The city of Roeland Park is starting 2025 with a new police chief. After 25 years with the department — 11 of which he served as chief of police — and 45 years in law enforcement, John Morris retired from his position as Roeland Park police chief on Jan. 1. Morris told the Post on Monday that he decided to retire while he can still enjoy his family, traveling and taking some off-duty gigs here and there. Morris’ successor, Deputy Chief Cory Honas, was scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 6, but the city is waiting to host that ceremony [...]

The Leawood City Council may soon end the city’s standard pet licensing program, in part because the money it brings in does not cover the costs to administer it. Councilmembers, in a meeting held virtually Monday night due to Sunday’s blizzard, voted to move forward on staff’s recommendation to do away with issuing annual tags for cats and dogs. That would mirror a step that other Johnson County cities Mission and Shawnee have already taken, City Administrator Stephen Powell said. Ending the program would free the city of its administrative costs. However, pet owners would still have to identify their pets [...]

As of Friday morning, forecasters were warning that parts of the Kansas City region, including areas of northern Johnson County, could see upwards of a foot of snow by Sunday night — an unusually high but not unprecedented amount for a single storm here. With that comes the responsibility for local homeowners to get their driveways and sidewalks adjacent to their properties cleared in a timely manner. Some Johnson County municipalities have rules about how soon you should get that done after a winter storm. Source: Johnson County Post

On Dec. 10, the Kansas Supreme Court heard oral arguments from attorneys representing Austin Properties, a development company wanting to build the 29-acre Woodsonia West multi-family development off Kansas Highway 7, and the city of Shawnee, on whether it should overturn rulings from two lower courts. The arguments stem from a lawsuit filed by Austin Properties in 2020, alleging the city acted unreasonably and unlawfully by denying the project’s application. The suit contends that at least one councilmember, who is not named, “pre-judged” their decision by assisting neighbors with the protest petition and sharing statements on the project before the city [...]