Volunteer Attorneys Give Marlborough Neighborhood a Bright Future

by Gregg Lombardi, Executive Director

There are times when you have to fight and scratch to make a project work and then, thankfully, there are times when things work out much better than you had even hoped.

Steve Chinn’s work for the Marlborough Neighborhood is a shining example of the latter. About a year ago Latricia Scott Adams, the Director of our Volunteer Attorney Project and I made a presentation to a group of about 30 Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP attorneys about possible volunteer projects that the firm could take on. One we suggested was adopting an urban core neighborhood. Steve was at that meeting and immediately took interest in the idea.

As the Chair of Stinson's Public Law Practice Group, Steve knows a lot about community problem solving. It’s just that normally he devotes his time to massive, multi-million dollar projects like developing the Kansas Speedway.

Under Steve’s leadership, Stinson Morrison Hecker adopted the Marlborough neighborhood, a low-income neighborhood in southeastern Kansas City. Steve immediately put his skill and experience to work in solving problems for the neighborhood.

And the work that they have done has been tremendous. They have gotten the state and federal government to approve the neighborhood association as a tax exempt not-for-profit organization. They are fighting an unlicensed, under-aged drinking establishment that is a major nuisance and serious danger in the neighborhood. When the federal government suggested using the old Bendix plant, which is just outside the neighborhood, as a lead waste storage facility, Stinson attorneys drafted comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement and the proposal appears to be dead.

Stinson attorneys are also working closely with the neighborhood and a local community development corporation to create a model block in the neighborhood, in which the city will focus resources.

Steve goes to all the neighborhood association meetings, so he can address whatever legal questions come up. All told, 13 Stinson attorneys and one Stinson paralegal have put in over 300 hours on the project.

Steve reports that the work is gratifying and fulfilling. The neighborhood, in turn, is ecstatic about the firm’s work. Betty Ost-Everly, the Marlborough Community Coalition President reports:

Many people have commented at what Marlborough has been able to accomplish in a very short amount of time and have wondered how. From start-up discussions in May 2008 to present, we have established governance, received Nonprofit status from the State of Missouri and our 501(c)(3), protested against the Federal Government's proposal of placing a Mercury storage facility at the Bannister Federal Complex, and started on the long and arduous task of stablizing housing in the four neighborhood association areas that make up the Coalition. Absolutely none of that could have been possible without Stinson. The firm came to us as part of Legal Aid’s Volunteer Attorney Project, and has worked alongside the Coalition and in partnership with Legal Aid and Neighborhood Housing Services to help us. This area has been neglected for a number of years, but with Stinson's help, we are looking to a much brighter future.

Many thanks to Steve and to Stinson for their fantastic ongoing work on this project.