The police are asking for helping locating a young man who was last seen at 32nd and Paseo.

Matthew Chestnut is a white male who is 18 years old. He is 6’2″ and weighs 342 pounds. He was last seen on May 15, 2013 at 12:45 p.m. leaving 3241 Paseo. If located contact the KCPD Missing Persons Units at  816-234-5136.

The city health department has rescheduled a free Hepatitis C screen for Thursday.

The screening was originally scheduled for Monday, but canceled due to temperature control issues in the building.

It’s on again for Thursday at the City of Kansas City, Mo., Health Department building, 2400 Troost Ave. Signage in the atrium will direct clinic visitors to the appropriate room.

More information on other Health Department clinics and services may be found online.

Here’s some important information from the city.

In observance of Memorial Day, trash and recycling collection will be delayed one day and City of Kansas City, Mo., offices will be closed Monday, May 27. The 311 Call Center, a division of the City Manager’s Office, also will be closed for the holiday.

Residents who usually have Monday trash collection will receive this service Tuesday, May 28. Residents who usually have Friday trash collection will receive this service Saturday, June 1.

For more information about solid waste collection services, visit http://www.kcmo.org/trash or call the 311 Call Center at 311 or 816-513-1313.

Sister Berta Sailer rallied parents and supporters of Gordon Parks Elementary School yesterday, urging them to call state officials who have ordered the school to close. She says the State Board of Education needs to come to Kansas City to see the school for themselves, rather than just closing it based on test scores.

How would you judge the success of an elementary school?

The state, last week, said it judged Gordon Parks Elementary School in the Volker neighborhood a failure….because of low scores on state performance tests.

Parents, graduates and neighbors said yesterday they consider the charter school a success …and gave dozens of reasons why.

“Jefferson City made another huge error and we have got to fix it,” Sister Berta Sailer told a crowd of parents and school supporters at a press conference.

She was referring to the state’s sudden decision last week to shut the school almost immediately.

In fact, its staff was preparing to shut its doors today, but an injunction yesterday will allow students to finish out the extended school year into next month.

A court hearing on a permanent injunction against closing the school is scheduled in late July.

Sailer of Operation Breakthrough was instrumental in starting the school, which was founded by Dorothy Curry and Sue Jarvis, two Kansas City women who saw a need as they volunteered for her early education child care and social services facility at 31st and Troost. The charter school was intended to serve at-risk students and help them reach their potential.

Co-founder Dorothy Curry acknowledges school test scores were low, but said Gordon Parks caters to students who often entered the school system several years behind. About 95 percent of the students qualified for the free/reduced lunch program, a common indicator of low-income used by schools.  About 15 percent of the students qualified for special education classes.

“The people making this odd decision have not met these children and families,” Sailer said. “We need to fight to reverse this.”

A parade of parents and former students then took the microphone to tell their stories of success at Gordon Parks.

Nicholas Cooper credits Gordon Parks for giving him a good educational start. He plans to go to medical school after graduating from high school this month.

Nicholas Cooper entered Gordon Parks in 2000 when he was attending Operation Breakthrough. He graduated from the charter school in 2005, and will be graduating this year from Hogan Preparatory Academy, a public charter high school, in the top of his class.

“I’m going to go on to medical school,” he told the group, in great part because of the elementary education and extra help he got from Gordon Parks.

The school’s board president, Doug Curry, echoed the theme that those who have actually been involved with the school have seen many proofs of success.

“This is a shock to us because we have all seen the great work that happens at Gordon Parks,” he said. “We are outraged that a group of people from outside Kansas City are making this decision.”

Sailer acknowledged that there is no appeal process when the state decides to close a charter school, but she argues that there should be.

“People should call them up,” she said. “They need to let the school speak. They need to let these parents talk.”

Previous Posts

• Gordon Parks charter school to close
• Volker charter school’s closing shocks staff and students
• Gordon Parks gets brief reprieve

Gordon Parks Elementary School can finish out its extended school year, which last into June. The decision came today while supporters were having a press conference urging the state to reconsider closing the school.

Gordon Parks Elementary School, notified last week by the state that it would be closed tomorrow, has gotten a brief reprieve.

At a press conference this afternoon, supporters of the charter school urged parents and Kansas City residents to call the State Board of Education, which made the decision to close the charter school.

During the event, Board President Doug Curry announced  a judge had just issued an injunction allowing the school to remain open through the rest of June.

“That doesn’t mean the charter has been renewed,” he warned, but only that the students can finish the extended school year through next month.

Supporters applauded Curry’s announcement but said they would continue to call upon the state to keep the school open.

We’ll have more on this story tomorrow morning.

(Here’s an email you can forward to your friends who have been putting off coming to visit you in Kansas City.  We’re now officially a great city for a cheap vacation, and we’re (somewhat) hip. At least according to one travel magazine.)

Dear (insert names of your old pals here):

You know how I’ve been trying to get you to visit us in Kansas City?

Well, I now have proof its a great idea. “Travel + Leisure” just named us the number 1 “best U.S. City for Affordable Getaways

You don’t have to just take my word for it. Here’s what the magazine says.

It’s one of the few cities where hotel prices have stayed the same or even dropped in the past year (the average summer rate is $137, according to Kayak). Sightseeing also remains a great value: you’ll get in free at three of Kansas City’s main art museums, as well as two fun factory-style tours (the Hallmark Visitors Center and the Boulevard Brewing Company). The savings continue at dinnertime. KC won the survey for its budget-minded, slow-smoked barbecue: a classic “burnt ends” sandwich at Danny Edwards’ Boulevard BBQ is just $5.99.

If that’s not enough, the magazine has also recently ranked Kansas City:

• Number 5 in America’s best beer cities 
• Number 10 in America’s best cities for pizza
• Number 20 for American’s best cities for hipsters

The Toy and Miniature Museum announced today it will be among 1,800 museums nationwide with free admission this summer for those in the military and their families.

Also listed among the group in Kansas City are the American Jazz Museum, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Westport Historical Society and the 1855 Harris-Kearney House Museum.

The free admission at the “Blue Star” museums lasts from Memorial Day, May 27, through Labor Day, Sept. 2.

Toy museum director Jamie Berry said the museum at 52^nd and Oak streets provides free admission to military families year-round but is proud to be part of the larger Blue Star effort.

Collaborators in the effort include the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense.

“Our work with Blue Star Families and with more than 1,800 museums ensures that we can reach out to military families and thank them for their service and sacrifice,” said NEA Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa.

Details

• list of participating museums 

Diane Eickhoff and Aaron Barnhart live in the Volker neighborhood, just a few blocks from the state line. The historian and former TV critic have written a book about the significance of the border between Kansas and Missouri, which they argue could be the most influential border in the United States.

It’s easy to drive down State Line Road without reflecting upon its historical significance.

But once you delve into a new book by two Volker residents, you may see that line in a whole different light.

“The Big Divide: A Travel Guide to Historic and Civil War Sites in the Missouri-Kansas Border Region” by historian Diane Eickhoff and journalist and former Kansas City Star TV critic Aaron Barnhart tells the long and complex history.

It is intended as a guided tour of the region surrounding the important border between the two states. As they began writing it, they realized they had found an important historical theme that hadn’t been written about in an organized way.

“There is a really big story to tell. It’s probably the most influential border in the United States,” Eickhoff says.

The couple decided to tell the story of the region through its 130 historic sites, monuments, museums, parks, cemeteries and shrines. The region has what Barnhart calls a “bunch of first rate and emerging sites,” as well as border war, Civil War, African American and Native American history.

They organized it so you can take a road trip for a day or visit the region for a week and make the best use of your time breathing in the history.

Eickhoff  wrote the chapter beginnings, which pull together the diverse periods of  historical activity: the importance of the land itself; the first people, Native Americans and missionaries; the border war; the Civil War, and the post-civil war period when, Eickhoff says, the nation was defending liberty abroad and fighting for justice at home.

By visiting the different sites in the book (and using its outlines to understand how they fit together), you get a sense of some of what’s behind the division that continues to separate Kansas and Missouri.

Eickhoff and Barnhart say they’re not the only ones thinking the area is a rich place to explore history. They say the idea that the area could be a cultural heritage district is beginning to take shape and could contribute to increased tourism in the area.

They hoped to create a book that tied together the significance of the many sites.  “We decided right away to do a different type of travel guide,” Eickhoff says. “There are already plenty of travel guides about where to go to lunch or spend the night.”

Barnhart says he couldn’t help but approach the sites with a critic’s eye.

“I became struck by how well interpreted some of the sites are,” he says.

The book (there’s also an ebook) offers eight driving tours, ideas for parents and teachers, and lists of top sites so readers can make their own plans. But Eickhoff says “only a really ambitious person would try to do all 130 sites.”

For the Midtown reader, even one without a car, there are several important sites within easy access. Grab a copy of the book and head out to see what all the fuss is about.

• Harris-Kearney House, 4000 Baltimore – home to Westport Historical Society
• Battle of Westport visitor center – 6601 Swope Parkway
• Union Cemetery – 227 East 28th Terrace
• John Wornall House Museum – 6115 Wornall Road
• Thomas Hart Benton State Historic Site – 3616 Belleview

Details

Get the book 

The West Plaza neighborhood is inviting surrounding neighborhood residents to participate in its fourth annual Free-for-All event.

It’s simple. Drop off things you have around the house and don’t need anymore on June 7.

Come back on June 8 and take home free things other people didn’t need but you might treasure.

The Free-for-All began as a Volker neighborhood event, but for the past four years, West Plaza has sponsored and managed it.

It follows the joint West Plaza-Westwood Park neighborhood yard sales on Saturday, June 1.

“We want people to donate things they don’t want, either left over from their yard sale or just things they want out of the house,” says Julie Tenenbaum of West Plaza. “We’ll take all the stuff people want to give away and put it in a central location, where other people can take what they want.”

Tenenbaum says anyone from the Volker, Valentine, Roanoke, Coleman Highlands and Westwood Park neighborhoods is welcome to participate, both by donating and attending. Neighborhoods are encouraged to let people who might need items know about the event.

In order to participate, you have to get the timing right.

• The drop-off takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, June 7, at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1700 Westport Road. They’ll take any clean, usable, non-hazardous item that can be carried in and out of the door by a medium-sized person. (No large appliances, electronics, TVs or furniture)
• The takeaway occurs on Saturday, June 8, from 8 to 10 a.m. at the same location. You might find toys, kitchenware, clothes, purses, shoes, CDs, books, decorative items, and many other treasures free for the taking.

If you’d like to volunteer to help or if you have any questions, contact Julie Tenenbaum at 816-931-2276 or jatkc@aol.com.

You can now see an online map showing which Midtown streets are set for resurfacing this year.

The city public works department has put the updatable map of resurfacing projects on its website.

The map provides the current status on work performed during the City’s annual street resurfacing initiative.

A new online maps shows streets scheduled for resurfacing this year.

Resurfacing work began in mid-May. Crews have been dispatched to repair more than 300 miles of roadway throughout the City. Thanks to overwhelming support for the 2012 public improvements sales tax, the Public Works Department targeted more roadway for repair than in previous years, according to a city press release.