By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
and LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
July 11, 2013

In a memorandum obtained by the Northeast News, Union Station President and Chief Executive Officer George Gaustello outlines to Union Station staff that Union Station Kansas City, Inc. (USKC) management will be “evaluating future staffing needs on house management and programs” at the Kansas City Museum.

The memo, released immediately following the abrupt termination of Kansas City Museum’s Historic House Director Christopher Leitch is short on detail but long on the potential future of the Corinthian Hall facility, up to and including closing the facility and possibly diverting mil levy monies to Union Station.

David Remley, who was part of the initial Kansas City Museum Advisory Board, indicated that closure of the Corinthian Hall facility is what USKC has had in mind all along.

“Corinthian Hall has been albatross around the neck of Union Station since the merger,” Remley said. “The wording of that memo gives me great pause.”

According to Kansas City Museum Advisory Board Chair Martha Lally, Leitch did much to establish relationships with a large number of Kansas City communities.

“Christopher was instrumental in fostering the development of exhibits from a wide variety of non-contiguous communities in Kansas City, including GLAMA and Nuestra Herencia, to name a few.”

Amy Hull, who sits on the Kansas City Museum Advisory Board, went a step further in her criticism of the memo’s wording.

“The fact that he’s considering closing the museum or reducing staff is completely out of the realm of comprehension and goes against the interpretive plan for the museum that was developed in September of 2010,” Hull said. “Christopher is such an asset, why would anyone give up on that?”