Garland Shelter work to begin Monday
GARLAND, Kan. -- The paperwork has been signed and now it is time to start the dirty work on the Garland Storm Shelter.
After two years or planning and three attempts at funding, physical work on the site of Garland's storm shelter is scheduled to begin Monday as the project's contractor, Home Center Construction, of Pittsburg, Kan., is ready to move forward.
"They want to get things going," Drywood Township Trustee Darrell Bloomfield said. "We're pretty anxiously awaiting them to get started ... it's like a weight off your shoulders."
Two buildings currently stand at the current location. The larger of the two buildings, according to Bloomfield, is Bill's Pool Hall, an old landmark of Garland. He said the building is currently in a dangerous state with one corner of the building collapsing.
"It is in a state that it cannot be repaired," he said.
The second building, an empty trailer home, is located to the east of the pool hall. Grant Administrator Laura Moore told the Bourbon County Commission Friday that they attempted to give the trailer away but no one was interested.
Moore informed the commission that asbestos was found in the pool hall and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has suggested the building be "wet demolished" in which the asbestos is soaked in water before being properly discarded, according to KDHE's recommendation.
The 1,800-square-foot shelter will include a community room which will be used to host meetings and community events as well as a kitchen, restrooms with showers, a safe room, and a gravel parking lot.
The project is being funded by a Community Block Development Grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce. The tentative completion date for the shelter is July 19, 2010, according to Moore.