Cityscape: City Beat coverage requires careful news judgment

It’s Tuesday morning. I woke up before my alarm – which happens every second Tuesday in the wake of a Springfield City Council meeting the night before. Now I’m drinking my coffee, half-watching a TV news show and ruminating about where to begin.

I have two stories to write about the meeting, one for our Tuesday online Update and one for the print edition, and what has pulled me from sleep is my usual rehashing of what happened.

My City Beat coverage requires snap news judgment that I don’t usually exercise on my other stories, which I’ve planned in consultation with my editor and with feedback from the rest of the news team. This morning, it’s up to me to figure out what to write about, and I have to be snappy, since the Update is sent to readers every day at lunchtime.

The first question: What was the most important thing that happened last night? And then, because I’m writing for you, a business leader, I have to ask myself another: Which council action has most relevance to the business community? There’s a business angle to most decisions council makes, but I have a contract with you to bring you essential information you need to know to keep your business on track. If council made a decision that will impact Springfield businesses, that’s my story. If it made multiple decisions like that … more coffee, please.

The next-day Update story usually covers a single action item, while the print story (also available at SBJ.net later in the week) includes all of the news that’s relevant to business.

A lot of the resolutions are very interesting – for instance, at the latest meeting, council accepted nearly $8.6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, including $3.6 million for sewer work and $5 million for the Renew Jordan Creek project. That kind of money means a lot to the city, but the details are thin, the measures passed easily and the projects are ongoing. It’s big money, but it’s also business as usual for the governing body of a city of 170,000 people spread over 84 square miles.

These hard-fought grant dollars, secured by city staff, will end up in the contracts of the successful project bidders, then be distributed to subcontractors, and then wind up in the paychecks of equipment operators. From here, it moves to the cash registers of restaurants and grocery stores, who support their employees with it and sometimes make decisions to invest in their own infrastructure – new tile for the floor, new striping in the parking lot – to keep the money moving.

It’s all flow, and it starts with a multipart, detailed grant application filled out by a public servant and then sent off to compete with other worthy proposals from other communities. Springfield city staff seems to have a knack for pulling in funding.

In the preceding paragraph break, I refilled my mug, checked in on national and international news and cuddled my orange tabby, still thinking.

Today, following last night’s council action, there are some new rules for liquor licenses. City code now allows a construction manager at risk to advertise and receive bids. There’s a newly approved list of 153 public improvements to take the city from 2025-29 at an estimated cost of $517 million. And that’s just the start of the list of things you need to know.

I’d better get to writing.

Elegance is the brand for 27North

I love a peek inside a factory, and I’ve been to a fair number of them, but the first time I ever saw a red carpet at one was the May 2 grand opening of the new 27North headquarters, located at 4202 W. Kearney St.

The event featured mocktails in elegant flutes and trays of upscale treats, my favorite being loaded mashed potatoes served in tiny martini glasses.

For entertainment, a violinist played classical music and danced in front of towers of flame with the company’s signature adventure vehicles as a backdrop.

And by the front door of the building, founder and CEO Pavel Bosovik stood and greeted guests who approached him for handshakes and photos.

It looked like he was having a great time, but it also looked to me like he was trying to give his friends and family – the people he credits with helping get him where he is – the time of their lives, too.

When it was my turn to step forward for a handshake, I asked him: Why such a posh event?

“We represent the luxury market, and so our image is kind of key to our brand,” he said. “It’s essential to have events with a high level of elegance. That’s what sets us apart.”

Bosovik also let me in on a secret that I shared in my coverage of the event, and that was his plans to build another manufacturing center nearby – this one more than six times the size of the 50,100-square-foot facility we had gathered to celebrate.

It seems to be part of Bosovik’s makeup, to execute an idea while having another set of visions lined up and waiting their turn.

“Someone very wise once told me the moment we stop dreaming is the moment we die – and I really don’t want to die!” he said. “So, I always try to be a dreamer.”

From art on the walls to art as the walls

Rendering provided by Springfield Art Museum

I’m working on a story on renovation plans for the Springfield Art Museum, and I recently had a chance to interview one of the principal architects of Kansas City-based design firm BNIM.

A nice surprise: Josh Harrold, who has a hand in the art museum project as well as the Blunt Hall addition and renovation at Missouri State University, is a Springfield product who graduated from Parkview High School and later Drury University.

Harrold is also a visual artist, and one of his earliest pieces was displayed at the Springfield museum.

“I remember being chosen from Mark Twain Elementary School to have my watercolor shown, and so to be able to participate and continue in that conversation is just really meaningful to me,” he said.

I was charmed by the anecdote and eager to tell his story, but Harrold wanted to make it clear that he is just one member of the BNIM team.

“This is not just Josh – this is a team,” he said. “The whole idea of a signature architect is not who we are – is not how we are built.”

The team approach is central to the BNIM approach, he said.

“I am a leader, and I have a particular stake in this project, being from Springfield and being in the arts, but it takes a family,” he said. “We say no one knows as much as everyone; at BNIM, that’s core to who we are.”

It’s a beautiful corporate philosophy – but I’ve visited my own children’s school art shows, with matting the teachers have cut by hand and careful rows of images, hung slightly below adult eye-level so everyone can enjoy the display.

I believe art exists to open our minds to possibility, and museums exist to broaden our worlds.

Harrold’s trajectory is the story of a job well done by his elementary school art teacher and by our art museum for showcasing the budding artist.

Contact Karen Craigo
Phone: 417-340-3224
Email: kcraigo@sbj.net
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