KCI Shake Up. Aviation Director Announces Retirement April 22, 2016

Kansas City Aviation Director Mark VanLoh abruptly announced his retirement Friday, just days before a crucial meeting on the future of KCI Airport.

“The Mayor and the City manager have allowed the department to operate like a business,” VanLoh said in a statement announcing his retirement.

VanLoh was an early and aggressive supporter of making major improvements at the 40 year old KCI airport.

“We had seen some frustration that Mark had gotten out ahead of the process. Specifically as the new terminal is concerned,” said Council member Jolie Justus.

Justus leads the council’s Airport Committee.

Next Tuesday, Justus’ panel is expected to be told by the airlines who fly in and out of KCI they support building a new terminal and they’ll help pay for it.

Another member of the committee says VanLoh’s vigorous push for a new single terminal KCI became a problem for some.

“You know that was the heat,” said Councilman Quinton Lucas, another member of the airport Committee.

City Manager Troy Schulte named veteran Assistant City Manager Pat Klein as VanLoh’s replacement on a permanent basis.

Klein has been the City manager’s coordinator for the last four years during the discussions of KCI’s future.

“Running an airport is a lot like running a city. You have your own police department. You have your own fire department, your own utilities,” Klein told KMBC Friday.

Councilmember Tersa Loar says Klein is fine as a replacement for now, but she’s prefers the city look around as well.

VanLoh led the Aviation Department for 12 years.

His retirement takes effect at the end of May.

Heartland Midwest Shows City Permits 13 Days Before JJ’s Blast February 27, 2013

KMBC TV has obtained documents showing Heartland Midwest, the company that Missouri Gas Energy says struck a gas line near JJ’s restaurant, applied for a Kansas City, Missouri excavation permit on February 6,2013.
Heartland Midwest also applied for A traffic control permit in February 13, six days before the blast.
An attorney for the company Brad Russell, says the existence of the documents proves the company had the permits required to do underground work in the area in February 19. That evening at 6:04 pm JJ’s Restaurant was destroyed in an explosion. One person died, more than a dozen people were injured.
9-1-1 records indicate a man from “utility contracting company”, called emergency officials at 4:54 pm that day report the crew has “hit a line”. It’s believed that was an employee of Heartland Midwest.
The restaurant exploded a little more than an hour later after several reports if the smell of gas in the area.
Gas company officials were on the scene trying to shut down the gas line when the blast took place.
The documents obtained by Ch 9 both show the papers were received at City Hall the same day they were submitted by a fax machine belonging to Heartland Midwest.
Russell said the company has remained silent until this point as it took care of its employees injured in the blast and its inability to get to the work scene.
The scene gas not been fenced off as the investigation into what caused the leak and explosion proceeds.
City Haal still regards Heartland Permit application as unapproved.
It appears, however, the questions over the permit continue.
The City says they never received paperwork from Heartland Midwest requesting the permits.
Wednesday. City Hall I-T workers checked the logs of the fax machine.
They discovered the log confirms the documents were received the days they were sent.
Some sort if malfunction with the machine prevented either document from being printed by the fax machine.
Russell confirms Heartland Midwest resubmitted the documents to the City on Feb 20. That is the day after the blast.
Russell said they did that in an effort to help the city locate the paperwork.
Assistant City Manager Pat Klein says it is likely Heartland Midwest’s permit requests would have been approved. The City has never denied requests like this from the company in the past.Russell says when Heartland Midwest heard nothing back from the city, and they had received a fax transmission confirming the requests were rechecked, the company assumed the permits had been approved.

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