By Michael Bushnell
Northeast News

The front porch of the famed “cougar house” at 441 Bellefontaine collapsed Wednesday morning following heavy rains over the previous two days.

The house was known as the “cougar house” due to the large, plastic puma on the front porch roof. East Patrol Community Interaction Officers (CIO) Greg Smith and Pat Byrd, along with KCPD Social Worker Trena Miller, had been diligently attempting to secure contractors to rectify the situation since March of this year. The KCPD involvement came as the result of the extreme financial straits the homeowner, Janice James.

Interestingly, that repair project was due to start this coming Friday; the first item to be removed was going to be the front porch that collapsed. The city’s Dangerous Buildings department responded to the scene early Wednesday afternoon, and due specifically to the porch collapse, designated the structure as a dangerous building requiring the occupant to vacate the property immediately for safety reasons. The issuance of the designation set a number of forces in motion that would ultimately require James to vacate the property.

As the afternoon progressed, however, it became clear that James and her border collie Rocky were not leaving the property despite the imminent safety hazard presented by not only the front porch collapse, but previous collapses of the north chimney and part of the west soffit, the degradation of which caused a sizable sway in the peak gable of the house.

Kansas City Fire Department Investigator David Dice was initially emphatic on August 15 about his decision to restrict James from the house.

“I can’t do that,” Dice said. “That whole front porch could end up in the street and the house with it, and she’d be buried in all those bricks.”

“We know now how that turns out,” Dice added, referring to the October 12th 2015 at 2600 Independence Avenue where a wall collapsed and killed firefighters John Mesh and Larry Leggio.

Miller was also on hand on August 15, when she spoke at length with fire inspectors and Dangerous Buildings inspector Gary Clark regarding the situation. During that conversation, Miller advocated for James to stay in the home based on an inspection done in May 2018 by Bob D. Campbell & Sons, a structural engineering firm located in Midtown Kansas City. The inspection deemed the structure safe for habitation.

Miller also spoke at length with the contractor, Page Construction out of Greenwood, Missouri, the firm that will perform the necessary repairs on the roof beginning this Friday.

James, however, would not budge from her wicker chair on the back porch of the residence. Fire Chief Gary Reece arrived shortly after 5 p.m. and began speaking with James as the other inspectors on the scene conferred with Industrial Salvage and Wrecking President Chuck Cacioppo, who was brought to the scene to evaluate the condition of both the house and collapsed front porch.

After almost two hours on the scene and a dozen telephone conversations with various contractors and engineers, a temporary compromise was struck: the Fire Department’s children’s learning trailer would be parked along Thompson Avenue, adjacent to the home, in order to house James overnight.

“Under these circumstances and in this situation specifically, this is probably the best compromise we have as a temporary solution,” said Deputy Fire Chief Jimmy Walker. “We probably wouldn’t do this otherwise, but there are just so many moving parts to this whole deal.”

KCPD Social Worker Trena Miller added that this was a collaborative effort that involved a number of city agencies.

“We’ve been working on this since March, trying to line up the necessary resources to fix the house and let her stay where she wants to stay,” said Miller. “Everything finally came together in the last week. We really don’t want to forcibly evict someone from their home in this situation, which is why we’re working so hard to make this happen.”

Later Wednesday evening, once a demolition contractor removed the collapsed porch debris, the city’s Dangerous Buildings department closed the case, allowing re-habitation of the home. Unfortunately, that news was not relayed to James, who spent the night in the KCFD trailer.

According to Steve Boniello with the City’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department, the work is being paid for through both the city’s Municipal Court Fund and another funding source through HUD, the city’s Housing Repair Fund. Repairs to the house are estimated at roughly $33,000. That contracted work, however, was delayed because of delinquent taxes on the home. Enter the Bishop Sullivan Center (on Truman Road), who ultimately took care of the back taxes, clearing the hurdle for the repair work to begin.

Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood officials remain displeased with the decision to repair, rather than demolish, the home.

“We are a neighborhood that takes pride in preserving our historic neighborhood, so we don’t take requests for demolition lightly, but this is one that has to go,” said Scarritt President Leslie Caplan, in a prepared statement released August 16. “Unbelievably, she was still there this morning working in her garden, apparently oblivious to the danger that surrounds her. Nero fiddled while Rome burned.”

Throughout the day Thursday, Fire officials and city inspectors frequented the property to check on progress and to evaluate the condition of the home and homeowner. While the home is not considered a dangerous structure officially, the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services department spokesperson John Baccala said on the afternoon of August 16 that a re-inspection would take place.

“We’ve deemed the house to be habitable,” Baccala said. “Does it need work? Yes. But it does not meet the criteria to be a dangerous building.”

With the dropping of the Dangerous Building designation, KCPL arrived on the scene late Thursday afternoon and reconnected the power so James could re-enter the property. Page Construction, the roofing contractor, also spread a large tarp over the roof in anticipation of tonight’s heavy rains.

“She’s been a part of the Northeast community for such a long time,” said Miller. “It’s just so important to her to remain in her house, and there’s a big team of people involved in this Herculean effort to make that happen.”