Month after month, officials around Johnson County are watching the sales tax numbers come in, hoping they’ll improve. It doesn’t make sense. The economy is humming, the tax base is growing and the unemployment rate is historically low. But in the most affluent county in Kansas, retail sales tax revenues — among the key sources of funding that cities use to function — is flatlining or even shrinking. “It makes you go, OK, well what is going on here? And we don’t have an answer for it,” said Merriam City Administrator Chris Engel. (Read more: KC Star Local News)

On the top of a small hill at Shawnee Mission Park’s new million-dollar playground, children swarm on an elaborate spider web of ropes. Down a wheelchair-friendly ramp to a more shaded area, families swing, slide and clamber over a myriad of structures that spin, bounce or make music. It’s all designed to be fun — and accessible — for kids of different abilities. The inclusive playground highlights a growing trend in the Kansas City area of helping kids with special needs get off the sidelines and into the action. The Kansas City Zoo opened such a playground in 2018, the first zoo [...]

De Soto is seeing the fruits of its quest to bolster internet service, after being years behind the rest of the Kansas City area. In fact, an invitation to a July 11 ceremony proclaimed De Soto “the fastest town in Kansas.” The occasion marked some early milestones in a venture that has brought 10-gigabit fiber service to the city, where some areas have had no land-based service at all. The ceremony celebrated the first customer connections, as well as service to City Hall, a project that includes free internet for city government, a new phone system for the administrative offices and [...]

The City of Overland Park is one step closer to equipping police officers with body worn cameras. The Overland Park Public Safety Committee voted Wednesday night to approve the police department’s plan to spend $430,000 on body cameras without a bidding process. The measure is expected to be heard and voted on by the full City Council next week. If approved, Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez said he expects the cameras to be ready for use by the end of the year. (Read more: KC Star Local News)

Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Terry Zeigler said he plans to retire later this year in an announcement shared on social media Wednesday. Zeigler, who has been the police chief for four and a half years, serving 29 years total with the department in his law enforcement career, said his retirement will go into effect Sept. 11. “It has been an honor to serve the citizens of Kansas City, Kansas, and the men and women of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department for the last four and a half years as Chief of Police,” Zeigler said in a statement. Read more [...]

Kansas City developers envision students and seniors living together on a sprawling $500 million mixed-use campus with an arts and entertainment theme. The 180-acre Bonner Crossing development is planned for the southwest corner of State Avenue and Speedway Boulevard in Bonner Springs, near Village West and the Kansas Speedway. Developers presented their latest plans for the concept to the Bonner Springs City Council Monday evening. While the city has not yet reached a final development agreement on the project, the council on Monday approved the last zoning change needed to move forward. (Read more: KC Star Local News)

Two race tracks in eastern Kansas are separated by 60 miles along Interstate 70, as well as a veritable chasm in one’s success and the other’s struggle. The first, the 48,000-seat Kansas Speedway, draws thousands of NASCAR fans and has been key in transforming the western edge of Wyandotte County from windswept fields to a booming retail, entertainment and employment sector. The other, in Topeka, is the Heartland Motorsports Park, which has performed so far below expectations that the city has to cough up $1 million a year to pay back investors. Underpinning both projects is taxpayer assistance in the form [...]

Overland Park police may soon join the ranks of law enforcement agencies using body cameras. A city committee will vote Wednesday on whether to approve the police department’s plan to use $430,000 in allocated funds to buy the cameras. The police department is also seeking approval to skip the bidding process and negotiate a price with WatchGuard, the company that currently supplies dash cameras for Overland Park police vehicles. The proposal will be heard by the Overland Park Public Safety Committee at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. If it is approved, it will likely be heard by the full city council next [...]

The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed an appropriations bill that contains no funding for the proposed relocation of U.S. Department of Agriculture research agencies to the Kansas City area. Tuesday’s 227-194 vote looks to block a move that Kansas City leaders cheered for the 500-plus jobs it’s expected to move to the region but that has been criticized by some of the researchers who don’t want to leave Washington, D.C., and those who think the relocation is meant to diminish USDA research. The appropriations bill, if passed in its current form, would take effect on Oct. 1. USDA [...]

Lenexa City Center Library, the newest addition to the quickly-growing Lenexa City Center, will open Sunday. The library, at 8778 Penrose Lane, replaces the Lackman branch that previously served the area. The $21.1 million project adds to the list of grand openings in the City Center over the past few years. The area, which opened in 2017, includes the new City Hall, Lenexa Rec Center, a five-story parking structure and public-use spaces. Several food and clothing merchants have also opened in the Lenexa Public Market. The downtown vision that started in 1997 pictured Lenexa City Center as a community gathering space. City Manager Beccy Yocham [...]