While work on development of the Kiowa County Community Media Center has continued in recent months, its shape and scope has also evolved to the point of now including three other pre-tornado entities in a two-tiered facility tentatively named the Kiowa County Commons, tentatively set to be built on South Main in Greensburg.
The components of the media center have been detailed before on this page, including a WiMAX-based wireless access point atop the grain elevator and free WiMAX-enabled laptops and other portable, handheld WiMAX-enabled devices to help citizens create and receive the web-portal based audio and video programming.
The center is to provide both the technical support and state-of-the-art resources to support both community journalism and creative expression.
What’s new is the inclusion of the Kiowa County K-State Research and Extension Office, Greensburg branch of the Kiowa County Public Library and Kiowa County Historical Museum/Discovery Center in the same building as the media center.
The extension office, now located in a modular unit on the courthouse grounds, will again be located in the courthouse basement—where it was before May 4—until the Commons is completed. Both the library and historical museum were located in the 100 block of South Main.
According to Bert Biles, Associate Director of the National Institute for Land Management and Training at Kansas State University, the library will be designed to offer children’s events, services and activities, as well as hosting book club meetings and special cultural events. This would be in addition to reconstituting the library’s book, CD, and DVD holdings and periodical subscriptions.
By co-locating the library in the same facility as the Extension Office, a “one-stop shop” for information and education will be created, making it, Biles said, “easier for Kiowa County residents to find answers to their questions and to plan and participate in life-long education programs.”
He also indicated that sharing space with the Kiowa County Historical Museum will “make the task of planning and executing joint educational programs between the two county resources much easier.” In addition, proximity to the Media Center will “make it easier for the library patrons and staff to use the Center’s technical resources and information services.”
The new museum itself is currently being envisioned as a “multi-based ‘Discovery Center’” that will include a series of photographic and artifact-based exhibits that will sequentially tell the story of life in the south-central area of Kansas represented by Kiowa County. This would likely run from Native American history, through the building of the railroads and settlement of Kansas, to the present day.
An “innovative handheld multimedia device” is being designed to offer the Discovery Center’s patrons an “individualized, video-based sequential tour of the exhibits…”
As can be seen in the nearby graphics, the library and historical museum would be located on opposite ends of the ground floor, with the extension office between and facing the entry courtyard.
The media center, meanwhile, would be located on a second floor directly above the library, with plans for a rooftop garden above the historical museum.
K-State’s involvement in the project is being headed up by Biles, with participation by over a dozen other individuals in various departments of the university. Lead person from the County is Commission Chair Gene West, while Public Square Steering Committee member Mitzi Hesser is co-chairing the creation of a community advisory group for the Greensburg/Kiowa County Community Media Center.
Other locals participating are County Extension Agents Carmen Stauth and Pam Muntz, and GHS faculty member Marshall Ballard, who is organizing a group of high school students who will be involved in television and radio production activities through the media center.
Likewise involved are Ray Stegman and Kendal Lothman of the county’s Long Term Recovery Team and Debra Allison, director of county libraries.
Biles summed up the intent of the combined facilities by saying, “The challenge is to maximize the synergy that can be had from integrating Kiowa County facilities in new and exciting ways.”
With funding matters still in process, no tentative date has been set for breaking ground on the project, despite the architectural plans shown here having been drawn up.
Greensburg, KS —
