PITTSBURG, Kan. —
Pittsburg is another step closer to getting a storm shelter.
The City Commission this week approved a $6,500 contract with Professional Engineering Consultants to provide engineering services for a shelter to be incorporated at the former National Guard Armory at 1506 N. Walnut St.
For more than a year, the commission has grappled with whether to build a community shelter after officials learned of grant money available from the Kansas Department of Emergency Management’s “hazard mitigation grant program.”
Director of utilities John Bailey and fire Chief Scott Crain returned to the drawing board several times. The commission decided against building a shelter on the recommended city-owned lot at 18th and Locust streets, citing concerns with the logistics of opening the safe room during a storm, traffic chaos and the liability of putting residents in a storm’s path as they travel to the shelter.
They did approve, however, pursuing funding to retrofit the armory as a second command center in the event the city’s only center at 201 N. Pine were to be wiped out. The center also would be used as a storm shelter for city employees responding in the wake of a severe storm.
Bailey told commissioners that an existing hallway in the armory could be hardened with concrete walls poured into foam molds, and a concrete lid could be put on it to seal it. It also has fiber optics and is secure from a telecommunications perspective.
The cost would be about $96,000, including the design work, with the city paying approximately $24,000. Commissioner Marty Beezley said that share would be available through the city’s utility reserves, so it wouldn’t require a bond issue.
Bailey said that although the shelter wouldn’t be a designated community safe room, “If someone was in the vicinity, no one would be refused.”
Potential shelter
The armory building is owned by the city and used by Public Utilities as an annex.
Local News
Pittsburg closer to establishing storm shelter
- Local News
-
-
Neosho Board of Education approves 10 percent raise in effort to keep custodians
School custodians are receiving the biggest percentage raise among salaries approved Monday by the Neosho Board of Education.
-
Jasper County to start enforcing newly-adopted nuisance ordinance
Jasper County has received 15 complaints based on a nuisance ordinance adopted earlier this year, members of the Jasper County Commission said Tuesday.
-
Woman admits role in prearranged funeral fraud
A St. Louis County woman has admitted to a role in a pre-arranged funeral scam that allegedly bilked customers out of as much as $600 million.
-
Carthage School Board OKs $45 million budget
A proposed budget that sets Carthage School District spending at $45.7 million for the fiscal year starting July 1 was approved by the Carthage School Board on Monday night. The budget represents an increase of almost 3.5 percent over spending in the current year’s budget. It also includes additional teaching positions and increases in staff pay, said Superintendent Blaine Henningson.
-
Missouri moves to lift ban on foreign farm owners
Weeks before a Chinese conglomerate agreed to buy Smithfield Foods Inc. in the largest such takeover of a U.S. business, Missouri lawmakers quietly approved legislation removing a ban on foreign ownership of agricultural land.
-
Missouri season to open for bullfrogs and green frogs
Missouri’s frogging season is about to begin.
-
Joplin City Council to move forward on $130 million recovery proposal; curbside recycling election resurrected
Residents kept the house packed to the end of a 2 1/2-hour meeting of the Joplin City Council on Monday night to encourage the panel to resurrect some kind of curbside recycling proposal and to hear the details or support a $130 million recovery plan.
-
Board chairwoman: Bruce Speck out as MSSU president
Bruce Speck is “no longer president” of Missouri Southern State University, the Board of Governors disclosed Monday. The announcement was made late Monday afternoon following a unanimous vote taken during a closed board meeting Friday.
-
Mike Pound: It’s OK to leave dad alone on Father’s Day
My wife was worried that I would mind being alone for a couple of hours on Sunday.
Sunday was Father’s Day, and my wife had the crazy notion that I wanted to be surrounded by kith and kin all day. -
New Mexico man draws prison term in Joplin child-rape case
A 59-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a developmentally disabled 8-year-old girl in Joplin. Robert L. Newton pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to first-degree statutory rape, first-degree statutory sodomy and felony failure to appear in court in a plea agreement with the prosecutor’s office.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Neosho Board of Education approves 10 percent raise in effort to keep custodians
