PITTSBURG

COMMUNITY LOOKS FORWARD TO COMING POST-PANDEMIC DEVELOPMENT

BY JEFF LEHR • jlehr@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Having weathered the COVID-19 slowdown of the past year, the city of Pittsburg is showing signs of an economic rebound in 2021, headlined by new housing construction, ongoing investment in its downtown and the reopening of community venues.

“This is kind of becoming the year to turn everything back on,” City Manager Daron Hall explained recently.

City officials are hoping to reopen the Pittsburg Aquatic Center to public use as early as May 28 and to resume dance and theatrical program uses of Memorial Auditorium this spring and summer.

The municipal pool was closed last summer, and the auditorium shut down with staff laid off in March because of the pandemic. Availability of Memorial Auditorium for small, private events resumed in September, but larger event uses were put on pause.

That’s about to change in this, the auditorium’s 96th year as a community centerpiece, according to manager Chris Patterson.

“We’re actively looking to hire event workers and technical staff,” Patterson said. “We anticipate resuming our event schedule soon.”

Coming off a near sellout of the Aaron Lewis concert at Memorial Auditorium on Feb. 29, 2020, Patterson had been hoping to book more concerts last year headlined by musical artists with a national appeal. The pandemic temporarily let the air out of those aspirations. Patterson now hopes to begin booking acts of that type by sometime this fall or next winter.

Pittsburg Aquatic Center operations this summer remain contingent on how successful vaccinations and other measures are in stemming the

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On April 1, construction of houses in the Silverback Landing housing development near Centennial Avenue in Pittsburg continues. The city is seeing

a surge in new housing construction. GLOBE | LAURIE SISK

spread of COVID-19 and the recommendations of the Kansas Recreation and Parks Association.

“If we keep trending in the right direction, we should be able to move forward with regular operating hours,” Kim Vogel, director of Pittsburg Parks and Recreation, said.

The goal is a safe resumption of all programs, from swim lessons to adult fitness classes at the aquatic center, she said.

Hall said much of Pittsburg’s anticipated economic progress will be coming from new housing subdivisions already under development, a major bridge project and ongoing investment in downtown revitalization.

Three new housing subdivisions — Silverback Landing, Creekside East and Payton’s Hamlet — are already under construction in Pittsburg.

“We have a lot of housing demand,” said Quentin Holmes, director of community development.

He said a study conducted a few years ago found that two-thirds of the workforce in Pittsburg did not live in the city and that 53% of those commuters reported the reason being a lack of housing options.

Because 72% of those commuters had annual salaries in the $70,000 to $90,000 range, the demand was primarily for newer, middle- to upper middle-class homes.

The 60 homes planned in Phase I of Silverback Landing by P&L Development of Kansas City will have market values in the $240,000 to $300,000 range, Holmes said.

Similarly, those in Creekside East, where Turnkey Development Group of Pittsburg had four already under construction in late March and more than 20 more planned in its first phase, are expected to sell for $230,000 to $250,000. Payton’s Hamlet, the smallest of the single-family residential subdivisions under development, will feature homes with market values of $300,000-plus.

A fourth housing subdivision planned west of Creekside East, dubbed Villas at Creekside, entails construction of 29 duplexes financed by 3P Development, a partnership of owners from Little Rock, Arkansas; Washington, D.C.; and Pittsburg.

Holmes said part of the demand for more housing has come from older and retired alumni of Pittsburg State University looking for a way to move back to the community where they went to school, and those duplexes may offer some a more affordable option.

Construction of the villas had yet to begin in early April, but Holmes expects all four new housing subdivisions to be built out within three to five years.

The housing boom is a direct result of a marketing campaign the city began in 2019, inviting a dozen developers from Kansas City, Wichita, Springfield and Arkansas to town to pitch the demand for housing that Pittsburg had to offer.

The city has used a rural housing program that helps developers with the infrastructure costs they incur to incentivize the construction boom in those market niches and the Pittsburg Land Bank to encourage redevelopment of properties acquired by the city through donations or tax sales.

Holmes said 15 properties around Pittsburg either have had new construction completed through the Land Bank program in the past two years or have projects underway at this time.

Those redeveloped properties primarily involve new houses in older neighborhoods with the lower price range sought by first-time homeowners at $80,000 to $150,000. One of the Land Bank projects converted a downtown property into a new boutique.

The city’s $20 million Block 22 project, a partnership of the city with PSU and a developer aimed at providing both student housing and commercial development in the heart of Pittsburg’s downtown, has helped encourage about $3.5 million more investment in new construction or renovation projects downtown over the past two years, according to city officials.

“That includes both housing and commercial,” Holmes said.

Construction began this spring on a $6.5 million bridge being erected over the railroad tracks on Fourth Street, a major construction project for a small city with a $56 million budget.

Some measure of Pittsburg’s success in weathering the economic impact of COVID-19 with its downtown revitalization efforts and new housing boom can be seen in sales tax revenue figures.

The city collected $9.4 million in sales tax revenues in 2020, an increase of 3.14% from 2019 collections, which, in turn, represented a 3.35% increase over 2018.

Larissa Bowman, the city’s director of financing, said the city had budgeted for about a 5% drop in sales tax revenues this year as a result of the pandemic. But revenues collected the first three months of this year are running strong and suggest that was an overly pessimistic projection, Bowman said.

A wide selection of printers, from 3D to large format, form a row of digital possibili-

ties inside the Idea Shop, a makerspace provided by Pitsco and Block 22. GLOBE | LAURIE SISK

A skills course for small drones is one of numerous features inside the Idea Shop, a

makerspace created by Pitsco and Block 22. GLOBE | LAURIE SISK

MAYOR CHUCK MUNSELL 620-249-8242

PRESIDENT CHERYL BROOKS 620-687-4572

DAWN MCNAY 620-687-4037

LARRY FIELDS 620-687-4597

PATRICK O’BRYAN 620-249-3232

The Pittsburg City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month in the courtroom of the Law Enforcement Center, 201 N. Pine St.

CITY LEADERS

CITY MANAGER DARON HALL 620-240-5123

POLICE CHIEF BRENT NARGES 620-235-0400

FIRE CHIEF DENNIS REILLY 620-231-1870 BOARD OF EDUCATION

MICKY PAINTER President, mpainter@usd250.org ED MCKECHNIE Vice president, emckechnie@usd250.org RUSTY AKINS rakins@usd250.org JASON GROTHEER jgrotheer@usd250.org AMBER MADL amadl@usd250.org LAURA SULLIVAN lsullivan@usd250.org MARLENE WILLIS mwillis@usd250.org SUPERINTENDENT RICH PROFFITT 620-235-3100, rproffitt@usd250.org

The Pittsburg Board of Education meets the second Monday of every month and each fourth Monday as needed at 6 p.m. in the Board of Education office at 510 E. Deill St. 3 questions The Root Coffee House (top) is located in Pittsburg’s Block 22 site. GLOBE | ROGER NOMER Q: WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE? A:Maintaining a positive environment locally in the midst of all the state and national political maneuvering. Q: WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY’S BIGGEST STRENGTH? for City Manager Daron Hall A:My strength is my team at the city. They are 300 strong and proudly provide services and support to our residents and businesses with the goal of making Pittsburg the best it can be.

Q: WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT YOUR COMMUNITY?

A: How resilient we are. The people in Pittsburg have always overcome any obstacles, the latest example being the events of the past year. Pittsburg Crews work to create the infrastructure for the new Creekside East does what is necessary to move housing development April 1 on Free Kings Highway in Pittsburg. forward together. GLOBE | LAURIE SISK