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BCCP
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THE BRUSH CREEK BULLETIN Volume
8, Issue 4
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BCCP
4743 Troost
Suite 200
Kansas City, MO
64110-1727
Ph: 816-523-2991
Fax: 816-523-2281
THE BRUSH CREEK BULLETIN
Volume 8, Issue 4
August/September 2006
SEPTEMBER 30 EVENTS TO DRAW THOUSANDS TO THE CORRIDOR
Reopening of Sculpture Park Marks
Latest Advance in Museum’s ExpansionThe Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will celebrate the grand reopening of the refurbished and reinstalled Kansas City Sculpture Park with a series of events September 28 through October 1. The community is invited to special events scheduled for Saturday, September 30.
On that Saturday, the public is invited to enjoy free Community Day activities in the park from 1 to 4 p.m. With the weekend theme Room to Play, an afternoon of fun for everyone is planned, including art-making activities for children 3 and up, family sculpture tours, a soccer clinic by Rockhurst University men’s and women’s teams for ages 12 and under, and a participatory modern-dance performance by City in Motion Dance Troupe. Visitors are welcome to pack a picnic, and snacks and beverages will be available for purchase onsite. Four legged friends on leash are welcome as well.
“Reclining Figure,” 1979, is among the largest collection of monumental
bronze sculptures by Henry Moore that visitors will see
with the reopening of the Kansas City Sculpture Garden
the weekend of September 28 – October 1.From 5 to 8 p.m. on September 30, a public happy hour, Shuttlecock Lounge presented by Spaces Magazine, will welcome visitors 21 and older. As daylight wanes, the museum’s popular Shuttlecock Cinema returns to the South Lawn with a free showing of The Incredibles at 8 p.m. Visitors should bring their own lawn chairs and blankets to view the Academy Award-winning animated feature under the stars.
A lecture by sculptor Tony Cragg kicks off the extended weekend of activities on Thursday, September 28. The ticketed event in the Museum’s Atkins Auditorium doubles as the opening installment in the eleventh season of the museum’s popular Mary Atkins Lecture Series. Call 816.751.1ART for more information.
The reinvented Kansas City Sculpture Park supplies an inviting environment for 31 works by 19 artists. The 22-acre park boasts the nation’s largest collection of monumental works by British artist Henry Moore and the playful Shuttlecocks by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Its reopening is made possible by the Hall Family Foundation.
Named one of America’s “Top Ten Lawns with a View,” the park has been augmented by the created landscape of the new Bloch Building. A special attraction of the weekend will be the chance to be among the first to explore a pathway atop the museum’s new Bloch Building. The 165,000 square-foot expansion is set to open June 9, 2007.
Brush Creek the Starting Point
In City to City Bike TourOn Saturday, September 30, up to 200 bicyclists will start a 14 or 30-mile tour at Brush Creek that will take them to south Kansas City or into Leawood, in the annual effort to promote cycling and exploration of new areas in the metropolitan area.
The group will be taking off near the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center at 4750 Troost Avenue at 8:30 a.m. in the second City to City-Discovery Tour of the Kansas City Region sponsored by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC). Through the event, MARC is promoting MetroGreen, the regional vision for a interconnected greenway system designed to link seven counties in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The first City to City Discovery Tour attracted many more bicyclists than
anticipated when it was held last year. The Mid-America Region Council
is limiting this year’s tour, which starts at Brush Creek and Troost Avenue
the morning of Saturday, September 30, to 200 riders.“We wanted to start this year’s bike tour along Brush Creek as the Brush Creek Corridor figures prominently in plans for Metro Green,” said Steve Rhoades, MetroGreen Trails planning manager. “With the progress being made on the Brush Creek Flood Control and Beautification Plan and the new amenities being introduced to the Corridor, we wanted to contribute to efforts geared to promoting the Cultural District and the development of the area as a destination location.”
More information about the bike tour, including registration information, is available on MARC’s website, www.marc.org.
INTRODUCING BCCP’S NEW IMAGE
At the top of this page, the newsletter masthead reveals a new logo for Brush Creek Community Partners. Please welcome our new image!
This mark demonstrates the essence the organization. It utilizes an oak tree…an icon for growth, strength and prosperity and pairs it with a skyline – an equally strong icon for the city and what’s to come. The marriage of these two icons create a clear representation of what BCCP stands for – growing Kansas City. The merging of these two elements also creates a unique mark that will be easily remembered and recognized.
The type is designed so that the K in creek and the C in community come together to form “KC.” This makes for a nice representation of BCCP bringing Kansas City together. Plus it does double duty to reinforce the importance of the region.
‘Growing Kansas City’ is also an important part of the mark. It works to bring everything together and hits right at the heart of who BCCP is and what it does. When printed in color, the blue and green used reinforce the idea of growth and represent a healthy organization working for the health of the community.
Overall, the mark as developed by Bernstein-Rein Advertising, Inc. in collaboration with BCCP’s Marketing Committee is a clever and true representation of Brush Creek Community Partners as it strives to create new momentum and a presence to help promote development and growth of the Brush Creek Corridor.
PARTNER UPDATES
Rockhurst University is preparing for the installation of the Rev. Thomas B. Curran, O.S.F.F. as its 14th president on Friday, October 27. The ceremony is scheduled for 3 p.m. in the Mason-Halpin Fieldhouse on the campus. This event will be preceded by an Inaugural Liturgy at St. Francis Xavier Church, 5200 Troost Avenue, starting at 1:30 p.m.. Fr. Curran came to Rockhurst from Regis University in Denver, where he served as associate vice president for University Relations and assistant to the president.
Midwest Research Institute (MRI) has announced a reorganization that aligns the institute’s technical capabilities with business strategies and new programs that will support future growth in its key market areas of national security and defense, life sciences, and energy. In the reorganization, MRI will restructure its three current Kansas City technical divisions into five divisions that will be named Midwest Operations. Thomas Sack, Ph.D., is promoted to Regional Vice President of the Midwest Operations; he was previously Director of the Chemical Division. The five new technical divisions are: Chemical Detection, Life Sciences, Product Sciences, Special Programs, and Engineering The reorganization also includes the creation of a new Strategic and Emerging Program Development Group in MRI’s Research Operations. MRI has generated steady growth over the past several years, with a projected doubling of Research Operations project revenue from $42 million in fiscal year 2002 to $87 million forecast for fiscal year 2007.
The University of Missouri Board of Curators has approved creation of a Master of Science in Anesthesia (MSA) program at UMKC’s School of Medicine. The next step is for the program to gain accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs. The program plans to begin accepting students in the summer of 2007. Student demand for the MSA program is expected to be high. The entering class size will eventually grow to 20 per year. Graduates of the program will be highly skilled medical professionals called anesthesiologist assistants. They are licensed to work under the supervision of anesthesiologists to provide various anesthesia services in hospitals, surgery centers, and other health-care environments. UMKC would be the first in Missouri and west of the Mississippi River to offer a MSA program.
The American Heart Association has awarded a four-year, $600,000 grant to Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute for research involving clinical data provided by the Cerner Corp. The grant will pay for a study, "Glucose Control and Outcomes in Patients Hospitalized with Acute Myocardial Infarction," – led by Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod, a cardiologist at the heart institute. The study will take advantage of North Kansas City-based Cerner's national Health Facts database, which includes de-identified clinical data from patients at more than 40 medical centers throughout the United States. The study's goal is to determine whether controlling glucose levels in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarctions, or heart attacks, will improve outcomes.
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has awarded two new grants totaling $1.75 million from its Kauffman Legacy Fund, a special fund established in 2004 by the Foundation's Board of Trustees for significant initiatives that benefit the Kansas City region. A grant of $750,000 has been awarded to the Kansas City Art Institute, which recently completed phase two of an ambitious multi-million-dollar plan to enhance facilities and grounds. In the last 10 years, more than $25 million in improvements have been made to KCAI, which is regarded as one of the country's top schools for students seeking a four-year degree in the visual arts and design. Also, the Kansas City Zoo will receive $1 million to support a $35 million fundraising effort announced in January. The foundation also announced recently it has made a $500,000 grant to the One Economy Corporation to provide tools and information to low-income communities in the metropolitan area to attain economic independence.
Midwest Research Institute’s Kansas City facility has been awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification from BSI Management Systems, a certification body for the International Organization for Standardization. The ISO 9001:2000 certification signifies that MRI’s quality management system meets specific requirements that demonstrate MRI’s ability to:
The University of Missouri-Kansas City has been ranked as one of the top 25 “Best Neighbor” universities in the nation for its positive contributions to the community. The rankings come as a result of a two-year research project by Dr. Evan Dobelle, president and CEO of the New England Board of Higher Education. Dobelle studied the economic impact and influence of universities and colleges on their local communities. Among UMKC’s many programs and services that resulted in this recognition are: the Institute for Urban Education, the Sojourner Clinic that provides free medical care to Kansas City’s homeless population; the Children and Family Legal Services Clinic; Partnership for Smiles, created to meet the total oral health needs of disadvantaged children and families in the greater Kansas City area; the Community Music and Dance Academy which brings music and dance to the Kansas City community through camps, personal instruction and professional development; and Project Outreach through which School of Pharmacy students teach Kansas City fourth graders the importance of staying away from drugs.
INSTITUTES MARK UMKC ADVANCES
Effort to Bring Advances to Patient Care
The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) has created an institute for translational research. The institute will advance the area’s research institutions by translating their basic science discoveries into therapeutic products and services.
This is the result of years of mounting research strengths at UMKC and its growing community partnerships.
The Institute of Medicine has identified translational research as a fundamental way to fix a health care delivery system that is failing to “provide consistently high quality care to all Americans.” The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published papers about the “next scientific frontier” of translational research; and Congress has expressed concern about basic science being detached from health care delivery.
“This institute for translational research is a significant mile marker for UMKC as it moves toward its role in the regional strategy for health sciences,” said UMKC Chancellor Guy H. Bailey. “This undertaking will focus institutional resources, coordinate efforts, build critical mass to expand research and attract resources, and train the next generation of researchers and clinicians.”
UMKC has applied for a $150,000 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to help with the planning of the institute and will continue to apply for other multi-million dollar NIH grants available for new clinical and translational centers.
In July, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II of Kansas City announced House passage of $1 million for UMKC’s Bone and Tissue Repair and Regeneration Consortium, which awaits Senate approval. This funding would support improving current prosthetic materials and devices that are often inadequate for treating the wide range of injuries. The UMKC Bone and Tissue Repair and Regeneration Consortium will research and develop advanced biomaterials, biosensors, and bio-interfaces for the repair and regenerations of traumatized bone and tissues.
The institute’s partnership also involves BCCP members Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City and its Mid America Heart Institute and Midwest Research Institute. Additionally, the institute will align with UMKC’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Bloch School and intellectual property expertise in the School of Law. Existing areas of research expertise among the new institute’s partners include: cardiovascular outcomes, drug discovery and development, infectious agent biodefense, clinical asthma, mineralized tissue, neuroscience, pediatric pharmacogenetics, shock/trauma, and women’s health outcomes.
Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Designated a Missouri Innovation CenterUniversity of Missouri-Kansas City’s (UMKC) Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation has been designated a Missouri Innovation Center, clearing the way for increased public-private cooperation in technology transfer for the Kansas City area.
The designation announced in August comes with $150,000 from the Missouri Department of Economic Development and it will cultivate an entrepreneurial environment by joining UMKC, the state, the community and global resources to:
The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Bloch School provides an educational experience that combines academic programs with entrepreneurial experiences, connecting students to business leaders and scholars, and providing hands-on experiences in visualizing and designing new enterprises.
LOCAL WATER QUALITY ISSUES COMMON
A six-year examination of what influences water quality in the Blue River Basin, including Brush Creek, concluded Kansas City area streams are similar to those in other urban areas of the country.
The basin includes almost half the people who live or work in the metropolitan area south of the Missouri River. The study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the City of Kansas City Water Services Department is one of the most comprehensive ones done on urban water quality in the nation.
Water Quality in the Blue River Basin, Kansas City Metropolitan Area, Missouri and Kansas, July 1998 to October 2004, finds water quality in Brush Creek is primarily affected by wet-weather events. Rain and snowmelt contribute to urban runoff into streams and the overflow of combined sewers along the creek. Contributions of nutrients and bacteria from combined sewers do not appear to be substantially different that contributions from urban runoff. It recognizes Brush Creek water quality is similar in many ways to other urban cities with the flood reduction projects affecting water quality by altering streamflow, trapping sediments and removing native vegetation.
The city will use the information in determining its stormwater and sewer improvement plans.
KCAI OPENS DODGE PAINTING BUILDING
The Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Painting Building at the Kansas City Art Institute was dedicated in August. The $7 million structure, located at 4446 Oak St., completes Phase II of the college’s campus master plan.
The building is named for Lawrence and Kristina Dodge of Monarch Beach, Calif., who in 2005 donated $5 million to the Art Institute. Lawrence Dodge is president and CEO of American Sterling Bank and American Sterling Insurance Services, both of which have locations in the Kansas City area. Other major donors include the Hall Family Foundation, which recently donated $2 million to the college’s building fund, and the William T. Kemper Foundation-Commerce Bank, trust, which donated $1 million.
The 34,000-square-foot building includes five studios, two drawing rooms, two classrooms, a combination gallery/lounge, courtyard, technology room, faculty offices, storage area, lockers and restrooms. It anchors the east side of the campus, which has been completely renovated during the past 15 months to present a more open and welcoming face to the community.
SWANSON INVESTS SERVICE IN BCCP, COMMUNITY
Guy Swanson is first a certified public accountant, then the Rockhurst University vice president for finance/chief financial officer, and more recently a Brush Creek Community Partners board member. So it makes sense that he sees his role on the board, and Rockhurst’s membership in BCCP, as an investment – but not just in dollars.
Swanson said Rockhurst looks at its BCCP membership each year and asks the question, “What are we getting as a return?” The answer, he explained, is significant.
“Rockhurst gets a continued voice in the neighborhood and the Brush Creek Corridor, and it’s an opportunity for us to collaborate with peer organizations whose interests are aligned with ours,” he said. “Also the Brush Creek improvements, in which BCCP is involved, like the Troost Bridge replacement, represent economic benefits for us.”
Guy SwansonSo the answer is yes, it’s worth the investment for Rockhurst. But as a member of the BCCP board and its Audit Committee he takes responsibility for keeping BCCP solvent. Before coming to Rockhurst, Swanson was a senior auditor manager for Deloitte & Touche LLP, a senior auditor for Coopers & Lybrand, and a trade practice investigator/internal auditor for The Kansas City Board of Trade. The Kansas State University graduate has served on many nonprofit boards and committees and knows a little bit about revenues and expenses. So he’s very conscious of the need to communicate the value BCCP brings to the community, in order to maintain and grow new investments in the organization.
Like many nonprofits, he noted, BCCP is dependent on memberships and contributions, and it’s critical to maintain that revenue stream to continue all the good work along the Corridor. “I have already seen huge improvement up and down the Corridor in the four years I’ve been at Rockhurst,” he said, and those matter.
From Swanson’s perspective, the more BCCP efforts can improve the livability of the area and the neighborhoods, everyone benefits -- the community, the Corridor and Rockhurst. In other words, “When people come to visit the campus, we want it to look nice.”
He appreciates that that happens through the BCCP association of organizations, as well as several city agencies including the Parks and Recreation Department. And Swanson appreciates the BCCP connections. “This is a great opportunity for networking. I never would have met the people from the city, the parks department and the many other organizations who make a difference in this community.”
Serving the community is a critical part of the Rockhurst University experience. “Our motto is Learning, Leadership and Service, so we’re here to train students to be leaders, and to give back to the community.” In fact, he explained, “Many people don’t realize Rockhurst students receive not only an academic, but a service transcript. Service is a big part of what we preach, and we look for opportunities to provide that to the community.”
This service-minded CPA CFO invests his own financial expertise to help the community, the Brush Creek Corridor and Rockhurst University.