Plaza lands new local store, reconnecting East Side: Top Kansas City stories
Here is a digest of top stories from The Kansas City Star, covering retail news on the Country Club Plaza, the death of a Royals franchise milestone-maker, new renderings for U.S. 71, weekend rainfall totals across the metro and progress on a decades-long Johnson County cleanup.
Country Club Plaza adds ‘luxury consignment’ store
Do Good Co., a Kansas City secondhand shop based in the Crossroads, will open a new location at 608A W. 48th St. on the Plaza this summer, alongside its sister concept Faire du Bien.
Founded by philanthropist Janet Curran in 2017, the shop gives 100% of its proceeds to Wayside Waifs and KidsTLC.
Royals’ first All-Star, Ellie Rodríguez, dies at 79
Former MLB catcher Eliseo “Ellie” Rodríguez, who became the Kansas City Royals’ first All-Star when he was selected as a reserve in 1969, has died at age 79. Rodríguez was born May 24, 1946 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, before his family moved to New York City.
Rodríguez played for the New York Yankees, the Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Angels and the Dodgers. In addition to playing baseball, he was a boxer and competed in the Golden Gloves.
New renderings show how U.S. 71 could be transformed
Kansas City planners have released renderings of a “Parkway Alternative” that would convert a stretch of U.S. 71 between 85th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard into a freeway and connect the neighborhoods in that area with new surface streets using bridges that travel over the highway.
The plans would replace intersections at Gregory Boulevard and 55th Street with overpasses while sending 59th Street under the highway.
The “Reconnecting the East Side” project still needs sign-off from a judge under a federal consent decree that’s meant to protect the civil rights of the residents near the roadway.
Public feedback is being collected through May 8. Residents can share their comments on the city’s Reconnecting the East Side website.
Sunday night storms dump up to 5 inches of rain on metro
Thunderstorms dropped between 2 and 5 inches of rain across parts of the Kansas City region Sunday night, prompting a National Weather Service flood warning for Johnson, Wyandotte, Clay, Jackson and Platte counties.
Kansas City International Airport recorded 3.56 inches in 24 hours — close to the April monthly normal of 4.05 inches — while Lawrence saw 3.54 inches and DeSoto 2.83 inches.
Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant cleanup nears finish
The U.S. Army and Army Corps of Engineers have remediated roughly 7,780 of the nearly 9,000 acres at the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant near De Soto.
The massive site near De Soto was once home to a factory that produced gunpowder for artillery shells in World War II and rocket propellants during the Vietnam War.
About 540 acres of soil are currently being treated and 750 acres still awaiting work. Officials hope to finish the cleanup by 2028, though groundwater monitoring may continue for another 20 to 30 years.
Nearly 400 acres are slated to become part of Johnson County’s biggest park.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.