CIVIC CENTER, LIONS CLUB BUILDING, FORMER PHARMACY ALL WILL COME DOWN
The Platte County Historical Society will soon have a different location for its record storage and digital archiving work.
The move is connected to the city’s long range plan to demolish multiple city-owned buildings in the next five to six years, including the Civic Center, a portion of which is the site the historical group has been using.
New home for the historical society will be in the city-owned building at 228 Marshall Road, near the new City Hall. The building is the former pharmacy structure on the property purchased by the city to construct the new City Hall, which opened late last year at 224 Marshall Road.
For many years, the Platte County Historical Society has conducted its record storage and digital archiving work at the Platte City Civic Center building located at 208 Zed Martin Street, visible from Hwy. 92.
But the city has future plans to demolish that Civic Center building (formerly the local high school from 1910-1964). In early April, the city notified the historical society that the Civic Center would no longer be available and all utilities would be disconnected on July 31 in preparation for that eventual–but not yet scheduled–demolition of the building.
City officials say the city is currently taking actions to reduce the number of unused/under-used city-owned buildings with the eventual goal of having only the City Hall/Police Station at 224 Marshall Road and a renovated Community Building at 400 Main Street by 2030.
DJ Gehrt, interim city administrator, said the transition out of an eventual demolition of the Civic Center at 208 Zed Martin, the old Lions Club building at Second and North Streets, and the 228 Marshall Road building will occur in phases over the next five to six years.
On Tuesday night of this week, Platte City aldermen were expected to give official approval of an ordinance authorizing the Platte County Historical Society’s use of one of the four suites in the 228 Marshall Road building. The agreement allows the society the use of about 2,200 square feet of space consisting of the northeast suite on the top level of the building.
The agreement between the city and historical society is for three years, through May 31, 2027, unless otherwise extended by both parties.
The city will provide the space with no rental fee in exchange for the society’s in-kind contribution of historical document storage and digital archiving.
According to the agreement, the space is provided in an “as is” condition with the society being responsible for all interior maintenance and repair, maintenance and repair of air conditioning and heating systems, electrical and plumbing systems serving the suite, and all utility payments.
The society will carry liability and personal property insurance. The city will be responsible for exterior maintenance, trash service and operations of the common building shell and the three remaining suites inside the building.
The city’s public works department lunchroom and the city recreation department equipment room have started moving into the bottom two suites of the former pharmacy building.
In one of the suites of the upper level, the HVAC system is not functioning properly. The city has currently elected not to repair or replace the HVAC in that suite or to repair or replace major systems as they fail.
