BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org
The formal ceremony will likely be held in March to signal the change of ownership of the Cherryvale’s Kansas Army National Guard Armory to the City of Cherryvale.
City administrator Greg McDanel told city councilors at Monday’s meeting of plans by the Kansas Army National Guard’s top brass to hold a formal ceremony — likely in early March — as the armory is closed. The City of Cherryvale has agreed to accept ownership of the building, which is slated to officially take place on Feb. 28.
It’s unknown when the ceremony will be held, but an announcement will be pending sometime in the next week. A top-ranking officer with the Kansas Army National Guard will be at the armory to deliver the transfer of ownership papers as well as honor the many years that Cherryvale has had a National Guard presence.
Ironically, when Maj. Gen. Tod M. Bunting, the Kansas Adjutant General, announced in December that Cherryvale would be one of 18 Kansas towns to lose their armory due to budget constraints, the 226th Engineer Company detachment in Cherryvale had left a few days prior for mobilization training. The 226th Engineer Company, which includes the Cherryvale unit, has arrived in Afghanistan for a one-year stint with Operation Enduring Freedom.
McDanel also said that the remaining detachment personnel will remove all items from the armory by Feb. 15 while several National Guard recruiting offices might remain in the armory on a temporary basis. McDanel said he and the Kansas Adjutant General’s office are working on an arrangement whereby the recruiting offices can remain in the armory for several more months.
City councilors envision converting the armory into a community center and recreational facility. However, that full conversion will take months, maybe even years as the City of Cherryvale works on a funding source and conversion plan, McDanel said
In speaking at Monday’s council meeting, McDanel said he had anticipated applying for a state grant that will allow local volunteer labor to be used toward a building’s renovation and repairs. The State of Kansas will pay for a portion of the construction materials in the grant. However, because the City of Cherryvale was awarded a $120,000 Community Development Block Grant for an unrelated street improvement project, the community is automatically disqualified from seeking any more state grants for 2010, McDanel said.
Even though there is scant chance for state grant funds to be used for the armory’s conversion in 2010, McDanel said having the additional year will allow he and other city leaders to appropriately plan for the armory’s conversion and develop an operations plan. He said a conversion of the armory into a community-rec center could take more than a minimum of $200,000. Annexation of the armory property into the Cherryvale city limits will also need to be addressed during the year in which the conversion is taking place.
In the meantime, McDanel said he was planning to visit with Cherryvale Recreation Commission members to see about uses for the armory, including public meetings, wedding receptions, banquets, and athletic practices or or other sports events while the conversion plan is being developed.
In other business transacted at Monday’s Cherryvale City Council meeting, city councilors:
• learned that city administrator Greg McDanel and other city staff members were developing an annual report of city accomplishments for the 2009 calendar year. The report will be prepared in brochure form and mailed to all Cherryvale citizens in the coming weeks.
• held a discussion, led by assistant fire-EMS chief Chad Russell, regarding the ambulance rates now imposed by the Cherryvale Fire-EMS Department. Russell said the rates had not been addressed since 2001, and he further said that the current rates do not adequately reimburse the city for medical supplies or fuel.
Noting that the cost of medical supplies and fuel were much different in 2001 than in 2010, Russell said the ambulance rates also do not reflect the allowable reimbursements that insurance providers allow.
Russell recommended that an increase in ambulance rates be imposed so that the costs of operating the service can shift from the taxpayers to the persons who use the ambulance service.
The ambulance rates are largely based on the level of emergency response provided by the Cherryvale Fire-EMS Department. A trauma injury may necessitate a higher rate compared to a less-complicated medical procedure, such as a transfer of a nursing home patient to an area hospital.
Councilors are expected to discuss the ambulance rate matter at a later meeting.
• learned that TranSystems, Inc., an Independence engineering firm, had finished its engineering analysis of the drainage problems plaguing Cherryvale, primarily west of Liberty Street. The report concluded that the culverts and ditches on the city’s west side were far too small to absorb the volume of stormwater drainage into that part of the community. The report estimated that repairing the problem could cost between $300,000 to $500,000.
McDanel suggested that TranSystems prepare a report in which modifications and repairs can be made in several phases, thereby spreading the cost of the project over several years. McDanel also suggested that some aspects of the repairs be handled by city crews instead of a private contractor, thereby saving more money for the City of Cherryvale.
The drainage matter will be discussed at a later meeting.
• agreed to change the date of the council’s next meeting to Tuesday, Feb. 16 because of the Cherryvale Chamber of Commerce annual membership banquet on Monday, Feb. 15.
• accepted a bid of $21,990 (or $43,980 for two homes) from Uden Construction of Chanute, Kan., for rehabilitation work to be performed on two homes that qualified for the City of Cherryvale’s housing rehabilitation program. The homes are located at 826 E. Fourth and 921 E. Fifth. Uden Construction provided the lowest bid among four construction firms that provided bids for the project.
