The City of Overland Park voted 11-1 on a motion to amend an ordinance that kick starts an affordable homes project all around the city. Before presenting this to the city council, the planning commission voted on the “Portfolio Homes Development – Pilot Program” 8-2.
Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV

This week, a century ago, The Halstead Independent published a piece about the city’s war against “the yellow peril.” Halstead’s Committee of Child Welfare placed a bounty on this peril and organized a citywide effort to eradicate the dent-de-Lion, the lion’s tooth, the common dandelion. “The slaughtered will be weighed and the price paid in cash,” it stated about the city dandelion bounty. Pickers earned 1 cent per pound of dandelion plants picked. “Now, all together to make Halstead the Town Without a Dandelion,” the article stated. That name never quite took. Despite children scouring the city’s yards and alleys for the weed on April 8 100 years ago, the dandelion remains throughout Halstead today.
Read more: Harvey County Now

Brandon So isn’t a stranger to Sedgwick, having served as a part-time police officer since the beginning of 2025, but there’s a good reason why residents are seeing a lot more of him lately. So joined the Sedgwick Police Department full-time in December. So far, So likes working in Sedgwick. “I’ve met more supportive people here than I ever did in Newton,” So said. “It seems like everyone is very caring about their police department now and the fact that we’ve been able to turn it around so well. It’s very, very positive with the community.”
Read more: Harvey County Now

Overland Park hopes a short-term revision to its development codes will jumpstart its small-scale housing pilot program. The temporary amendment will allow up to 12 projects to move forward using home designs in the city’s new Portfolio Homes program. The exact sites are unclear, but the emphasis is on sites that are ripe for redevelopment or may be hard to build in a typical residential project. The pilot program was originally designed to make it easier to build a wider variety of housing options at less expensive price points — often called “missing middle” housing — amid a widening housing shortage. The city’s Portfolio Homes offers a collection of 26 pre-reviewed plans for smaller single-family homes and duplexes. City planning staff hoped to see developers or homeowners come forward with interest in using one of the home designs for an infill project or single-family lot. However, so far, no projects have moved forward under the Portfolio Homes program since it officially launched last year.
Read more: Johnson County Post

New signage is bringing long-forgotten history to light at a Johnson County creek, and reframes a name that residents have debated for years. Instead of changing name of Negro Creek, local leaders chose to tell its story publicly.
Read more: KCUR

One is a combat veteran and former military criminal investigator. Another is a seasoned commander who moved to Kansas from the Austin, Texas, police department. A third oversaw law enforcement at the University of Colorado Boulder. But with only one or two years on the job, three of eastern Kansas’ top law enforcement officers — Sheriff Eric Kirsch of Wabaunsee County, Chief Chris Vallejo of Topeka and Chief Doreen Jokerst of Overland Park — are bringing major changes to their shops. Although their backgrounds are different, they share some common ideas: a commitment to transparency, a desire to build community trust and a willingness to do things differently.
Read more: KLC Journal