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Tonganoxie family opens new feed store downtown

By Lisa Scheller - | Jul 23, 2003

New business action on the east end of the downtown area includes a feed store.

Bill and Melissa Ridihalgh, and their sons, Chris, 15, Richie, 11, and Shawn, 7, have ventured into this family business at 801 E. Fourth.

The store, Tonganoxie Feed and Farm Supply, carries a line of livestock feed, pet feed and farm supplies.

Melissa works for Laidlaw Transit in Olathe. Bill is running the shop full time.

Helping them at the store will be their growing children, sons, Chris, 15, Richie, 11, and Shawn, 7.

“This is a family business and it’s going to stay that way,” Melissa said.

Melissa grew up on a farm in Iowa, Bill grew up in Alaska. They met under a blue light special in an Iowa K-Mart store where Melissa was marking sale prices on submarine sandwiches. The couple moved to Kansas 16 years ago.

“His grandparents live in Overland Park,” Melissa said of her husband. “We kind of fell in love with it and we decided to move down here.”

And, from the Edwardsville area, a year and a half ago, the family moved to Tonganoxie.

They were thinking about starting a business when a farmer suggested a feed supply store. “Bill started talking about what it would take to get a store going here,” Melissa said. “The next thing I knew he found a building to rent and in a week or so we had it open.”