Pettis County's first storm shelter awaits initial use

As crews near completion of the second of eight storm shelters to be built in Pettis County, officials still await the first members of the public to take cover in the first shelter, which opened in La Monte more than three months ago.

Over the next two years, the county is constructing eight storm shelters to provide residents without adequate cover a place to seek shelter ahead of dangerous storms. State and federal reimbursements will cover about 75 percent of the estimated $2.9 million cost of the eight shelters throughout the county.

The second shelter is located near the baseball fields in the Maplewood subdivision east of Sedalia. This week, crews poured the shelter’s floor and started constructing retaining walls on both sides.

John Pollitt, the county’s special projects director, expects the 5,000 square-foot shelter will take another month to complete. His crew has been reduced from five to three men under the county’s unofficial hiring freeze, which was implemented in response to slumping tax revenues.

“It takes a little longer to get things done,” Pollitt said. “When we were doing the La Monte shelter, we had five guys at times, so we’re definitely going to have a lot less man hours.”

Presiding Commissioner Rusty Kahrs said some wet weather earlier this season slowed progress on the Maplewood shelter, but he said having the experience of building the one in La Monte gave the special projects team the ability to progress quicker on the second shelter.

The La Monte shelter experience also led commissioners to alter the way the county receives reimbursements from the state and federal emergency management agencies. Earlier in the year, the county faced a cash-flow pinch while waiting for the reimbursements to come for the county’s cash put into the project, but now the county receives smaller, monthly reimbursements to keep enough cash on hand for other expenses.

Sedalia-Pettis County Emergency Management Director Dave Clippert said while the county opened access to the La Monte shelter three times since it opened in May, residents have yet to take cover in the shelter.

“Nobody from the public has been in there, but we haven’t had a storm strong enough for people to have to go into it,” Clippert said.

Clippert said instead of encouraging people to take shelter each time the county is under a tornado watch, his agency is working to track the path of storms heading toward the county more carefully and spreading the word about incoming severe weather through local firefighters, police and radio stations when a dangerous storm is imminent. The change was made because few people are willing to wait out a three or four hour tornado watch in the shelter, he said.

“If people don’t feel threatened, they won’t go to a shelter,” Clippert said. “So we’re going to look at where storms are, and it’s just going to depend on what the weather is and where it is.”

Pettis County commissioners plan to launch a public education and readiness campaign to promote awareness of the shelters and how they can be best utilized. They also said as the public becomes used to having the shelters as an option, their use will increase.

Eastern Commissioner Rod Lindemann said it is too early to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the shelter project. The county did not experience a scenario that called for people to take shelter this season, and the project is designed to serve the community for the long-term, he said.

“Two generations from now everybody will be used to it,” Lindemann said. “It will just become part of your plan. The kids will grow up with it and will know its the place to go.”

Kahrs noted that each shelter will be used differently. He believes the shelters built closer to schools will have more early adopters.

“I think it’s a matter of people getting accustomed to it,” Kahrs said. “Also, I think La Monte and Maplewood (shelters) both not being on school property will clearly have less use than ... the shelters that come right up on school property.”

The planned shelters in Smithton, Hughesville, Houstonia, Green Ridge and one at Skyline Elementary School will all be located adjacent to or directly on school sites.

Kahrs also said he has received “signals” from the state that once all the shelters are completed, the county will be able to open them up for more than just tornados. He envisions the shelters as places to seek refuge when severe ice storms knock out power or as cooling stations during stretches of excessive heat.

“The more people become used to the buildings, the more they’ve been in and out of them, the more usage will pick up,” Kahrs said.