City hopes to begin work on Hall Theatre property in 2026

By Kyle Troutman [email protected]

The city of Cassville is fine-tuning plans for a new pocket park on the site of the former Hall Theater, working through design concepts, cost considerations and community feedback as the project moves toward its next phase.

A committee was formed in July to formulate a plan for the property, which the city obtained in a trustee’s sale on July 31 for $3,000.

“As one of our first meetings of the committee, we just kind of went over the history of how the city got into the property,” Asbill said. “We talked a little bit about the whole theater history, we talked a little bit about the fire, court cost, the court-ordered cleanup and the cost the city had incurred with that, and then we just kind of laid that out in regard to, ‘Here’s the current city investment into the property.’”

A the time, the city had sunk about $150,000 into the area for demolition, remediation, taxes, repair, the auction and contingency costs.

“We had people that asked us, ‘What are you gonna do with it?’ Asbill said. “I said, ‘Well, it’s not really ours.’ Once we got past that, and the city took ownership of it, we were really able to say, ‘OK here’s all the things that people have said and given us.’”

The list of ideas for the property included a variety of suggestions, including: a food truck court, parking, a new city hall, a pavilion, a splash park, a garden area, a pocket park, a parking garage or a new commercial building the city would erect and potentially sell.

“As we got started talking, we wanted to know what’s going to be our physical investment ability, and then the next piece is what’s going to enhance Cassville and the square area,” Asbill said. “We really felt that we liked a public area, and that kind of turned into public park or community park focus.

“A splash park is a very, very expensive — a lot of people think that’s a really simple thing but it’s actually very expensive to operate,” Asbill said. “We just went through those suggestions about what could we do without getting into a significant financial cost.”

Asbill said the committee’s direction led the city to pursue plans for a pocket park with some green space, a simple space for people to come in and rest, to eat lunch, stretch their legs, go get some ice cream or maybe lunch, and a little area for children to play but not necessarily play all day, Asbill said. Plans also include a smaller covered area.

“We were looking for an area that if somebody wants to come in, have a little music or a community event, that they would have some covered area,” Asbill said. “We will probably have some trees in planters, and then we really got a lot of time spent on a restroom facility. We’ve been trying to work out that particular piece with the restroom idea — how would that work, what would that look like and how could we make that functional for everybody?”

Original plans called for walls on the east side of the property, opening into a park with bathrooms on the south wall and a covered area on the west wall.

“We still have a very good focus on what we believe is at least one, if not two, wall murals in regard to Cassville’s history,” Asbill said. “We did take out a flagpole and because we felt like it was not necessary since the courthouse was right there. Everybody did a great job. We had some good conversation when we looked at the first renderings.

“This isn’t your typical open park structure. This is next to a street and next to an existing building, so we said let’s make it as open as possible so people feel safe and that there’s also this field of space that they can enjoy.”

Funding for the pocket park is yet to be determined, but the city has allotted for some room in the 2026 budget.

“We went ahead and held up what I referred to as a budget placeholder,” Asbill said. “The $200,000 we believe is a good placeholder for the budget. We think we can do precast bathrooms that are nice.

“We do believe that — and what we have proposed to the committee — is a concept that the city would potentially take an investment [to aid with the pavilion or playscape possibly].”

Walls will also have to be built on the south and west ends where the murals are planned, and the city intends to work with an engineer to get the plans fully to scale and measured.

The committee is on hold until 2026, with next steps planning what the pavilion, bathrooms and playscape may look like.

“We found a couple companies that do pavilion kits for cities and parks, and the bathrooms, we’re getting some information on those,” Asbill said. “That would kind of help us and say we know at least what would need to occur. We’ve said let’s take a very strategic approach to this because we want to make sure we do it right. And, with so many different ideas that the people threw out, we wanna make sure that we guided that.

“The committee’s been really supportive of us taking our time and doing it right. We want to make sure that we don’t find any hidden barriers and it’s a good process for us.”

The 10-person committee, selected by Horner and Asbill by invite, includes: Horner; Asbill; Don Cupps, city attorney; Sara Olson, Roaring River Health and Rehab administrator; Phil Hutchens, former president of Hutchens Construction; Annette Henderson, with Willis Insurance; Cameron Koehler, systems manager at Barry County E9-1-1; Ethan Bohmke, 2024 Cassville graduate; Traci Mitchell, Cassville schools assistant superintendent; and Rachael Freeman, founder of FullCourt Media and Consulting.