Casper currently has five collection sites for residents who want to get rid of tree branches downed by Friday’s powerful storm.

For people who don’t want to haul away their own debris, the city will collect branches during the next extra collection trash day. Branches must be cut into lengths 5 feet or less and placed in a neat pile on the curb.

Residents who aren’t physically able to collect branches should reach out to volunteers in the community, City Manager John Patterson said. Church groups and some businesses have been assisting people.

Colin Taylor was one of the lucky ones. He was taking a nap Sunday, waiting for the Denver Broncos game to start, when he heard a knock at his door. It was a neighbor, asking if a group of men outside could clear his lawn.

Taylor looked out and saw about a dozen men standing around a 30-foot flatbed trailer, he recounted Monday while at the senior center in Casper. They were from Halliburton. Taylor happily agreed and the men set to work.

“They had me cleared up by 3:30 p.m.,” he said, or quick enough for him to catch most of the Broncos game.

The city has a grinder at Mike Sedar Park and is trying to get two more so it could rotate the machines among the various sites, Patterson said. He expects to keep the sites open as long as people keep showing up with branches. That could be a couple of weeks, he estimated.

The open collection sites are:

• South Mike Sedar Park
• Iris Street at Valley Drive
• Along Bryan Stock Trail, north of K Street
• Corner of Wyoming Boulevard near 21st Street
• Balefill Compost Yard (open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday – Saturday).

The small sites that have recent capacity and are now CLOSED: 

• The Ag Extension Building on Fairgrounds Road (community garden area)
• Viking Court (cul-de-sac area off Blackmore Road, near intersection with Wyoming Boulevard)
• YMCA area, near 15th Street and Wolcott Street
• Wyoming Boulevard near Fairside Road
• McKinley and 25th Street
• North Casper Recycling Depots

Historical Image
by Lawrence Morgan

Amos Lawrence Park

Building on the best of the past, yet looking towards the future

The former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant is now being made into a business park. I think it needs a new name and – equally important – a new vision. A much better name than those which have been proposed for this park would be “Amos Lawrence Park.”

It’s time to have a vision for this park which would incorporate the city’s possibilities and that of surrounding cities as well. The vision needs to incorporate what this park could become in conjunction with other parts of Lawrence and Douglas County.

Pedestrian / bicycling trail and a place for gathering

A pedestrian/bicycling trail should lead from the park to downtown Lawrence and to the circular path around the university. This could be adjacent to the 19th Street entrance but should be separate, and not part of, the roadway. There should also be a trail leading from the park to Baldwin City and Ottawa, and eventually to Eudora, DeSoto and Kansas City. All of these trails would be landscaped with Kansas plants, and would be part of the Douglas County and Johnson County trail and park systems.

There should be places to sit and to have coffee, tea or a meal. Trees and flowers throughout the park would be a welcome break from the summer’s sun. Some of these things are shown on the master plan but not in detail, and not extending beyond the park itself.

Healthy food would be provided so that persons, and visitors, could have lunch there. In addition to take-out foods, there is a strong possibility that a Whole Foods or Trader Joes would work well in the park. Whole Foods, for example, is now building smaller stores with a live sandwich, meats and seafood department.

Could there be anything better than not only to have your food at the park, but also to be able to come on your bike or in the car to Whole Foods, for example, for your grocery shopping. In the spring, summer and fall you could come via the path on bicycle or as a pedestrian to the park. If you are on the way to work in Kansas City, or coming to Lawrence to enjoy yourself, you could stop off at Amos Lawrence Park to get provisions for your evening meal or an afternoon outing. This would mean you wouldn’t have to make an extra trip for groceries later, but could instead enjoy yourself at home or outside in good weather.

Dillon’s at 17th and Massachusetts St. should also be complimented for having made a strong investment in a part of town which before did not have a good grocery store. It is a good example of a company reinvesting in local businesses by completely remodeling the store, making it very up to date.

The trail and bus route should lead past Dillons to downtown, to the new library and then to the university. With this kind of public transportation, many people won’t need to drive their cars to work – they can take the bike, walk, or ride the bus much of the year.

Several important things

This would symbolize several important things.

First, the name of the park itself. By naming the park the “Amos Lawrence Park,” it shows the connection Lawrence has to the early east coast of the United States, at which time the nation had really just begun its long journey forward.

There would be a link to Lawrence, Massachusetts – another town also named by Amos Lawrence – which I think would be very important for this park, so that links between Lawrence and the east coast are well understood. Street names and place names (for gatherings, coffee, a meal) should be chosen based on the creative energies of the first people in Lawrence – from businessmen to teachers, homemakers to farmers and builders.

The path from the park to downtown, to Baldwin City, Ottawa, Eudora and DeSoto – and eventually Kansas City – offers ideal places in these towns for start ups. Many companies would prefer that their people work in smaller places, which are quiet – such as Baldwin City. They could get a lot more done than driving on 101 in the Bay Area for one to two hours each way even before they get started for the day.

All of these places would be linked by fiber cables – and the time to put them in is now, when 19th St. is ready to join Amos Lawrence Park – not later. This would make it clear that all parts of the city are linked together, not just some companies and organizations. All paths would be lit by LED lights at night.

Actually, fiber cables should be accessed by all businesses, so that people would get to know one another, as well as citizens from all of Douglas County, Franklin County and Kansas City. In Silicon Valley, for instance, many companies, as a result of such meetings, now share skills, talent and overlapping products. New companies locate in Silicon Valley just as a result of these meetings. The same thing could take place in Lawrence. Outdoor and indoor meetings should take place at least once every week.

The contributions of all Lawrence citizens should also be shown. By their being able to visit the park, both via the path, bus and by car, it would take on much more energy than by simply being a business park, of which there are already plenty in all parts of the United States, including Silicon Valley – where many business buildings and parks have plenty of buildings which remain empty. Much more is needed besides buildings and concrete if a space is going to become an idea-generation location.

Building on the best of the past, yet looking towards the future

“Building on the best of the past, yet looking towards the future.” Both need to be incorporated into this park, and the surrounding pathways. It must, for example, include nature: Kansas is a very important part of the prairie and plains ecosystem. There should be plants, flowers and trees which reflect this aspect of life in Lawrence, available for all to see, including major landscaping all along the trial. This landscaping should under no circumstances be ignored. This should not be a park with no connection to the land. There should also be a fountain or fountains throughout the park, so that families and single persons would enjoy being there on the weekends as well as during the week.

And there should be the amenities that companies seek in Silicon Valley – basketball courts, for example, so that people who take breaks could have fun, and again, meet more people.

City College of Lawrence

There would also eventually need to be a City College of Lawrence, modeled to some extent on the City College of San Francisco as well as other signficant community colleges. The City College of San Francisco has 85,000 students of all ages – from those who are learning English, to people working towards an associate degree, to seniors who are catching up on areas they never had time for eariier in life.

And this, again, needs to be an attractive area so that people can meet each other and enjoy themselves – preferably outside in good weather. You never know who will meet each other – and perhaps have just the right idea for a new company. Steve Jobs quit the university because he felt he had better things to do with his time. You don’t always need a university education to make things happen – and you can go back later when you have additional time and when you have explored life first.

City College of Lawrence should be linked not only with KU, but with Kansas State, Baker University, Ottawa University, and other similar colleges. We need an organization which will serve all people, at many different stages in their life.

Attractive signs in each city should point prominently to each educational institution in that city. There should be no doubt about it: Kansas is about education, at many different times throughout life!

Also, by putting a City College of Lawrence at Amos Lawrence Park, people from surrounding communities could be served at this location or in small branch colleges around town, each with a small library, computer space, and paying of bills without extra fees. These could be empty storefronts or small houses in various parts of the city.

The result will be a city of energy and innovation

What would eventually result would be a city of energy, excitement and innovation. This is the kind of city that companies want to relocate to, and that people of all ages – including seniors – would want to take part in. It would be an ideal energetic business community, including a City College for future growth at any time, and an ideal senior retirement location.

If this park is to mean anything in the future, it must have vitality, energy and innovation. The “Amos Lawrence Park” has all of these things and it would be a source destination for businesses of all kinds – not just “venture” businesses.

It would also be a break from much of what is taught at KU, which is too often just rote repeating of what the student thinks the teacher will want, instead of genuine creativity. (And I am a KU graduate; I have experienced that many times myself.)

There could be a strong set of courses – from 1 week to several months – with online classes combined with students working with one another – and many of these online classes are free.

And obviously the groundbreaking TED lectures.

Creative energy is what companies are looking for in the future. Lawrence, by naming this park “Amos Lawrence Park,” meets these goals when they are combined with a city that people want to come to and live in for the rest of their lives.

BY DAVID ROEDER
Staff Reporter

October 8, 2013 7:06PM

Artist rendering of developer Steven Fifield’s plan to “Cap the Kennedy,” or build a park over parts of the Kennedy Expressway, just west of downtown. | Courtesy~Fifield Companies

Article Extras

Updated: October 8, 2013 7:19PM

If downtown Chicago is to grow, it most likely is to grow to the west, beyond the commuter train stations. And that brings the future push for development up against the trench that contains the Kennedy Expy.

City planners have for years seen as sensible the idea of building a landscaped cap over the Kennedy, shielding the cars from neighbors and creating a park. It would be a focal point and an invitation to invest in the Near West Side. Think of Millennium Park on the other side of downtown, in finances as well as appearance.

Steven Fifield, founder of Fifield Cos., has embraced the Kennedy cap and drafted plans for it with architect Scott Sarver, principal of SMDP Studio. He’s also discussed the idea with community groups and politicians. Most like the plan, but the cost — now estimated at $60 million per block — threatens to keep it a vision and nothing more.

“It would be a clear improvement for that expressway corridor, but there are a lot of questions about how to pay for it,” said downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd).

Fifield is betting that the park would intensify developer interest in surrounding parcels. The new offices or apartments could generate tax revenue that pays off bonds for the project.

But when he broached this subject a year ago, he was sketching out a four-block deck, running from Washington to Jackson, costing $15 million per block. He said that the new estimate of $60 million comes after input from the city’s Transportation Department.

Alan Schachtman, executive vice president at Fifield Cos., said the higher cost reflects requirements for ventilation, fire prevention needs and even the landscaping and irrigation of the deck. He’s still a believer. “It would do for that area what Millennium Park did for the east side,” Schachtman said.

Initial funding could come from the Canal Congress tax-increment financing district, which had $49 million in its account at the end of last year, most of it committed to other projects. They include $11 million for a favorite of the city’s: the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system on Ashland.

Suggesting TIF for a downtown enhancement will lead to criticism that neighborhood needs are being ignored and priorities are misplaced.

Sarver, however, said the Kennedy cap is perfect for a TIF. “I think that, fundamentally, this is what they were for — to improve our infrastructure and to spur growth and development,” he said.

TOKYO CALLING: The old Tokyo Hotel at 19 E. Ohio had a function, I suppose, as being a dirt-cheap place to stay downtown if you could put up with the questionable sanitation and documented building code issues. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) described the place as “dodgy” when he mentioned in a City Club of Chicago speech that the hotel is due for a makeover.

Property records show New York-based Sydell Group Ltd. bought the 15-story building earlier this month for $13.5 million. The company has formed a venture with billionaire Ron Burkle to develop hostels catering to young travelers and those on a budget.

Sydell spokesman Michael Tavani said the hotel will reopen as the second operation of a brand called Freehand. The first one opened in Miami in 2012. Tavani said the brand offers a mix of shared and private rooms. The work will take about 18 months and give the hotel a new on-site bar and café, he said.

THE CLOSER: This is my last column for the Sun-Times and I wanted to pause here at the end and thank everyone for reading over the years. I’ve had a great run, starting in 1998 when I came in one Monday and opened a memo written with military-like dispassion that ordered me to start writing a commercial real estate column pronto.

That was the stated subject matter, at least. Over time, the column became more about the changing city, from big trends to everyday deals that promised an impact on what we see around us. To me, that’s what makes real estate a compelling story.

Thank you for your ideas, your praise and critiques. My next assignment is to join Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration in his Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. I welcome the challenge but will miss writing about our shared interest in what makes Chicago tick.

Email: droeder@suntimes.com