By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
April 29, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Kansas City Public Schools District is doing everything they can to properly prepare the Northeast community for the eventual demolition of the Thacher school building.

On February 25, 2015, the KCPS School Board approved the demolition of the former Thacher Elementary School. The thought process behind the demolition is it will better serve Northeast Middle School students with the expanded field space and parking.

Last Monday, April 20, the demolition contractor, Gator Industrial, along with members of the KCPS repurposing team met with community members at Thacher to present information about the demolition and deconstruction process and answer any questions residents had regarding safety, schedule, and building material. Jesse Lange, planner with KCPS, said the district’s top priority is safety and security of the neighborhood and surrounding schools.

“If you ever see anyone who doesn’t look like they’re supposed to be on the [demolition] site, call the police,” Lange told the crowd.

Lange explained the site has to be clear by the next school year because Northeast Middle School adds another grade level in 2015-16 school year. Currently, the school just houses seventh grade students and next year, eighth grade gets added. The middle school is built for 800 students.

“There’s not a lot of lag time,” Lange said.

Since the grassroots group Save Thacher, Save Our Schools couldn’t save the building from demolition, the goal of the community is now to use bricks and other materials from the historic school building throughout the Northeast. Manny Abarca, one of the organizers of the grassroots group, said their goal is to save as much of the school as possible for recycled use.

The school district is working with the community to identify what it wants saved. The district might offset some of the salvaging costs by selling some items, as well. District representatives said the estimated cost of demolition is around $240,000.

The roughly 30 community members who attended the meeting learned the schedule for the project is set to begin this week, April 22, with an estimated completion date of July 3, 2015. First, Gator Industrial will conduct an environmental abatement. Asbestos abatement will be performed by B&R Insulation. Actual demolition of the building is expected to begin with the next month. The demolition crew will operate from 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. All truck and vehicle traffic for the project will be isolated to the south gated entrance on Independence Avenue, with all vehicles traveling east to I-435. Dan Fitzpatrick, general manager of Gator, told the crowd that if there are any issues with the demolition process — noise or dust — to call him at 471-499-5341.

“We want to be as good a neighbors as we can and cause as little an impact to your daily lives as possible,” Fitzpatrick said. “We plan to make dust mitigation a priority. We’ll stop if it gets too windy and we’ll wet the debris to limit dust getting into the air.”

Fitzpatrick also explained Gator has a strict goal of 70 percent diversion of demolition debris into landfills. Only 30 percent of the material can be sent to a landfill, with the rest being recycled.

“We go to great lengths to recycle materials,” Fitzpatrick said.

Once the building is gone, the district plans to use the site to expand the middle school’s athletic field. Larry Englebrick, director of facilities for the KCPS north zone, explained to the crowd that the plan for the site is continually changing. Beginning this summer, the district will begin to discuss with community members what they want to see on the school grounds.

Currently, what the school district has discussed, and somewhat formalized, is the new football field and track at Northeast High School. The track will not be regulation, only four lanes. The cost for this is approximately $1.7 million, with a portion of that being funded by a grant, if the district is awarded the grant. Englebrick said he believes the district will know if it is awarded the grant by September.

“It’ll be great for the community for a walking place,” Englebrick said.

Other things the district heard is a need for a soccer field and a softball field on the grounds of Northeast Middle School. Community member Rebecca Koop asked where the softball field idea came from because in all prior meetings with the district, a softball field was never mentioned.

“The educators said they could really benefit from having a baseball/softball field for the students to have that has an activity also,” Englebrick said. “We’re trying to put as much in this foot print as we can for student activities and community use.”