LAHARPE — As the Regional Rural Tech Center continues to grow, Ray Maloney thinks he has an ideal site for additional nursing classes: LaHarpe City Hall.
Maloney broached the idea at Wednesday’s LaHarpe City Council meeting.
At issue is whether LaHarpe should continue to use the old LaHarpe Elementary School building as City Hall.
In January, Councilman David Lee suggested the city consider moving back to its old facility along Main Street, citing the high cost of utilities at its present home — about $25,000 a year.
Moving back to Main Street, in a significantly smaller venue, would result in significant savings, Lee noted.
That opened the door for Maloney’s proposal.
Maloney owns the old Diebolt Lumber facility southeast of LaHarpe, which serves as the tech center’s base of operations. Construction trades classes are being held there now, with welding classes slated to start up in the fall.
However, introducing nursing courses will require Maloney to convert another portion of the old Diebolt facility into classrooms.
Since City Hall was formerly a school, many of the rooms would make perfect nursing classrooms with little modification, Maloney said.
Council members were non-committal, but encouraged Maloney to develop a firm proposal.
In a related matter, the city is looking into the costs associated with renovating the old city hall building, in case they decide to move again.
Those costs were not available by Wednesday’s meeting.
The Regional Rural Tech center is a collaboration between local school districts, including Iola-USD 257 and Marmaton Valley-USD 256, and Allen, Fort Scott and Neosho County Community Colleges.
A PENDING citywide upgrade to LaHarpe’s electric grid may not occur as early as the city had hoped.
LaHarpe learned in January the city had been approved for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant, to help fund the effort to provide a newer, more reliable electric distribution system.
However, the CDBG funds, which come from the federal government and are administered by the state, likely will not be available before May.
Susan Galemore, of the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission, will guide the city through the grant process.
“This is a bit of an unusual year,” Galemore said. “With this political climate, the process is just a little slow.”
Starting early, Galemore warned, could leave the city on the hook for the full $400,000 if the federal monies don’t come through.
“I don’t know if it throws a kink in your plans,” Galemore said.
Engineers estimated the full upgrade would take 18 months or less to complete. They expected designs to take place this spring and summer, with construction beginning late in the year.
Waiting until May to get started should not affect the overall timeline drastically.
The grant sets a two-year deadline to finish the project.
“I’d like to thank everyone who worked so hard on this, including the Council,” Mayor Mae Crowell said. ‘We have a long road ahead of us, but this is a great first step.”
