Reefer Madness: Parkville Police and KC Vice Squads Raid Parkville Retailers

By Mark Vasto

     During the early morning of  February 11, at about 3 a.m., Parkville police say somebody burglarized the Fast Stop, the west side gas station and convenience store on Hwy. 45. Burglaries of that sort are not common in Parkville, but what surprised Parkville Police Chief Kevin Chrisman was the score: synthetic marijuana, otherwise known as "K2" or "herbal incense."

   Chrisman said he received a call soon after the incident from a concerned citizen who lived just outside of Parkville. She conveyed a concern over the illegal drug and relayed a story about a family member who was suffering from the side effects of the drug. Though it was the sole complaint he had ever received regarding the drug, Chrisman felt he needed to act swiftly -- if only to put potential local retailers and prospective buyers "on notice" immediately. 

     "[Parkville] is going to combat this issue," Chrisman said in a Wednesday morning press conference at City Hall. "It will not be tolerated."

      Chrisman made his comments before conducting police raids at both the Fast Stop and Everyday stores on Hwy. 45 at around 11:30 a.m., shutting down the businesses, blocking their entrances and, in tandem with the Kansas City Police Department's Vice squad, seized what they believed to be troves of the illegal substances. No search warrants were executed, and there were no arrests made at the time. 

     More to come, including exclusive video...

   

Parkville's Terry Bassham Named New KCP&L CEO

Terry Bassham

Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE: GXP) and Kansas City Power & Light Company (“KCP&L) on Tuesday, February 21 announced that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Chesser would retire as Chief Executive Officer of Great Plains Energy and KCP&L, effective May 31, 2012. The company said, in order to ensure a smooth transition, Chesser will remain as a member of the Board of Directors and serve as its Chairman. He has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 2003.

The Board has selected Parkville resident Terry Bassham, the company's current President and Chief Operating Officer, to succeed Chesser as Chief Executive Officer. Bassham, 51, joined the Company in 2005 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He has served as a member of the Board since September 2011.

Click here to read his entire biography, courtesy of Great Plains Energy. 

45 Expansion Phase 1 Complete

From the Missouri Department of Transportation:



The Missouri Department of Transportation continues safety improvements and widening along Route 45
between Routes 9 and K in Parkville. Crews have finished Phase One of Four, and nearing a halfway mark for finishing construction of the new eastbound lanes of Route 45.

As construction continues this year, motorists should expect delays and temporary closures on streets accessing Route 45 while the intersections are rebuilt. N.W. Hogan Drive is scheduled to close at Route 45 on Tuesday, Feb. 21 through March 13 to allow crews to construct the new entrance. Motorists are advised to use South Crooked Road to bypass this temporary closure.

Commission Approves Sales Tax Holiday

From the County Commission:

Platte County will be participating in the 2012 Show Me Green Sales Tax Holiday. With a 3-0 vote in Monday’s regularly scheduled Administrative Session, the Platte County Commission approved Commission Order #2012-CO-013 adopting the Show Me Green Sales Tax Holiday for Platte County Sales Taxes in 2012

“Platte County is open for business and we want to encourage anyone who is investing in more energy efficient appliances to take advantage of the sales tax exemption and shop in Plate County during the week of April 19th,” stated 1st District Commissioner, Kathy Dusenbery.

Park Presents Open to the Public Civil War Lectures

From the educators at Park University: 

   Park University’s Spencer Cave Black History Month Lecture Series will host Chandra M. Manning, Ph.D., as its honored lecturer in the 11th annual installment of the program on Tuesday, Feb. 28. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the McCoy Meetin’ House on the University’s Parkville Campus, beginning at 7 p.m. Manning will present her lecture on the topic “Contraband Camps: Slaves, Union Soldiers and the Uncertain Beginnings of Freedom.”

   “The complicated question of ‘contraband’ as a person verses other property was a highly charged dilemma for President Abraham Lincoln and the Union Army,” said Timothy Westcott, Ph.D., associate professor of history and chair of Park’s Department of History and Political Science.

Driver in Parkville Drive-by Shooting Sentenced to 25-years

From the Platte County Prosecutor:

Ellis

A young man who was the driver in a drive-by shooting that killed a teenager at a Parkville intersection has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.   Stephen L. Ellis, 20, of Kansas City, received the sentence on February 16 in Platte County Circuit Court after earlier pleading guilty to his role in the July 2010 death of Spencer J. Crosthwait.   

Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said, “The defendant was the driver in this drive-by shooting, but even that description minimizes his role.  He was much more than just a passive accomplice.  He indispensably aided and strongly encouraged the murder of Spencer Crosthwait.”

According to Zahnd, shortly after 12:30 a.m. on July 29, 2010, Ellis drove to his friend Justin Dougan’s house.  Dougan came out of the house with a rifle, got into the back seat of Ellis’s car and said “somebody just robbed me, and we are going to go shoot them.” 

FBI Searching for Stolen Midwest Bank Booty

From the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

The FBI is investigating a bank robbery at Bank Midwest at 6430 N. Cosby Avenue Monday morning (the place near Subway and Tuesday Morning.)

The robbery happened at 9:32 a.m. FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton a man walked into the bank, showed a weapon and demanded cash.

Park Hill Cancels School on Monday Due to Snow

Yeah, they did.

Also, Defenbaugh's garbage truck was stuck on the hill at South National Drive for hours until a massive B.J. McKay and his best friend Bear-type rig got involved.

Here's a tip: spray your snow shovel with Pam or a like type of non-stick spray. Make sure you cover the top of your head and your ears as this is where most of your body heat is lost. A scarf will help insulate you from a strong, wintry breeze but a hoodie of some sort will work to further keep out the elements. Thermal socks and thick boots will keep your feet warm. Gloves are an essential.

But you need to take the gloves off to make the phone call to the guys who will actually shovel your entire driveway later that afternoon.

Meth Lab Busted Up By Lawmen

From the Platte County Sheriff's Department:


     This afternoon the Platte County Sheriff's Office Drug Task Force (PCMEG -Platte County Multi-Jurisdictional Enforcement Group), executed a search warrant on a suspected methamphetamine lab in the 400 block of Vine Street in Platte City with the assistance of the Kansas City Police Department Street Narcotics Unit, Platte City Police Department and Metro Meth Task Force.

'Significant, long-term traffic disruption' for the Northland

From the Missouri Department of Transportation:


     MoDOT plans major repairs on Route 169 along the Missouri River beginning in late July through the remainder of this year. The work is both necessary and urgent, but will create a significant, long-term traffic disruption along an important link between Downtown Kansas City and Northland communities. You and your stakeholders need to know what is coming. 

Disher for Fisher

From the Park Hill School District...not sure what the Dr. Seuss symbolism means but, okay...

Platte County Rick Rolled

By Mark Vasto

     There was nothing to be gained delegate-wise, but Missouri's primary certainly put momentum behind the Rick Santorum campaign for president.

County Resumes Community Center Expansion

From the Platte County Commission:


      After a public January 3rd budget hearing, in which Prosecutor Eric Zahnd proposed rescinding the voter approved one-half cent parks sales tax and replacing it with a one-fourth cent sales tax for law enforcement and a one-eighth cent sales tax for parks, the Commission placed a stop work order for the Community Centers on January 5th. The stoppage was issued to allow the Prosecutor’s idea additional time and opportunity to be reviewed.


     While the stop work order has remained in place, the commission consulted independent counsel and has extensively researched the ramifications of rescinding the parks tax as proposed by Zahnd. 


     “We have been advised by independent bond counsel, Rick McConnell at Gilmore & Bell, P.C., that taking actions toward the rescission of the tax would have serious negative effects on the County’s credit rating,” stated Presiding Commissioner, Jason Brown. “This would negatively affect the value of the County’s outstanding bonds which bond holders have purchased in good faith, and create numerous legal liabilities for the County.”

Local Leaders Decry Park Hill Board Decision

     By Mark Vasto

     As previously reported by The Luminary, the decision to hire Scott Springston, Ph.D, as the successor to Dennis Fisher, Ph.D, has been a controversial one. 

    Nowhere has this been more apparent than on the Internet, where local officials and patrons of the Park Hill School District have sounded off via Facebook and Twitter. Leading the charge against both the nominating process and the proposed hire was District 1 Commissioner Kathy Dusenbery. 

    "Everyone who cares about Park Hill School District should google [sic] Valley Center Public Schools and check out their test scores. This is where our new superintendent is coming from," Dusenbery wrote. That post garnered 68 replies -- some from local Parkville officials.

Amid Controversy, Springston Offered Park Hill Super Job

By Mark Vasto

      Despite strenuous opposition to the move from both a grassroots and official level, the Park Hill Board of Education voted tonight to offer a contract to Scott Springston, Ph.D to succeed Dennis Fisher, Ph.D as the next superintendent of the school district. 

     The offer was confirmed but the terms of the contract were not disclosed by Park Hill in their press release Tuesday night. 

     The offer flies in the face of those opposed to the hire of Springston and the frequent fliers are prominent local officials and a determined cadre of active parents who even assembled in downtown Parkville for an impromptu rally Monday night to formulate opposition. 

Controversial Pick for New Park Hill Superintendent

     By Mark Vasto

     The Park Hill Board of Education last Friday announced their final candidate to fill the district's vacancy and it has been met with immediate howls of derision -- at least on area social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. 

Dr. Scott Springston

    The candidate, Scott Springston, Ph.D, is the current superintendent of the Valley Center School District in Kansas (near Wichita). According to the district press release, he took over that position in 2006, after serving two years as an assistant superintendent in Valley Center. 

     Before that, Springston was a middle school principal and assistant principal in the Blue Valley School District from 1996 to 2004. From 1992 to 1996, he taught middle and high-school science in the Hays School District. The press release trumpeted an increase in Valley Center's state test scores and the successful passage of $57.5 million bond issue. 

    The decision, however, is being heavily scrutinized. For one, Valley Center is nearly one-third the size of Park Hill and does not have a reputation for academic excellence. 

Updated: Arson and Death in Platte City

From the Platte City Police Department, updated to reflect name of victim:


This morning at 5:25 a.m. members of the Platte City Police Department were dispatched to a car fire at 1881 Wilkerson Drive. At 6:50 a.m. Officers were dispatched to 2128 Catie Lane for another car fire and at 7:04 a.m. an unidentified male body was located in a truck at 2113 Wilkerson Drive that was not owned by the unidentified male. The truck had also been set on fire.

Journalists Expose (Alleged) Ambulance District Corruption

From the office of the Platte County Prosecutor:

The President of the Northland Regional Ambulance District has been charged with misusing official information stemming from a land transaction that allegedly netted him $144,000. Kevin N. Rawlings, 40, of Dearborn, allegedly purchased land in an area where he knew the ambulance district was planning to build a new station. 

Rawlings bought the land for $130,000 and later resold a portion of the land to the ambulance district for $175,000.  According to court documents, an appraiser valued the land Rawlings sold to the ambulance district at just $30,600.

Park Hill's Cox Announces Run for Assessor

From the David Cox campaign:

Today [January 31] David Cox announces that he will seek the office of Platte County Assessor. 

“I am running for Platte County Assessor to ensure our taxpayer property valuations are calculated in an objective and equitable fashion that reflects the current ‘fair market value’. Additionally, I will work to make the assessment process more transparent and efficient.”

Parkville Police Report 1/30/2012

Click here to see a .pdf of the latest crime report from Parkville's finest.