BUT FIRE DEPARTMENT HAS CONCERNS
After months of public hearings, open forums and meetings of a special steering committee, Parkville officials hope a recent culminating vote by the board of aldermen will launch a plan to help ease traffic congestion in the city’s historic downtown during rush hour, which some residents view as problematic.
On July 1, the Parkville Board of Aldermen approved a concept that will create a new street running parallel to the existing railroad tracks. The new street would be east of Main Street and run past East Street and the existing fire station.
The proposed new street is about 21 feet from the railroad tracks.
Aldermen voted seven to one to approve of the concept created by planners hired by the city.
City officials have said visitors, resident commuters and business owners have for years struggled to maneuver that area of the quaint and historic river town, prompting the change.
The approved plan was one of two proposed options, narrowed from six original concepts discussed in meetings this past winter and spring. An alternative concept ultimately not favored by aldermen was less drastic and a plan that Mayor Dean Katerndahl has said he considered “nibbling around the edges.”
Katerndahl has said in previous meetings that the city should take advantage of financing now available. Three sources currently are available, including $5 million in grants, a use tax of $3.6 million and a $500,000 grant from Platte County. Additional funds also may be available from Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), city officials have said.
But not all favor the plan as adopted. Gordon Cook, an officer of the Parkville Old Towne Community Improvement District (CID), told the board of aldermen that the CID board did not initially know about the formation of the steering committee to recommend a plan of action.
He also stated that CID board member and Alderman Phil Wassmer was named by the city as the representative for the CID on the steering committee without the knowledge of the CID board.
Cook also stated that he was aware that city officials did not properly inform downtown property owners of the city’s early discussions.
“The people most impacted weren’t engaged,” Cook said.
He said property owners did not learn about the steering committee until March, which was months after the committee’s formation.
Southern Platte Fire Department Interim Fire Chief Ralph Nell told the group that the fire district’s board of directors voted unanimously to reject both proposals for re-routing the city street. A letter from the fire department board of directors to city officials states the proposed plans “are not feasible at this time.”
Nell said fire board members are concerned about what appears to be a short distance of 24 to 25 feet between the re-routed street and the fire station.
But since the drawings of the proposed changes are “conceptual,” fire district officials are unsure how the new plan will affect the station’s right of way.
Nell said the fire district officials would like to change the current pass-through so that fire trucks could pull all the way through the building from the south side, thus eliminating the need to back in from Hwy. 9 as they now do.
“We’re just concerned for the safety of our firefighters as well as the citizens,” Nell said during a Monday afternoon telephone interview.
Fire district board members said they were concerned about the added congestion at the site when it’s so near the fire station, especially when firefighters respond to emergency calls.
Katerndahl responded and said, “It would have been helpful if we’d heard about this before now.” The district’s previous fire chief recently retired and was involved in the city’s discussions, but Nell is unsure what concerns, if any, were expressed or discussed.
Katerndahl said those devising the proposals responded to criticism about some early plans that called for tearing down the historic Power Plant building, which now acts as a headquarters for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).
Many downtown business owners responded to that plan by signing a petition denouncing the idea and negatively responding to any plan that would call for the removal of any downtown buildings.
“We’ve had a lot of input,” Katerndahl said.
Katerndahl said just because city officials had chosen an option to move forward doesn’t mean they are finished revising the plan. He said staff and city officials will “continue to work with the fire department, (discussing) the pros and cons.”
