Students share ideas

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

A group of Fort Scott High School students shared their ideas for improving Fort Scott with the Fort Scott City Commission Tuesday evening.

Six FSHS students -- Kristian Engle, Tim Higgins, Zach Wheeler, Akasha Boles, Emily Martin and Kim Ruhl -- presented ideas ranging from construction of a band shell at Gunn Park to repair of roads and sidewalks in certain areas in town. Their presentations were the culmination of a class project assigned by their teacher, Amber Toth, who also appeared before the commission to explain the students' assignments for the "Fort Scott Project."

Toth said one of the goals of the projects was to "get kids involved in city government." She said the students spent "numerous" hours on their respective projects - about four to six hours per week - and most of the work was done outside the classroom. Another goal of the project was to offer students a "real world" simulation requiring collaboration, problem-solving, planning, research and interaction with experts.

Students were given $500,000 in virtual money to fund their projects and allotted a certain amount of time to complete them. For both projects, students conducted interviews with city staff and other officials to guide them in their research. Students were required to break down costs, explore requirements and stipulations, develop timelines, design schematics and maps and evaluate needs and benefits.

Students also took photos and used graphs and charts for their project booklets which contained all of the information students gathered for their projects. These booklets were presented to commissioners.

Students in their research also tackled questions and opposition that could be presented concerning each of their projects.

Boles, Martin and Ruhl were the first students to address the commission with their project involving construction of a band shell at Gunn Park. The students explained the need for the outdoor venue to host such events as bands and music festivals. They also talked about the potential benefits of such a venue, such as bringing tourists to town.

The students explained that construction of the concrete band shell would take about 11 months.

Commissioners and city staff present for the meeting thanked the students for their efforts on their projects and presentations and the consensus was that a band shell would be a nice addition to Fort Scott.

"You did a really nice job on this; I'm really impressed," Mayor Cindy Bartelsmeyer said.

Students representing the second group -- Engle, Higgins and Wheeler -- presented their proposal for addressing the disrepair of roads and sidewalks in certain areas throughout town.

For this project, students talked with Fort Scott Street Supervisor Chad Brown for his advice on ways to repair potholes in roads on certain portions of Cooper and Judson streets, as well as fix sidewalks on certain portions of Crawford and Eddy streets.

The students' presentation also included information on a public relations campaign to inform the community about the project, as well as potential benefits of repaired roads and sidewalks. Benefits mentioned by students included improved child safety, less complaints from citizens, more community involvement and increased beautification of the community.

Commissioner Sam Mason lauded the students for their efforts and reminded them that "money is the big issue" when taking on a community improvement project such as the one they chose for their assignment. He said it becomes difficult when there is not a lot of money to work with in the city's budget.

"The money is needed," Mason said. "We don't want people to pay more taxes on their homes."

Mason also confirmed with Brown, who also attended Tuesday's meeting, that some of the streets that were included in the students' project are on the list to be repaired this year.

More details on Tuesday's city commission meeting will appear in a future edition of the Tribune.