Be Careful What You Say About A Sacred Cow, Shawnee Town 1929. I'm sure I will anger some folks. Too bad!!
Let's start with what happened at the most recent city council meeting, 4/13/20. Stuck (hidden) in the consent agenda was an item to not accept the bid to move an old house from Leawood to Shawnee Town 1929. This was to be known as the "Dr. Sullivan House". Instead the city, thru its parks department is going to go forward with replicating the house.
What is disturbing about this is that when the item came up initially for discussion there was talk about doing exactly that. Not accepting the "free" house and instead building a replica was voiced by some folks, most notably a member of the community, Tracy Thomas (not to be confused with Councilmember Tammy Thomas). Ms. Thomas was soundly ridiculed for her comments, with the claim being that it would be cheaper to move the Leawood house. One of the arguments given for moving the Leawood house, was IMHO plain out stupid. That period fixtures (water faucets, etc) would be hard to find. Horse patootie. How many local businesses deal in antique fixtures, and some even rent/sell them to movie and theater productions for those activities. Anyway it has now been determined that the cost of moving the house is above initial projections and action will be taken to replicate the old Dr. Sullivan house.
I firmly believe that both the city manager and the parks department director owe Tracy Thomas an apology. BTW, if it wasn't for Councilmember Tammy Thomas the consent item would have just floated thru without any discussion.
Now, let's go to the next part of what I would like to say today about the sacred cow. First, another member of the community took a drive from both I-435 east and I-35 west. Apparently there was very limited or almost non-existant signage pointing folks to this destination.
But, more importantly, how many folks actually visit this destination in any given year even after the city has put millions of dollars into it? We do not know the answer to that question. There is not an accounting of visitors kept. We do know that during Old Shawnee Days the place is packed with folks going to the carnival, visiting the vendor booths viewing the old structures and attending the nightly shows/concerts.
What we don't have is: a) a sign in book at the visitor center, b) a clicker counter at the visitor center, c)a volunteer at the entrances with a clicker counter, d) a turnstile, no fee, but it counts the number of entrances. If that is installed, employees and/or volunteers would have to bypass it.
What it boils down to is, have we been sinking money into this sacred cow just for one extended weekend a year? Or does it generate a sufficient quantity of tourists/guests (and income) to make it what everyone would like it to be? Naturally, any figure for visitors would need to be separate from groups that rent out the town hall for events.
