Power & Light District cleans up after Big 12 Tournament party

As the Big 12 Tournament full-on party celebrations were shut down in the Power & Light District early Sunday morning, the cleanup crew was moving in.

Workers had but eight hours to wipe out every trace of that party before Live Block restaurants opened for lunch.

“At 11:30 a.m. you don’t want to be out here smelling stale beer,” said Alex Fritz, the P&L District’s director of operations.

Crews had already hauled out over 20,000 pounds of trash on Saturday from the 57 trash cans in the district. At 3 a.m. Sunday, they were sweeping up debris that didn’t make it to cans. Leaf blowers then took on the confetti.

“Confetti was everywhere, literally everywhere,” said Teonna Roland, an assistant housekeeping manager for the district. “The trash cans were at capacity with cans and cups. It was crazy.”

Pizza crusts and bottle caps had been tossed into the empty fountains — turned off for safety and easier cleanup. By 8:30 a.m. power washers were freshening up nearly every surface of the Kansas City Live block, as other crew members swept sidewalks and picked trash out of landscaping in the district.

Once the Kansas City Live block dried off, about 10:30 a.m., a special cleaning fluid was used on metal and wood surfaces to give them an extra sheen. Fritz said he then likes to head to a second floor balcony to take in the work of his “great, great crew.”

“I like to look out over all that shine. I’m proud of the place, you can tell,” he said. “If I don’t get any complaints then I know we did a great job.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2015 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Power & Light District cleans up after Big 12 Tournament party."