The Latest in Doo-Dah Land

A blog titled, Realkansas, would be expected to have an occasional post about things going on in Kansas. Well, you're in luck. This post is about the proposed 650-foot tornado monument to be located in Edwardsville along side I-70 and opposite the NASCAR track. The tower would consist of a reinforced concrete shaft or stem to support a goblet shaped structure with three levels of observation decks, one with a restaurant. The tower's 25-acre site will also be a "working" farm (which based on the acreage is an oxymoron) with a petting zoo, an educational center, 100,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space and a weather station.

Basically, it's a tourist attraction. You can pay good money to see as far as weather permits from a vantage point around 500 feet above the ground. There's a needle-like projection on top of the observation decks. The auxiliary space at ground level is designed to augment the revenue producing capability of the project. The project ostensibly commemorates the tornado. It could have just as well featured a wagon wheel (pioneer trails), or a grain silo (ubiquitous rural landmark), or a milking stool (farm life exemplar), or some other vertical symbol of Kansas. Perhaps, the tornado was selected, because it is believed to have greater tourist appeal.

The KC Star article about this monument plan claimed the tentative financing was in line, but one would have difficulty accounting for the funds based on the reporter's work. The total cost was cited at $240 million. To issue STAR bonds, the state requires a developer to put up 25% equity, which figures out to $60 million. The developer proposed $22 million of which $20.5 million is a contractor write-down that converts a note to cash. Other financing is a $40 million commitment from a bond dealer for revenue bonds and $72 million in STAR bonds. The three identified sources only add up to $134 million. There must be other creative financing involved that the article overlooked or never found out about. I'll be watching for the other $106 million worth of construction financing. I'm also waiting to hear the humanitarian pitch when more public funding is sought as to how the project is for the good of the entire area.

It's too bad a more imaginative design wasn't proposed. I'd like to see a spinning tornado tower or at least one with the illusion of rotation. Perhaps, it could be rigged to throw trees, cars, broken buildings, cows, crops, etc. out of the vortex as it went around. Whoops, that's too much like the real thing. A static display is surely more practical, if that can be said of a tornado monument.