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?

Requiem for the Palmer building?

Today's McCoy newsletter has an article about the Palmer building. It's for sale now, listed with a realtor for $985,000. Here's the link: http://www.ceahrealtors.com/our_properties.htm. You may remember the reason it was vacated to begin with - deadly mold. The kind that puts people in the hospital. So, is the mold just a bonus, or is this a fire sale so the school district can just walk away? I know it's ancient history, but let us remember the school building just up the street conveyed to an organization for "one dollar and other valuable considerations" and look how THAT turned out. I love the sight of winos drinking out of a paper sack, waiting for a free lunch in full view of the Truman home tourists. Nice visual. There's an election coming up in Nov. for the school district - it's time for old-towners to ask what's REALLY going to happen here.