Columbia Missourian
K.C. wants to put ‘blue’ back into Blue River
The city is investing
$300 million to save
the historic river.
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY — For most of
a century, the Blue River snak-
ing though Kansas City has
served as an industrial dump-
ing ground and open sewer.
But that’s beginning to
change as city officials, volun-
teers and industrial companies
are working to restore the 41-
mile-long waterway.
“The Blue River is a huge pri-
ority within the citywide plan,”
said Shannon Jaax, lead plan-
ner in Kansas City’s planning
and development department.
The city is working with the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
on a $300 million flood-control
project to enlarge the chan-
Homes: Grants, donations
to cover costs to move houses
CONTINUED from page 1A
which sits on U.S. 63 north of
Pinnacles Youth Park, for its
potential historical value. It was
eligible for the National Regis-
ter of Historic Places because
of the Queen Anne detailing
and architecture.
Then David Sapp, former
president of the Boone County
Historical Society and the per-
son who provided the historic
narrative for the home, stepped
in. He talked to the Graveses,
who had no plans to use the
house and persuaded them to
give the house to the society if
it would cover the cost of mov-
ing it.
“It’s in beautiful shape,”
Thompson said of why the
house is a great example of the
Victorian era. “It’s what a rural
family actively farming would
live in.”
There are two phases to the
project, Sapp said. First, and
most expensive, is moving the
house. Through a grant from the
Convention and Visitors Bureau
and donations from the Boone
Electric Community Trust and
the Stafford Family Charitable
Trust, the Society has about
$30,000 to work with.
The second phase relies on
the generosity of Society mem-
bers and the community. For
$150 or more, donors can have
their names engraved in bricks
that will create a sidewalk to
the house.
The house needs a new roof
of wooden shake shingles, as
opposed to the asphalt shingles
it has now. The Society also will
need to replace the exterior sid-
ing and rotting wood, and the
outside needs to be cleaned, re-
primed and repainted.
Inside, Sapp plans to take
away many of the modern fea-
tures that were added over
time. 1970s style is apparent in
the faded green and orange car-
peting and some “pretty ugly”
fake-wood paneling. The house
will also be rewired for elec-
tricity, heating and cooling.
Sapp said he wants to use as
much free labor from volun-
teers and the Society as pos-
sible.
“We’ll try to reach out a little
Cheating: Pressure pushes pupils, expert says
CONTINUED from page 1A
said they stole something from
a friend; 23 percent said they
stole something from a parent
or other relative.
“What is the social cost of
that — not to mention the impli-
cation for the next generation of
mortgage brokers?” Josephson
remarked in an interview. “In
a society drenched with cyni-
cism, young people can look at
it and say ‘Why shouldn’t we?
Everyone else does it.’”
Other findings from the sur-
vey:
n Cheating in school is ram-
pant and getting worse. Sixty-
four percent of students cheat-
ed on a test in the past year, and
38 percent did so two or more
times, up from 60 percent and
35 percent in a 2006 survey.
n Thirty-six percent said they
used the Internet to plagiarize
an assignment, up from 33 per-
cent in 2004.
n Forty-two percent said they
sometimes lie to save money,
49 percent of the boys and 36
percent of the girls.
Despite such responses, 93
percent of the students said
they were satisfied with their
personal ethics and character,
and 77 percent affirmed that
nel, including efforts to remove
trash and run-down buildings
from a 400-foot corridor for a
12.5-mile section of the river
where it joins the Missouri
River.
“We’ve hauled off almost
100,000 tons of scrap iron and
trash and 20,000 to 30,000
tires,” said John Holm, proj-
ect manager for the Corps.
“There’s been an incredible
cleanup effort that wouldn’t
have happened without the
channel project.”
Boat houses and resorts dot-
ted the shore of the lower Blue
River in the late 1800s. In 1928,
city officials sought to add a
10-mile parkway with 100-foot
easements along the river, ask-
ing voters to approve $1 mil-
lion in bonds. While 63 percent
of voters favored the idea, it
bit farther,” he said, mentioning
that sometimes fraternities or
sororities help out.
Sapp said he hopes to move
the house within six months; his
goal is late spring.
“It’s usually a lot of fun,” he
said. “We may even discover
some things in the process of
opening these things up.”
Lustron House:
Welcoming home
veterans
World War II has just ended.
Returning soldiers are looking
for houses where they can start
new families using money from
the GI bill. But there’s a seri-
ous housing shortage; veterans
An advertisement shows a post-World War II Lustron home. Only
2,500 of these homes were manufactured; Columbia has two.
“when it comes to doing what
is right, I am better than most
people I know.”
Nijmie Dzurinko, executive
director of the Philadelphia Stu-
dent Union, said the findings
were not at all reflective of the
inner-city students she works
with as an advocate for better
curriculum and school funding.
“A lot of people like to blame
society’s problems on young
people, without recognizing that
young people aren’t making the
decisions about what’s happen-
ing in society,” said Dzurinko,
32. “They’re very easy to scape-
goat.”
Peter Anderson, principal of
Andover High School in Ando-
ver, Mass., said he and his
colleagues had detected very
little cheating on tests or Inter-
net-based plagiarism. He has,
however, noticed an uptick in
students sharing homework in
unauthorized ways.
“This generation is lead-
ing incredibly busy lives —
involved in athletics, clubs, so
many with part-time jobs, and
— for seniors — an incredibly
demanding and anxiety-produc-
ing college search,” he offered
as an explanation.
Riddle, who for four decades
failed to gain the two-thirds
necessary for passage.
Owners of industrial compa-
nies fought against the plan,
said David Jackson, Jackson
County Historical Society
archivist. They built a series of
factory towns along the river,
including Sheffield, Centro-
polis, Manchester and Leeds,
which were annexed into Kan-
sas City in 1909.
Blight in those areas has
forced industrialists to rethink
their position in recent years.
John R. Patrick, comptrol-
ler of the 95-year-old Clay &
Bailey Manufacturing Co., said
his metal-casting company is
among those helping to reju-
venate the river to its previous
natural beauty.
“The green space that comes
from parks and trails attracts
pack every available room on
college campuses.
Carl Strandlund recognizes
opportunity when he sees it. He
establishes the Lustron Corp. in
Columbus, Ohio, to build pre-
fabricated steel houses.
Strandlund obtains large
loans from the government
and large allocations of steel,
the primary structural mate-
rial in his homes. Even the
built-in cabinets are steel. All
the exposed surfaces, though,
including the roof and exterior
walls, are coated with porcelain
to keep the steel from rusting.
The houses require high-tech
machines capable of handling,
forming and shaping the steel.
Photo courtesy of David Sapp
was a high school teacher and
principal in northern Virgin-
ia, agreed that more pressure
could lead to more cheating,
yet spoke in defense of today’s
students.
“I would take these students
over other generations,” he
said. “I found them to be more
responsive, more rewarding to
work with, more appreciative of
support that adults give them.
“We have to create situations
where it’s easy for kids to do
the right things,” he added.
“We need to create classrooms
where learning takes on more
importance than having the
right answer.”
On Long Island, an alliance
of school superintendents and
college presidents recently
embarked on a campaign to
draw attention to academic
integrity problems and to crack
down on plagiarism and cheat-
ing.
Roberta Gerold, superinten-
dent of the Middle Country
School District and a leader of
the campaign, said parents and
school officials need to be more
diligent — for example, empha-
sizing to students the distinc-
tions between original and bor-
rowed work.
people and business into the
area, and that reduces blight,”
said Patrick, who is also presi-
dent of the Kansas City Indus-
trial Council.
The new channel is currently
bare but will eventually look
more natural with the Corps
considering adding pools and
eddies to help wildlife and
planting trees on the upper
banks.
The city’s water department
is looking to add a paved hik-
ing trail from Swope Park to
Truman Road along property
acquired for the flood-control
project.
The first segments of the
trail, which could also be con-
nected to established trails in
Johnson County, Kan., could be
built in the next five years.
Todd Gemeinhardt, a Con-
It turns out to be an expen-
sive venture, and Strandlund
struggles with the operation
until he finally shuts down after
Congress refuses to loan him
more money. He manages to
manufacture only 2,500 homes,
which were sold mainly in the
upper Midwest.
Columbia had two of these
homes. Insurance agent Phyllis
Nichols bought one but decided
afterward that it was insuffi-
cient as an office, so she agreed
to give it to the Society for the
cost of moving it.
Now, the Lustron house sits
in pieces, divided between two
storage facilities. Volunteers
and Sapp, who also provided
this history, disassembled the
house at its original location
on West Boulevard. The Lus-
tron house is the last prior-
ity among the three houses on
Boone Junction’s list of new
features. As with the Ryland
house, the Society is still rais-
ing money to cover the cost
of building a foundation, then
moving, rebuilding and restor-
ing the house.
After the house is reas-
sembled at the village, two of
the rooms will be dedicated to
museum exhibits. Thompson
said there are two options: both
rooms could be dedicated to
exhibits about World War II, or
one could be a general museum
on military history.
Either way, Sapp said the
house will be dedicated to a
local WWII veteran Hirst Men-
denhall, who flew airplane mis-
sions on D-Day and “had quite a
story to tell about it.”
“Two of his children have
helped raise the money for it,
and I think it’s a very appro-
priate way to recognize their
father,” Sapp said.
Lustron houses still exist in
other parts of Missouri, includ-
ing Boonville, Kansas City and
St. Charles.
“We have some great plans
for preserving the house and
utilizing it to show what those
houses were like,” Sapp said.
“You can reinforce the char-
acter trait of integrity,” she
said. “We overload kids these
days, and they look for ways
to survive. ... It’s a flaw in our
system that whatever we are
doing as educators allows this
to continue.”
Josephson contended that
most Americans are too blase
about ethical shortcomings
among young people and in
society at large.
“Adults are not taking this
very seriously,” he said. “The
schools are not doing even the
most moderate thing. ... They
don’t want to know. There’s a
pervasive apathy.”
Josephson also addressed the
argument that today’s youth are
no less honest than their prede-
cessors.
“In the end, the question is not
whether things are worse, but
whether they are bad enough to
mobilize concern and concerted
action,” he said.
“What we need to learn from
these survey results is that our
moral infrastructure is unsound
and in serious need of repair.
This is not a time to lament and
whine but to take thoughtful,
positive actions.”
MONDAY, December 1, 2008 — Page 3A
servation Department fishery
specialist, said fishing in the
lower Blue River is good for
channel catfish, and the upper
reaches are fair for bluegill
and bass.
“There’s still upper sections
that are pretty and include rif-
fles and meanders like clear-
water Ozarkian streams,” he
said.
The river is still struggling
with urban runoff and dis-
charges from city storm sewer
systems.
Volunteers picking up trash
along the banks in recent years
have also found the bodies of
murder victims.
But the city is hoping to com-
bat the pollution by developing
more rain gardens and wet-
land as part of an upcoming $2
billion sewer and stormwater
MAKING CONNECTIONS
The City Council approved seven of nine local nonresidential street
connections, or LNRs, in the Route 763/Range Line Street corridor
as amendments to Columbia’s Major Roadway Plan.
Approved LNR
2 To: Smiley Lane
4
BROWN SC
HOOL RD.
3
LINE ST.
SMILEY
LANE
GE
RAN
6 5
RIDG
BLUE
7 From: LNR-7
8 9
BIG BEAR BLVD.
Source: COLUMBIA PLANNING AND ZONING
Streets: New roads
would diffuse traffic
CONTINUED from page 1A
requests infrastructure bond
issues about every 10 years.
The city already is investing
$11 million into the reconstruc-
tion and widening of Range
Line Street. Construction of
the proposed connecting roads
would facilitate future devel-
opment in the corridor, Teddy
said.
The planned streets are
intended to provide connectiv-
ity between subdivisions along
Range Line, which is expected
to carry a large volume of rela-
tively high-speed traffic once
it is expanded to four lanes.
The connecting streets would
give the public alternative
routes so it doesn’t have to use
Range Line for shorter trips.
The new streets would also
help traffic circulation, Teddy
said.
“They are not exclusively for
the area neighborhoods. Part of
it is for area neighborhoods, but
we are also anticipating that a
Voting: Trend
was not partisan
CONTINUED from page 1A
increase in the number of vot-
ers skipping down-ballot races
suggests that repealing the
straight-ticket voting option
affected lower races. But he
said it is unclear whether the
repeal mattered enough to
change the outcome of the elec-
tion or control of the state leg-
islature.
Voters overwhelmingly
picked Nixon and selected
just one Republican in the five
statewide races.
But the Democrats’ success
did little to dent the Republican
control of the legislature. The
GOP expanded its majority in
the Senate, and the Democrats
picked up just three House
seats, which was less than they
had hoped.
But Kimball said it is unlike-
ly that voters started mixing
their ballots with Republican
lawmakers and Democratic
statewide officials because of
the straight-ticket repeal.
system upgrade. That should
help cleanse the Blue River
and stabilize water flows.
Communities in Overland
Park, Kan., where the river
starts, are proposing new
development regulations and
federal dollars are being used
to clean up pollution on indus-
trial and commercial sites.
Bacteria levels in the river
can still surpass safe levels
after heavy rains, and droughts
can cause river pools to become
overridden with algae, said
Don Wilkinson, a hydrologist
for the U.S. Geological Survey.
But Wilkinson said the envi-
ronmental fixes are starting to
improve overall water quality.
“The Blue is getting cleaner,”
he said. “It looks like some
things we’re doing on the river
or upriver are working.”
LNR under review
1 LNR-1
From: Interstate Drive
2 LNR-2
Extension of Harvester Drive
west of Range Line Street
3 LNR-3
From: Almond Drive
To: Smiley Lane
4 LNR-4
From: Street LNR-3
To: Range Line Street
1
.
RD
5 LNR-5
From: Chippewa Drive
E
DG
To: Northland Drive
I
DERBY R
6 LNR-6
From: Street LNR-5
To: Blue Ridge Road
LNR-7
7
From: Proposed extension of
E RD
.
Providence Road
To: East of Range Line Street
8 LNR-8
To: Big Bear Boulevard
N 9 LNR-9
From: LNR-7
2000 FEET To: Big Bear Boulevard
MISSOURIAN
lot of development will be com-
mercial,” Teddy said. “These
connections would be helpful
to customers, employees, deliv-
ery traffic, service vehicles
and that kind of thing.”
Skala said growth in the
Range Line corridor is creat-
ing a need for the future street
connections.
“That growth has been pret-
ty explosive,” he said. “These
proposed connections are
designed, frankly, to relieve
some of the traffic that is
already there.”
Residents of surrounding
neighborhoods shouldn’t have
to worry about increased traf-
fic around their homes because
of the roads — they would dis-
tribute traffic more evenly,
Teddy said.
“Local trips can remain more
local, and cross-town trips can
remain on Range Line,” he
said. “In general, it will be ben-
eficial to the neighborhoods.”
“For so many of the state
legislature races, it was no con-
test to begin with,” he said.
“There just weren’t competi-
tive races.”
And even though Democrat-
ic voters in 2004 were more
likely than Republicans to cast
straight-ticket votes, the par-
tisan tinge didn’t necessarily
hold true for the increases in
partially completed ballots in
2008.
Voters in heavily Democrat-
ic St. Louis city, for example,
dropped off down-ballot races
with greater frequency in 2008
than in 2004. But that trend
also held true in the staunch
GOP turf of Barry County in
southwest Missouri.
And while those living in St.
Louis were more likely to cast
incomplete ballots, there was a
greater bump in the portion of
the electorate skipping down-
ballot races in Barry County
than in St. Louis.