Route 66 in the News
Officials Consider Rehabilitating Gas Stations
2007-10-16 18:18:42
GALENA, Kan. - Federal and state officials met Tuesday with Galena city officials and business people about ways to restore environmentally damaged properties along Route 66 to productive uses.
“We’re trying to be proponents of sustainable reuse of properties,” said David Doyle, assistant to the regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Doyle said a survey found 45 abandoned gas stations along Route 66 from St. Louis, Mo., to Baxter Springs. He said there are three such gas stations in Galena and at least six in Baxter Springs.
Doyle said buried fuel tanks pose environmental risks at abandoned gas stations.
Old gas stations along Route 66 recently have reopened as tourist centers in Baxter Springs and Galena.
Doyle said the EPA would finance environmental cleanups of one gas station each in Missouri and Kansas as part of a pilot program. He was asked by a meeting participant what level of funding would be provided.
“It depends,” Doyle said. “This is the first time we’ve done something like this.”
Mike Taylor, Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program manager for the National Park Service, said his agency had provided funding for several gas-station restoration projects. The Baxter Springs Visitor Center staged its grand opening Saturday. That project was funded with money from the program.
Carolyn Pendleton, director of the Baxter Springs center, said at Tuesday’s meeting that more than 250 people attended the grand opening.
“We had a little traffic jam, a little fender-bender,” she said. “It was exciting.”
Taylor said Cherokee County has applied with the Transportation Enhancement Program for restoration work on the section of Route 66 from the Missouri state line to Main Street in Galena, including the viaduct. He said the program is part of the Federal Highway Administration.
“That’s the real thing,” Taylor said of the highway section. “It just doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
He said people in Cherokee County over the past several years have taken the initiative in promoting the Route 66 connection.
Whitney Rawls, brownfields coordinator for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the agency would provide environmental assessments at no cost for buildings and properties that may have environmental damage. The program is not restricted to properties along Route 66.
“We want to return these properties back to productive use,” Rawls said. “It’s not just gas stations. We would address any property where environmental conditions are unknown.”
Galena Mayor Dale Oglesby said an old gas station at Fifth and Main streets has been restored, and is now a successful Mexican restaurant and an anchor for downtown.
“These fuel stations are absolutely worth saving,” he said.
~Roger McKinney, Joplin Globe
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