Kansas City Star, The (MO) New fire station seen as catalyst for

Kansas City Star, The (MO)
November 26, 2005
Section: NeighborhoodNews
Page: 1
New fire station seen as catalyst for Bannister area
KAREN UHLENHUTH
To hear Lou Austin tell it, the impending construction of the new No. 41 fire station just
east of Bannister Mall is fraught with symbolic meaning.
The new station, commencing construction any day, will give a nod to the westward trails
that lay where the driveway is to be poured. It will acknowledge and become the new
home for the No. 41 firefighter crew, six of whom died 17 years ago while responding to
an enormous explosion at a construction site in southeast Kansas City. And looking to the
future, the station will be an example of what this neighborhood can be - is in fact
destined to be, Austin predicts.
For more than two years, Austin has been laboring to bring together this project that is on
the verge of taking shape at 93rd and Hillcrest streets, where now an asphalt parking lot
lies. Austin is chairman of the 3 Trails Village Community Improvement District, a
collection of mostly business-owners in the Bannister Mall area who are working to
resuscitate the area.
The station was to be built on the site of the existing one, at Bannister and Hillcrest. But
the benevolent owner of a large part of Bannister Mall offered to swap properties,
providing enough land for the Fire Department to do what it wished with the site.
The station is part of a department-wide upgrade, financed in large part by a quarter-cent
sales tax approved in August 2001.
Mark Fennesy, a captain at Station 41, will be happy enough just to be in a building that
works consistently. In the existing station, he said, "The boiler goes out constantly; the
roof leaks. This station's very old."
Austin's vision is big, big, big. He's convinced the station will set a new tone for
development in the area.
"It's a precisely crafted attack plan for economic revitalization," he said. The stoplight at
93rd and Hillcrest will be replaced with a roundabout, which Austin claims will offer a
multitude of advantages over a stoplight. With 176 trees planted along Hillcrest and 80
more to be planted on Bannister Road, it's all "the beginning of the new vision and the
new image."
Roundabouts have a track record of hiking the value of adjoining properties, according to
Austin. They also cut accident rates and are more aesthetically pleasing than traffic
signals. Austin garnered about $1 million to finance the roundabout, including a fountain
in its center.
"It's a psychological positive," Austin said. "They provide wonderful opportunities for art
and landscaping."
Plans call for a fountain to be built in the center. It will be the first fountain in the city's
Sixth District, Austin said.
The building itself will be throwback to the past. It will be made of masonry, with lintels
and sills and coins lining the windows and the edges of the building in contrasting colors
and textures.
Austin and the city looked at pictures of old fire stations to come up with a vision for this
new one.
Some architectural features from other old buildings - a hand-carved limestone eagle and
seven red granite beams - also will be incorporated somehow into the new station.
Station 41 has a memorial to the firefighters who died in the 1988 explosion. Crew
members built a cabinet that houses pictures, pieces of the truck, the placard that was on
one of the trucks.
"We'd like to be able to incorporate that into the new building somehow," Fennesy said.
Firefighting "has a lot of traditions," Austin said. "The community-improvement district
wanted to honor that history and tradition."
The Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails also pass through the site of the new fire
station, and acknowledging that is another mission of the project, Austin said. The
National Park Service will certify that the site is located along the westward trails.
"This is absolutely the first fire property in the U.S. that will be certified by the park
service," Austin said. "And that allows you to put of official logos of the national historic
trails."
Work is now under way at the site of the Hickman Mills school administration,
constructing 2,000 feet of the 3 Trails corridor that eventually will stretch from Sugar
Creek to Gardner, Kan., Austin said.
"The station and the roundabout are designed to receive it. That trail will come right over
the driveway of this station."
Austin, a relentless promoter of the Bannister Mall area, believes the fire station can
create a new paradigm.
"The perception of Bannister Mall and southeast Kansas City isn't all that pretty. The way
you change the psychology is to change the way the landscape looks. That's precisely
the plan that the community improvement district is on."
To reach Karen Uhlenhuth, family and children's issues reporter, call (816) 234-7813 or
send e-mail to [email protected]
Copyright 2005 The Kansas City Star Co.