Old School Buildings

Yes, great idea for a blog for the neighborhood and good rules. Yes, the old Palmer Bldg is an important part of the neighborhood. I believe the Independence School District has some responsibilities to clean up the mess. It was a lesson I learned in kindergarten that, if you make a mess, you clean it up. And don’t the Boy Scouts have a saying that you always leave a place in better condition than it was before you occupied it. These are pretty basic principles that seemed to have been ignored, especially in old town Independence. These lower standards for community stewardship are the reasons why we had to implement a big neighborhood revitalization program years ago. We expect property owners to live by these basic principles. Absentee landlords have trouble with this. Churches should live by this principle but also struggle. You would think that a public education institution would be more sensitive to this. I hate to put the Independence School District in the same category as absentee landlords but I guess it is time for neighbors to give them a grade card. I would also invite citizens to look at the old Santa Fe Elementary School building at 23rd & South Union Streets (see adjacent image). This is a building they sold, also, and now look at it. Will the Palmer building look like this someday? Why is Old Palmer Junior High building worth close to $1,000,000 with toxic contamination and the relatively clean Old Chrisman Junior High building was worth the cost of 32-ounce Mountain Dew at QuikTrip (that includes ice, reusable cup, and straw)? Did I hear correct, the School District will be asking us to vote for a bond issue this fall?