Not long ago, Beloit’s economy was ugly. In Kalamazoo, Mich., a group of well-to-do town “elders” pay for every public school student in town to go to college. Buying and fixing up the foundry alone has cost Ms. Hendricks around $40 million, according to Rob Gerbitz, the president and chief executive of Hendricks Commercial Properties. He’s been cutting hair and trimming beards since 1978, when he took over Austin’s Barbershop on one of Beloit’s main streets downtown. He stops at the Beloit Club, a beleaguered country club near the Rock River, which cuts through the town.

Source: New York Times August 05, 2017 09:01 UTC