The Flint Hills Discovery Center

During our first hour this week we take up the Flint Hills Discovery Center with its executive director, Bob Workman. The Flint Hills Discovery Center celebrates the importance of the tallgrass prairie, through a presentation of its geology, biology and cultural history. With 7,000 square feet of dynamic permanent exhibits, visitors will learn the importance of this rare eco-system and its rich biological diversity. Visitors will also learn how the first Native peoples lived here in harmony with nature for 13,000 years, and how Euro-Americans adopted grazing as the principle economy of the Flint Hills that has essentially saved it. Workman discusses the architecture of the building, its green features, and what the Center will offer the people of Manhattan and the state of Kansas.

Additional Links/Resources:

Kansas - Flint Hills: tourism resource site.

Flint Hills map and resources - Kansas Geological Survey resource site.

Flint Hills Scenic Byway is the gateway to the tallgrass prairie. It offers travelers an unchanged view of the grasslands of the Great Plains. Explore historic sites, quaint towns, and scenic vistas as you discover where the West truly begins.

Flint Hills Nature Trail is a 117 mile rail-trail in northeast Kansas. It crosses 7 counties along its east-west course.

Protect the Flint Hills is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information and education about issues that affect the Flint Hills of Kansas, the last expanse of tallgrass prairie on the continent.

National Geographic Photo Gallery: The Splendor of the Grass.

Konza Prairie

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Beattie Linestone

Belief as Community - Session 3

While Community Bridge takes a break for the holiday season, we are going to publish a series of shows from our 2007 season that looks at how beliefs come together to weave the tapestry that makes up our community in Manhattan. In this installment, that originally aired on March 15, 2007, educator Cathy Hedge and business owner Jeff Levine discuss how they understand the meaning of community and how they put their beliefs into actions through their work and lives. At the end of the show is a short commentary by Christopher Renner on the need to repeal the Patriot Act that is as relevant today as it was in 2007!

MP3 File

Belief as Community - Panel 4

In 2007 Community Bridge hosted a series of panels discussing how belief systems help create community. Each panelists was asked to prepare a written statement about how their beliefs affected how they understood community. After reading the prepared statements, the panelists then compared and contrasted each other statements with their own looking for common ground and how that contributed to how we understand the community we live in. Panelist for this show include: Kathy Dzewaltowski, Susan Marshall, Rev. Michael Nelson, and Flordie Pettis.  This podcast is release to honor the memory of Flordie Pettis, who died on October 2, 2010.

To read the all essays prepared for this series, visit: http://beliefascommunity.blogspot.com/.

MP3 File

Clippings for 5 March 2009

Documents referred to in our discussion of the downtown redevelopment lawsuit.
For a complete overview of the lawsuit and the efforts of Manhattan Citizens for Sustainable Downtown Redevelopment, visit their website at: www.mcsdr.info

June 10, 2008, Judge Wilson’s ruling is released following the final hearing on June 5, 2008.

On May 18, 2008, deposition of staff of the City of Manhattan:
Jason Hilgers, Assistant City Manager for the City of Manhattan, 1:15 p.m.

Mark Hatesohl, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Hatesohl’s discovery documents associated with the deposition.

Bruce Snead, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Snead’s discovery documents associated with the deposition.

Tom Phillips, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Phillips’ discovery documents associated with the deposition.

April 24, 2008, the following depositions of staff of the City of Manhattan:
Robert Strawn, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Strawn provided no discovery documents.

James E. Sherow, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Sherow’s discovery documents associated with the deposition.

On January 9, 2008, 9:43 a.m. the Riley County Treasurer sent an e-mail to the Manhattan City Commissioners which informs them that Dial Realty, Inc. has not made timely payments of their property taxes.

Recommended Audio: Rethink Afghanistan


Conyers Cuts a Deal With Rove, Miers
Jason Leopold writes for Truthout: "The House Judiciary Committee cut a deal with lawyers for George W. Bush that will see his former aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers testify in Congress's long-running investigation into the firings of nine US attorneys in December 2006. But their testimony, at least for the time being, will not be conducted publicly. Democrats in Congress have been seeking testimony from Miers and Rove about the Bush administration's firing of nine US attorneys in 2006. To stymie the investigation, Bush barred the witnesses from cooperating and asserted a broad claim of executive privilege."

On Bush, Cheney Crimes Seek Truth and Accountability
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, deserves credit for pressing ahead with his modest proposal to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to review the assaults on the Constitution and general lawlessness of the Bush-Cheney administration. "

How Close the Bush Bullet
Robert Parry, Consortium News: "Earlier this decade when some of us warned that George W. Bush was behaving more like an incipient dictator than the leader of a constitutional republic, we were dismissed as alarmists, left-wingers, traitors and a host of less printable epithets. But it is now increasingly clear that President Bush and his top advisers viewed the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to implement a series of right-wing legal theories that secretly granted Bush unlimited power to act lawlessly and outside the traditional parameters of the US Constitution."

Recommended Audio: John Steward Eviscerates CNBC


First Contractor Is Republican Donor
Michael Garbell reports for ProPublica: "A skeptical person might think the first contractor to benefit from President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package would have political connections to the Democratic Party. Not so. The chief executive of the construction company awarded the first recovery project is actually a big Republican donor -- and contributed to Obama's opponent John McCain."

Report: Cons, Convicts and Government Contracts
Christian Jewett reports for ProPublica: "As President Barack Obama today puts out a strong call for reform in government contracting, it’s worth taking a look back at last week’s congressional hearing, artfully titled: How Convicts and Con Artists Receive New Federal Contracts."

Pro-Union Workers Fired in Over One-Fourth of Union Election Campaigns
John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer write for The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "More than one-fourth of all union-representation elections in the 2000s have been marred by an illegal firing of a pro-union worker, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)."

Don't Disenfranchise Millions
Erika Wood reports for The Politico: "Last week the Poverty Forum, a new coalition of Christian leaders and policy experts from both conservative and liberal camps, convened in Washington. And in a rare instance of true bipartisanship, the group voiced support for legislation - including the Democracy Restoration Act - specifically tailored to meet the needs of the most marginalized Americans."

Pew Study: Cost of Locking Up Americans Too High
Reuters reports: "One in every 31 US adults is in the corrections system, which includes jail, prison, probation and supervision, more than double the rate of a quarter century ago, according to a report released on Monday by the Pew Center on the States. The study, which said the current rate compares to one in 77 in 1982, concluded that with declining resources, more emphasis should be put on community supervision, not jail or prison."

"Green" Funding for Coal Power Plants Criticized
Catherine Brahic reports for The New Scientist: "A clean tech fund that was the brainchild of George W. Bush has come under fire for promoting coal power plants in developing countries."

The Rebirth of Education
Paul Cummins writes for Truthdig.com: "stated that to revitalize our schools, engage our children and ultimately save our planet will require “the death of education and its rebirth.” Sometimes systems are so flawed that they need to be scrapped and replaced rather than fiddled with or fixed. "

Investing Wisely in Our Children
Cynthia G. Brown and Melissa Lazarin report for The Center for American Progress: "The president's blueprint, together with the education dollars in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provide an important opportunity to support state efforts in building rigorous and common academic standards, as well as building on states' bold approaches to benchmarking their standards with high-performing countries across the globe. The blueprint also points to dollars that will appropriately ensure that all students, including English-language learners and students with disabilities, are embraced by states' efforts to raise academic standards and improve state assessments."

KS House Passes Kinzer's Woman's Right to Know and See Act
From our friends at Kansas Jackass: "Another one of those sad days when I really wish our elected officials would focus their time and energy on, I don't know, things that matter and not legislating private medical decisions."

Scientists' Stem Cell Breakthrough Could End Ethical Dilemma
Ian Sample reports for The Guardian UK: "Scientists have found a way to make an almost limitless supply of stem cells that could safely be used in patients while avoiding the ethical dilemma of destroying embryos. In a breakthrough that could have huge implications, British and Canadian scientists have found a way of reprogramming skin cells taken from adults, effectively winding the clock back on the cells until they were in an embryonic form. The work has been hailed as a major step forward by scientists and welcomed by pro-life organisations, who called on researchers to halt other experiments which use stem cells collected from embryos made at IVF clinics."

The Costs of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Lawrence J. Korb writes for The Center for American Progress: "Since 1994, the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy has resulted in the discharge of more than 13,000 military personnel across the services, including approximately 800 with skills deemed 'mission critical,' such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists. These are the very specialties for which the military has faced personnel shortfalls in recent years."

City Commission Meeting on August 12

The City Commission is holding a Work Session and Special Legislative Meeting beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 12.

Of interest to Manhattanites is one of the items on the agenda for the special legislative session; that being a proposed amendment to the North and South End Final Development Agreements. In the copy of the staff report/recommendation, you will read that Dial is blaming the lawsuit brought by Manhattan citizens for their inability to secure agreements with tenants for the north end development. You can down load it on the City's Website at http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/Archive.asp?AMID=31&Type=Recent, click on the link for "North and South Final Development Agreements"

The fallacy with Dial's claim is that originally the deadline for Dial to reach the agreed upon 70% occupancy was June 2007. The City gave Dial a six-month extension, which meant they had until December 2007. The lawsuit wasn't filed until February 14, 2008. Dial is conveniently re-writing history to suit their purposes rather than acknowledging that they failed to meet the terms of the agreement.

In addition, rather than re-negotiate the agreement to better serve the community's interests, City staff has brought forward an amendment and recommendation that benefits the developer over the community. Please read the report/recommendation and plan to attend Tuesday's meeting.

The City Commission should be urged to table this amendment and take it up again at a second meeting in order to give the community ample time to consider the implications. In addition, the City Commission should see this as an opportunity to re-negotiate other aspects of the agreement thereby wresting back control of the development.

It might also be the time to send Dial packing and then doing as has been suggested previously -- establishing a separate nonprofit development corporation (separate from the Chamber of Commerce and DMI) to manage and oversee both the north and south end developments so that the community's interests and vision for the developments are realized.

Points to Remember on the Downtown Redevelopment Project

The Downtown Project has a current estimated cost of $194 million.

Dial Realty is set to invest $87 million in construction of all the retail, restaurants and residential units within the North and South Project Areas.

No public tax dollars will assist construction of any private business or residential development.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is estimated to contribute $25 million towards land assembly, public infrastructure within the project areas such as roads, sidewalks, lighting, water lines, sewer, stormwater, etc. TIF dollars are generated exclusively in the North and South Project areas. TIF includes the increase in property taxes and City sales tax generated from the new development. The City, County and School District continue to receive the "base" amount established in 2005, when the TIF district was created. Anything generated above and beyond this "base" is pledged towards the land acquisition and public infrastructure necessary to facilitate the North and South project areas.

There are two other "public" sources included in the Downtown project. The State of Kansas has dedicated their 5.3% in State sales tax generated within the North and South Project areas. The State has agreed to invest $50 million in the South Project area, specifically in the Flint Hills Discovery Center construction, and the South Project area land acquisition and public infrastructure.

The City will also implement Transportation Development Districts (TDD) that will generate an additional 1/2 cent sales tax on top of the total sales tax rate to help assist with the public infrastructure improvements. In total the TDD will generate another $7 million to the project. A flowchart of sources and uses is available for your review.

The City of Manhattan is scheduled to invest an additional $25 million - or roughly 13% of the total project - towards other public improvements in both the North and South project areas. Projects significant to the benefit to the community have been identified for this investment. These include 4th Street construction- north and south, opening up Leavenworth Street at 3rd Street (connection to the Mall), creating an intersection at 3rd Street and Pierre Street, purchasing the furniture, fixtures, exhibits and equipment for the Discovery Center, financing the construction of the Conference Center, and a portion of the 400-stall parking garage. It is also envisioned in the event excess property and sales tax are generated within the North and South project areas, the City would be reimbursed for these expenses and financed by the incremental dollars generated in the project.

Flint Hills Regional Growth Plan

Our show on 29 November looked at the Flint Hills Regional Growth Plan (FHRGP). The purpose of the FHRGP is to look at the impact the expansion of Ft. Riley will have on the area as it adds over 9,000 active personnel and nearly 2,000 new civilian positions to the Fort's existing infrastructure

The report looks at a broad array of topics concerning the quality of life in the region: public safety, housing, environmental impact, transportation, child care, health care, the economy, social services, etc. You can download a copy of the Executive Summary or the Draft Report at City of Manhattan Website:

http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/

Click on the link entitled: Learn More About the Flint Hills Regional Growth Plan

Weekly Radio Spin

On this show we also heard "Weekly Radio Spin," by the Center for Media and Democracy. This program is an audio report on the stories behind the news. In addition to Media Minute by Free Press, I am considering it as a regular feature to the Spring line-up for the show. Your comments are most appreciated.

City should fire Dial and change direction
By Christopher E. Renner
An edited version of this opinion column appeared in the 2 December 2007 Manhattan Mercury.

Dear Editor:
Since work prevents me from being able to attend the Planning Board meeting Monday, I want to publicly express my opinion of the Dial Reality’s modified proposal for our downtown: it's wrong, wrong, wrong! It is time the City fired Dial; admit that we have gone in the wrong direction; and, start over before we have a suburban mall in a urban setting, totally destroying our downtown.

Since beginning in 2006 I have hosted numerous programs on downtown redevelopment on Community Bridge, the talk show I host each Thursday on KSDB 91.9 FM. In preparing for these shows I have done a fair share of research on the subject and what I keep finding is that we have made and continue to make mistakes in our redevelopment plan. Every other downtown redevelopment project I have studied for comparable communities in population size and economic base have begun their redevelopment by forming a not-for-profit corporation to carry out the redevelopment project. This entity has worked closely with the local stakeholders and has enjoyed broad community support. Those who gave their downtowns to a private corporation, as we have, encountered the same problems we are facing that ended in lawsuits, abandoned projects and deep community divisions. Is this the future we want for Manhattan?

Some years ago, when I attended public meetings in which we discussed what we wanted for our downtown redevelopment, common themes emerged: people friendly, diverse, interconnected to the existing grid of roads and neighborhoods, supportive of locally own businesses, and a “destination” where we could enjoy a broad array of restaurants (not just a bunch of fast food outlets), the arts, and venues for cultural events. Where in the current proposal from Dial are those themes? They are not present because we have the wrong people in charge of our downtown redevelopment. What we are getting is asphalt and sprawl, not a cohesive area that will provide a stimulus for economic development.

Research repeatedly shows: in order to have a viable downtown requires having people live in the downtown area which has a broad array of shops and services that are able to turn a profit. Apparently Dial doesn’t read the same research that I have, but why should they? They have consistently demonstrated they do not want the same downtown that most of us who were part of the planning process wanted and still want. Have their executives even been to downtown Lawrence, Lincoln, Austin or Iowa City? Or Wichita’s Old Town for that matter where new development fits with the existing structures? None of these communities have suburban malls in their downtowns and neither should we! Manhattanites deserves a place where we can walk along streets lined with shops, restaurants, and sidewalk cafes that gives our community a place to call “home.”

As a community, we cannot afford to allow the redevelopment of our downtown to end in failure. Moreover, we cannot afford to put locally owned businesses out of business. Their investment in our community far out-strips anything a big box store will contribute. So why aren’t local businesses being encouraged to relocate to this area instead of bringing in national chain stores? Because Dial doesn’t know our community.

It is time that we took back our community and its future from Dial before we get an unsustainable city center, which is full of empty buildings in ten years. My plea to the Planning Board is to reject Dial’s proposal and give them the following directions: either they return to our original concept of an interconnected block-grid structured area with lots of housing options and parking garages instead of acres of asphalt, or it is time they admit they cannot deliver what was promised and we as a community begin working on our future by starting with a not-for-profit corporate to take over and correct the mistakes Dial has made; take back the land and sell it to local businesses making our downtown redevelopment right before any more time is lost.

Downtown Redevelopment

Dial Corporation has requested major changes to the agreed upon plan for the Manhattan PUD. The following is an explanation from the Manhattan/Riley Country Preservation Alliance, who were represented by Michael Mecseri and Jane Hill on our 6 September show.

From the Manhattan/Riley County Preservation Alliance Emergency Board Meeting:

Explanation

Dial Corp announced On August 21 that it was going to request a major change to the Planned Unit Development at the north end of the downtown to accommodate a new 100,000 square foot HyVee grocery store with a liquor store and drive through coffee chain.

This change in the PUD would do the following:
1. Move or demolish the historic Strasser House
2. Eliminate nearly all of the planning housing units that would have been built on 4th street between Osage and Moro
3. Force the owners of the homes in the Ward 2 residential district to face a two block screening wall, behind which all of the trash receptacles, air conditioning units, loading docks, and temporary storage containers would be located.

The Process

Because this is such a major change in the PUD, Dial is obligated to go to the Planning board for permission to build this new store. The planning board will meet on October 1 to hear Dial’s arguments and to hear public imput into the request.
The City commission will hear the same arguments on October 16th at its regular legislative session. THE PLANNING BOARD IS THE KEY GATEWAY TO STOPPING THIS CHANGE IN THE PUD.

If the planning board votes NO, it will take 4 commissioners to overturn it.
If the planning board votes YES, it will take only 2 commissioners to sustain it.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Why has Dial been allowed to make all these changes anyway? What happened to the plan we were shown at the start??

Unfortunately, when the original development agreements were signed between the city and Dial, the city forfeited its interest in determining who the future designers and tenants would ultimately be. This was in exchange for not having to put any money up front for the development, thereby lowering the city’s financial ‘risk.’ This was done by an earlier commission and does not represent the work of the present one. A copy of the Development Agreement is available for you to look at.

2. What about the Design Guidelines created by the citizen steering committee?

The Final development agreement and PUD has design guidelines in it, but again, the city was not insistent on making these guidelines mandatory—so legally Dial is not bound to follow them—and they have chosen not to. Pointing out Dial’s failure to adhere to the guidelines however is a good tactic in discrediting this latest change to the PUD.

3. Isn’t the Strasser House protected by the National Register or an agreement?

Yes and no. The City of Manhattan and the State Historic Preservation Officer signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the conclusion of a review of the historic buildings in the north end redevelopment area. The MOU is the end result of a negotiation that allowed Dial to tear down several OTHER historic buildings, with the understanding that they would not touch the Strasser house and would integrate it into the design.That, unfortunately has not been honored. THE CITY CAN CHOOSE NOT TO HONOR THE MOU. BUT YOU CAN CERTAINLY TELL THE COMMISSIONERS THAT YOU EXPECT THEM TO HONOR IT.

4. If Dial is turned down, won’t that affect the whole project and the South End Redevelopment?

Actually, what will happen is anyone’s guess. And speculation at this point is pretty wild. We simply don’t know what Dial will do. We know that there was plenty of interest by other retailers but Dial didn’t like their terms. Perhaps this will push them to find better tenants, perhaps they will choose to leave the development undone for a period of time. Perhaps they will sue the city, perhaps a meteor will hit their Omaha offices. The fact is, in spite of lots of opinions floating around, we don’t actually know what will happen. What we DO KNOW is what WILL happen if we allow this change to the PUD to take place. If Dial doesn’t make its tenant percentages, the city will likely have to put up some money to keep the project going, BUT that will also give the city more imput into the design and the tenants. LET YOUR COMMISSIONERS KNOW THAT THIS IS A MORE ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVE TO THIS PUD CHANGE. That will go a long way to helping them uphold the current plan.

For more information on the Alliance, visit their website at:
http://www.preservemanhattan.org/