COLERIDGE, Neb. -- Coleridge is buzzing with excitement as a beloved community staple gets a new lease on life. After six months of uncertainty, the former Kens Market in downtown Coleridge is set to reopen its doors, this time as Buresh Meats, a brand-new grocery store. Residents will soon be able to shop locally for their everyday essentials, ending the need for long trips out of town. Reporter Hanky Hazelton has more.

Buresh Meats is a unique business, having access to two chicken facilities, two pork facilities, and five beef packing facilities. This gives them a chance to compare prices among all five facilities and choose who they would like to buy from. It also helps them stay competitive with their prices and keep costs down for customers.

Although meat is their main attraction and keeps them in business, they carry dry goods, candy, jerky, and Tasty Toppings from a company called Dorothy Lynch. They also deal with local popcorn and honey vendors.

“The most important part of the buying comes from making sure most, if not all, our products are made in Nebraska,” said Scott Buresh, co-owner of Buresh Meats. “That's our main concern. We are trying to be as customer-friendly as possible. In these times, we try to keep our prices as low as we possibly can. We find that by directly going to the source, we can eliminate the middlemen, and that helps keep our prices down.”

When asked why start a business in Coleridge, a town with a population of 515, Buresh said, “We're a Christian family, we're Catholic. Everything that we do, we feel the Lord guides us in it. He has his hand in this. You know, he wants us to do this. It's a calling for us, and we treat it as such. That's the basis behind our low prices. We have had this understanding, if God keeps sending people, we will keep our prices fair for them, and it's working so far.

Buresh meats has had a great reputation in David City and Columbus, said Coleridge LLC Grocery Board Member. The public looks forward to the amount of people that will flock to the small town of Coleridge. Residents usually do their shopping in Laurel, Hartington or Randolph, which is about 15 miles away. So, we're really hoping that the whole area supports some good and we can keep that business going.”

Buresh said. “As for an official open date, we're hoping within the next couple of weeks. More than likely it's going to be a soft opening. We're not going to announce an opening date, so we'll just be open one day and then the word will spread pretty fast. When we do open, I think the first day or two will be slow, but for our new people that we've hired to come on board, that'll be a good thing because a soft opening will help them out, and make them feel comfortable waiting on a few customers.”