Freeman Health System made a big announcement in southeast Kansas Wednesday morning. In a news conference held in Pittsburg plans for a brand new hospital were revealed. Officials specified the new facility will be approximately 170,000 sq. ft. in size, house 50 beds, and introduce 50-100 new jobs in the area. An exact location or timetable for the project was not provided.
Source: KSNF/KODE
The tradition of the Roots Festival in Paola will continue Friday and Saturday, as musicians and barbecue enthusiasts gather on and around Park Square. It will be the 34th year for the festival, which will take place Friday, Aug. 25, and Saturday, Aug. 26. There will be a change this year to the barbecue competition, which is always one of the highlights of the festival. Barbecue organizer Jon Smail said there will still be the East Central Kansas State Barbecue Championship, but there will also be a backyard cookoff this year. Smail said about 25 to 35 barbecue teams will compete in the main championship, where they will be vying for winnings. The top 10 overall winners, along with the top five winners in each category, will bring home prize money.
Source: Local News | republic-online.com
Prairie Village is exploring options to mix residential projects into some districts of the city already zone for commercial uses. The planning commission on Tuesday asked city staff to research the feasibility of allowing different types of housing to exist alongside office buildings and shopping centers in some limited quarters of the city. At the meeting, staff laid out current standards and options for growth for each district — multifamily, commercial and mixed-use districts — and the commission discussed what options they’d like to see in the future.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Four Johnson County parks have been posterized. Earlier this month, the Johnson County Park and Recreation District unveiled four “classic WPA-style” poster designs, each featuring a local park under JCPRD’s purview. The parks featured include: Shawnee Mission Park in Shawnee, created by Michael Perry,, Cedar Niles Park in Olathe, created by Daniel Bartle, Big Bull Creek Park in Edgerton, created by Tad Carpenter, Lexington Lake Park in De Soto, created by Luke Wittman.
Source: Prairie Village Post
A court ruling that the Shawnee Mission School District denied an elementary school student appropriate special needs services will have a financial impact on the district as a new school year begins. The district has been ordered to pay $400,000 in attorney fees for the parents who brought the suit, as well as hire an independent specialist to develop the child’s education plan and hire a behavior analyst to track the child’s progress as he attempts to make up for the three semesters he had been denied appropriate services. The district already has incurred $432,503 in legal fees from the three years the matter wound its way through various hearings and a lawsuit in federal district court.
Source: Prairie Village Post
A Lawrence Municipal Court initiative that allowed people to pay for $50 worth of traffic tickets with $15 worth of school supplies brought in more than 900 items. Vicki Stanwix, court administrator, said via email Tuesday that 44 people donated items in exchange for a reduction in parking or infraction fines. The court also received donations from some people who owed less than $50 in fines, and from people who did not owe fines to the court but wanted to give back to the community, she said. Altogether, the court received 924 school supply items including 187 glue sticks, 160 boxes of crayons, 79 notebooks, 55 packs of pencils and 15 backpacks, Stanwix said.
Source: The Lawrence Times
On Friday, the small museum in Wakefield broke ground on an addition that will not only about double the museum’s size to display items, but board members hope it will become a place that members of the community will use to host events. According to Mick Zurmely, a member of the Building Expansion Committee behind the planning, fundraising and activities that made the addition a possibility, increased display space is the primary goal of the 60-foot by 90-foot building addition under construction on the north side of the Wakefield Museum.
Source: www.ccenterdispatch.com
The Leawood City Council insists that capping building heights at four stories is best for the city. The city council on Monday remanded a proposed ordinance lowering the maximum height for office buildings and mixed-use projects to the Leawood Planning Commission for further review. The commission has already recommended the city council deny the ordinance, citing concerns that it would hamper development and growth in southern Leawood. The proposed city code caps building heights at four stories. The change would lower the maximum height for buildings zoned for planned office or mixed use from 90 feet to 55 feet. This would generally mean capping buildings at four stories, instead of Leawood’s current maximum of six stories. Under the new ordinance, the city would make exceptions for a “signature building” with a unique design or for sites that already have tall trees.
Source: Prairie Village Post
As Kansas’ first-ever express toll lanes are under construction on U.S. 69 in Overland Park, the state is now considering adding more to ease congestion on another highway in Johnson County: Kansas 10. The Kansas Department of Transportation is studying how to address traffic and safety issues on the 17-mile stretch from the interchange with Interstates 435 and 35 in Lenexa, west through Olathe and De Soto to the Douglas County line. And officials said one option could be widening the highway with one express toll lane in each direction. The other lanes would remain free. “Expanding K-10 with express lanes is one option being considered,” Steven Cross, KDOT project manager, told the Star in an email. “This can be a good solution for addressing long term congestion especially on corridors like K-10 which are anticipated to experience continued growth in traffic.”
Source: Joco 913 News
According to a CROWN 2023 Workplace Research Study, approximately two-thirds of Black women change their hair for a job interview, and 41% change their hair from curly to straight. “We know that the traditional white standard of beauty is one that is centered in professional settings, and that is something that Black women and men have had to conform to, and that takes them out of their identity of who they are,” Lawrence City Commissioner Amber Sellers told KCUR’s Up To Date. Sellers was one of the commissioners who voted to adopt the CROWN Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” at a city meeting last week. The commission will cast a final vote to pass the ordinance on Tuesday, Aug. 22.
Source: KCUR
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