The connection with KU is a wonderful opportunity, but it alone won’t fill the city’s employment needs. High-tech firms with “good” jobs won’t come to Lawrence or stay here unless this location suits their business needs.

The city got a stark reminder of that fact this week from the owner of a software development firm who has decided to move his company from west Lawrence to Olathe. Several factors influenced the decision, and a couple of those should get the attention of local residents and city officials.

The firm now employs 27 people but plans to add 30 employees in the next three years. The firm’s owner needed more space but didn’t look for other space in west Lawrence for one simple reason: poor access to Kansas City. The community’s inability to complete a highway to link west Lawrence with Kansas Highway 10 east of Lawrence was a significant factor in his decision.

The owner still wanted to stay in Lawrence so he looked on the east side of town, but nothing there suited his needs. A new speculative building is under way in the East Hills business park, but the kind of office space that would suit his high-tech business wasn’t available. At this point, an offer on an 8,500-square-foot office in the Cedar Creek Corporate Park in Olathe was too big a lure for the business to turn down, and it plans to be moved by the end of September.

Lawrence, are you listening? Local officials are working hard to create ties between KU research and commercial enterprises in Kansas City, especially in the area of life sciences. But Lawrence won’t be able to capitalize on those ties to create local jobs for local people without some additional effort in the form of highways and facilities. If businesses can’t find the facilities they need or if they don’t have the kind of access to Kansas City they desire, they will go elsewhere.

The software business that’s now on its way to Olathe had been nurtured in Lawrence by an entrepreneur who wanted to stay here but found that it didn’t make business sense. How can we hope to attract new high-tech businesses if we can’t support those that already are here?

It’s a tough question that local residents and decision-makers need to be asking themselves. Are we going to meet the challenge or make excuses?