Jun. 8—An Abilene resident has been named the new General Manager of Tony's Pizza Event Center in Salina.

Kasey Hanney of Abilene will follow current General Manager Susan Trafton when Trafton moves on to a new position in Loveland, Colorado.

Hanney started her career at Ike's Place in Abilene where she would become General Manager, a position she would occupy for about six years.

During her time at Ike's Place, she helped open the Junction City location as well.

She would later move on to a job in Kansas City that allowed her to maintain her home in Abilene until she found a position at the event center that would bring her back closer to home.

She started at the event center as an event manager — an entry level position often taken on by people fresh out of college.

"Sometimes, in some places, you've got to start at the bottom of the ladder and work your way up," Hanney said. "And so since 2019, when I started at Tony's Pizza Event Center, I have worked really hard and I've just kind of worked my way up."

She said she did everything she knew how to do to impress everyone around her — not only the people she worked with and her boss, but clients and anyone who might witness the work she was doing in order to prove herself.

Hanney said she learned the skills that have allowed her to step into the role of General Manager at the event center.

"It all comes with the support and even at Ike's Place, I had a huge support system," Hanney said.

She said the ownership at Ike's Place had done a good job of teaching her the ins and outs of the business while the challenges running a restaurant also taught her how to function as a manager.

"Definitely you have experiences and challenges," she said. "You have angry customers sometimes. And I don't fear those challenges at all. I take those on and I want to try to conquer them. And that's exactly what I was taught to do is to take anything that was thrown at me and find a way to work through it. And I definitely learned that at Ike's Place, for sure."

In the future with her recent promotion, Hanney hopes to work side by side with the City of Salina "to bring quality content to the venue."

As venues such as the event center continue to open up as COVID-19 concerns fade for many people, she believes she will have the chance to do this.

"Coming out of COVID, I think that things are starting to open up tremendously, so I think there's lots of opportunities coming our way," Hanney said. "I'm very excited to see where it goes."

Because of COVID, staffing has been a challenge.

"COVID really put a huge challenge in my job," Hanney said. "Before I got promoted to my general manager job I was actually director of events, designing and coordinating all of the events."

As director of events, she had to find ways to make events happen without violating capacity restrictions or putting people in danger.

"I like challenges but I also see them as opportunities to grow and to become better," Hanney said.

She said she enjoys watching clients' visions "come to life" when their events happen.

Hanney has lived in Abilene since 2010. Her father was from Solomon and her husband, Devin, is from here as well.

"Both of us work in Salina, but we choose to live in Abilene because it is a peaceful environment filled with good people that surround you — good neighbors," she said. "It's just a quaint little town that we both find happiness in."