City has $25,000 to fix garage problems

By Marcus Clem

The City of St. Joseph hopes to address concerns of exposed metal, superficial cracks and unhoused people using the stairwells in Downtown parking areas, but funds are limited.

Abe Forney, director of public works and transportation, said $25,000 is set aside for work in the garage at Fourth and Felix streets, where the most obvious problems can be seen.

Schneider Electric, an engineering firm, has already verified that there is no risk of collapse or other significant structural problems, Forney said. However, time is of the essence to fix what can be fixed. The Mosaic Children’s Discovery Center is set to open by the end of the year, and the garage’s roughly 400 spaces will be in high demand.

“The 25 grand is gonna be used for making sure everything is gonna be as safe as possible, and we’re deterring people from doing things that they’re not supposed to be doing in that parking structure,” Forney said. “So, keeping security and maintaining the integrity that the building has right now.”

Trash and personal belongings from unhoused people are a common sight in the garage. Fecal matter and urine are also not uncommon, and were present in two of the four stairwells on Thursday.

The city recently poured tar around the stairwells on the upper level, to prevent rainwater from leaking down. It also installed a wooden barrier in front of the disused elevator shaft, and it will follow up with similar barricades on stairwells that can be removed when there is a need.

The impact from a tourism perspective is clear. Safety is the priority — exposed rebar and other objects that people could potentially injure themselves with need to be patched up. However, the Discovery Center is also envisioned as a groundbreaking draw for visitors, at least as important for St. Joseph as Science City at Union Station was for Kansas City, Missouri.

“The parking might be their first impression of an attraction that they were trying to get to,” said Christian Mengel, director of marketing and communications for the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau. “At the same time, it might be their last, because if they head straight home, the parking might be the last thing they remember. You want that to be a good experience for them.”

The unhoused population is a related concern; The Salvation Army estimated that about 80% of the people with no permanent place to sleep have obtained some kind of lawful and secure shelter this winter, through volunteer efforts and public services. The city does not want them in the garages, but the $25,000 available will only go so far. To address all of the problems present there, some kind of funding source will be needed, Forney said.