Tuesday, Mar. 19 2013 4:30PM
Bonds could finance festival space
By Russ Pulley
rpulley@lsjournal.com
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ReprintIf voters at the April 2 election approve a bond issue for cultural arts facilities, the city will add a new festival space downtown and renovate a historic post office.
Those two projects would cost an estimated $1.26 million of $2.9 million being proposed for cultural arts facilities, about $1.64 million of the money would go to improving the Legacy Park Amphitheater for a covered stage there and support facilities.
The election also includes a separate question on a $4.6 million bond issue for reconstruction of Orchard Street between Douglas Street and Independence Avenue and adding paved shoulders to Pryor Road.
The 1939 post office at 220 West Main St. is now leased to ReDiscover and had been city offices before City Hall at Third and Green Street was built. It includes a WPA mural and a massive walk-in safe.
Members of the Lee’s Summit Historical Society have for years dreamed of using the facility for its museum, which is now in a small space in the Lee’s Summit train depot, with an entrance on the backside. Most of that building is used by the Lee’s Summit Chamber of Commerce and the Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council.
With a new space, the museum could add to its exhibits and put on display artifacts it now has in storage, said Kathy Smith, historical society president. She said residents considering giving the museum items for its collection sometimes hesitate because there’s no place for them to be shown.
“We don’t like losing opportunities for cool stuff,” Smith said.
She said the renovation she envisions include restoring the interior front of the post office to how it would have appeared, with a counter and grills for the teller, with the murals made visible.
The museum would take artifacts out of storage, adding exhibits, plus having room where it can have interactive activities for children or classes for groups, such as genealogy and a research room where people can be seated at tables and study maps, documents and books in the museum’s collection.
The city’s intent is to let the society move its museum to the post office, if the historical society submits a suitable plan for its operation, such as covering utility costs. Smith said the society is working on that proposal.
The museum would take artifacts out of storage, adding exhibits, plus having room where it can have interactive activities for children or classes for groups, such as genealogy and a research room where people can be seated at tables and study maps, documents and books in the museum’s collection.
Smith said that with the Amtrak station across the street, it gives Lee’s Summit an opportunity to promote the town as the museum would be visible and accessible to visitors.
An idea in the works is for the museum to promote day trips, where people can ride the train to Kansas City, use the street cars to go downtown, and also to bring visitors from the city to Lee’s Summit. Another is to offer a “museum crawl” that would have buses to shuttle visitors to the area’s small museums.
There also could be room for other traveling exhibits or art exhibitions.
Those exhibits would have to be smaller than an earlier proposal to use Arnold Hall, but there are still possibilities, said Christine Bushyhead, who was on the cultural facility task force for the city. She’s also co-chair of Foundations for Our Future, a group promoting passage of the bonds.
The festival space is needed because a popular summer concert series, offered by Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street, has outgrown its current location in Howard Station Park on Southeast Main, Bushyhead said. So the Lee’s Summit Arts Council and the city have proposed a larger space on a vacant lot is behind the post office. That lot on Market Street was the site of a city annex that was demolished and property sold.
Now the city would repurchase part of that property for the small festival venue.
In an earlier plan, the committee envisioned a stage at the rear of a commercial building that faced West Main Street. It would have been built in a public/private partnership with Tustin LLC, now owned by Dusty Dahmer.
Dahmer has committed to working with the city to reuse that property, Bushyhead said. Dahmer had purchased the land from the city with plans for a development, before the economy crashed. Now the city would repurchase part of the site.
When the City Council added the post office renovations to the bond issue it created an opportunity for a different design. The stage and restrooms could be added to the rear of the post office, making the festival plaza less dependent on construction of any commercial building. It would have multiple uses from music concerts to small plays or other events.
There downtown space would offer a covered, permanent stage, with changing rooms, storage, and public restrooms.
Its crowd capacity would be about 750, compared to the Legacy Park Amphitheater, so it would serve a different role.
“We see it as an intimate spot,” Bushyhead said. “We even see people getting married there.”
One the site there could be additional buildings in cooperation with Dahmer, with spaces for artist studios, Bushyhead said, which would have “garage doors” open to the festival space, where artists could work and show their art. The Mid-Continent Library has expressed interest in a “library to go” with a kiosk, but no staffing, that allows people to check out music or books they’ve put on hold.
Another idea considered is a new-media center for computers and technology to be used by students and artists.
Bushyhead said she is hopeful the bonds will pass but getting a good turnout might be the key to success.
“Everyone I’ve talked to thinks it’s a good idea,” Bushyhead said. “We need to get the votes out.”
