The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 12

The Kansas City Star Tuesday August 18 1998 Police station could offer additional service GUSEWELLE Some cities imagine the world cares Northland growth increases pressure for new facility By CINDY EBERTING Staff Writer The idea of a mini-City Hall in the Northland with police fire city services and even a municipal Court bounced between city and police leaders Monday Mayor Emanuel Cleaver said the time is right to ask the help and called it a chance to break down Kansas dividing barriers such as the Missouri River and increased by 10 percent in both 1994 and 1995 and by 2 percent from 1996 to 1997 think this is because of the growth not because the area is turning toward the Nunn said The second police station would divide the Northland east and west The proposed line would run along Antioch Road and then North Oak Trafficway Northland council members proposed a City Hall annex in early 1996 A feasibility study was conducted in August 1996 In that plan proposed by Coun Deputy Police Chief James Nunn showed the numbers and projections to prove the need for a second station before the police response in the growing Northland becomes a crisis Police estimated the calls for service in the Northland have nearly tripled since the mid-1970s Between 1990 and 1997 calls increased by 38 percent Last year Northland calls took up 1 1 percent of all metro area service calls By 2010 police predict Northland calls will total 17 percent of metro area calls Crime has also increased in the Northland every year since 1991 It race voters are increasingly more willing to fund specific- projects for a specific period of Cleaver said have a socio-political opportunity that may not present itself again in our Police leaders Cleaver Northland City Council members the city manager and development director met Monday for the first time to talk about the need for a second Northland police station and the opportunity to make it something more got to think out of the said Police Chief Floyd Bartch cilman Ed Ford city servioesithat would be offered in thelaMex would include a place where fpsi-dents could pay taxes water bills and traffic tickets The propo Safin-eluded traffic court and sjfaftfbr city planners who handle Northland development projects For now police will presdflfiKeir argument for a second stafionTfio the Police Board of Compsfljn-ers next week A work group vyill then be appointed to look igjft the idea really quite expect this much support for this particular project quite this panch said 8W f)l( at Lktiufi irtftysfl '7'! uii twi METRO DIGEST KANSAS CITY KAN -t-i ttp juyip 1 a Digging in Officer released: officer Michael Lucas was released from the hospital Monday and his partner Shane Wright remained in fair condition at a hospital Monday The two plainclothes narcotics officers were shot in their unmarked police car Wednesday as they were driving a prisoner to the Wyandotte County Jail Corey Brown 19 was arrested after a 90-minute manhunt and has been charged with two counts of attempted murder possession of marijuana and cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm Brown was in jail Monday on $1 million bond i sin JoAnn Simon tossed a shovel "Lf full of dirt at the A 4 groundbreaking Monday for her Habitat for Humanity home in Kansas City Kan This will be the third Habitat home built by students at Shawnee Mission East High School represented Monday by student Sam Hiersteiner (left) and principal Angelo Cocolis (center) Simon will live in the house with her husband and I two daughters i 800 IW IVtyl mi 111 I Uri oil 31? no jipi VI I Mf-iritzff s- BLUE SPRINGS Official leaves: Tom Kuntz the community development director for eight years has taken a job in Farmington NM last day will be Aug 27 He will serve as the community services administrator in his new position GREENWOOD JEFF ROBERSON The Star case: State education officials will wait to get involved in the case of former Ray-more-Peculiar Middle School teacher Amy Rodriguez Rodriguez of Greenwood was charged with three counts of statutory rape Friday for allegedly having sex with one of her sixth-grade students She recently resigned from the middle school The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Educations the agency that would review teaching certificate and decide whether any action needs to be taken note While Gusewelle is away The Star is reprinting some of his favorite columns This column was published in 1995 iPerhaps you have noticed the wy is defined as anything that happens within commuting distance of the is-lnjtl of Manhattan Califorma-also comes in for occasional notice but only in times of earthquake riot and mud slide or when freak waves awry off the beachfront homes of entertainers If the middle regions of the country get mentioned at all it is in connection with outbreaks Of tick fever and head lice or public manifestations by Ku Kluxers items which reinforce the notion that the candle of civilization does not throw its light far inland In New York however no event is too trifling to rate prime-time network coverage The bias is understandable since the principal news organizations are based there However the result as seen ffom afar borders on the grotesque Political races in New York are reported in such detail as to confound the 33 out of 34 Americans who neither live there nor give a hoot who carries away the booty The financial woes of the city are covered as though a slip in its municipal bond rating might cost the rest of us our sleep The lecheries failed unions and rancorous divorces of various celebrities and stars are chronicled as solemnly as the fall of monarchies Junkies panderers and transvestites thronging Times Square are offered as proof of decaying American morality the woe of the underclass the triumph of deviancy or some other national affliction It is the city of Wall Street the puts and calls It calls for oarundivided attention and forth the myth of itself 2Qne day recently the lead story on a national newscast was uffit the commentator or to brprecise the news reader described as an attack on the niMorcade of the New York mayor 3jieD turned out that the so-called attacker was unarmed Xhen it was revealed that his consisted of running i4o the line of cars and pCUnding with his fists on the window of a municipal truck uttTil he was seized by police his screams of outrage deduced that this solitary unarmed urban terrorist was protesting the lamentable state PMome of the public serves Authorities afterward described him as deranged although given the state of things sounded like perfectly reasonable behavior any case the incident was sgjyivial that the mayor riding jiwsnother vehicle may not even hJSfc noticed it But evidently it information the rest of America could not do without Die telling of the events bghe Eastern cabal of commu-nSStors is a most peculiar exer- cjjjg Fhey remind me of an editor I oocc knew who defined news as Jthing he could see from his window or heard about lunch Atree limb down sss the street he habitually le along to work rated page a coverage is was the very essence of sDEabsorption no great sin if ygjr're a local or regional jour-naSst but ludicrous if you imag-itgou're speaking to the world 6urious it that the most yerful voices in the land aid be after all so for VIP seating and a pre-party event that starts at 6:30 pm To charge tickets call Contemporary Productions at 384-8940 Ext 249 jtnet OVERLAND PARK County Jail Sunday night He is accused of waving a gun at his brother in an argument at a Mer-riam business Scam charges: Three men were charged Saturday in Johnson County District Court with taking part in a car-repair scam Rudy Yonko 22 of San Diego was charged with criminal threat theft and disorderly conduct Sonny Yonko 21 of San Diego was charged with theft disorderly conduct and misdemeanor drug possession Tony Yonko 21 of Santa Fe NM was charged with theft and disorderly conduct GARDNER reported Supplies needed: city Union Mission needs school supplies and school clothing for homeless and disadvantaged students The agency especially needs shorts jeans shirts blouses and tennis shoes for hundreds of elementary school children Clothing donations should be delivered between 9 am and 3:30 pm weekdays to the receiving center 2301 Lexington Ave A barrel for school supplies is at the shelter 1 108 10th St For a list of needed supplies call 474-9380 Ext 218 or 219 Benefit concert: Tickets remain for Art concert at 8 pm Friday at Starlight Theatre The concert will benefit Catholic Charities and the Ladies of Charity of Metropolitan Kansas City foster care parents and children Tickets are $15 for terrace seats $25 for plaza seats $35 for orchestra seats and $100 sure how long the vehicle had been there The Kansas City man was pronounced dead at the scene Another man who suffered fractures was in serious condition at a hospital Murder charge: Jackson County prosecutors have charged a Kansas City man in the stabbing death of a woman found last month in Brush Creek Damon Booker 27 was charged late last week with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the July 24 death of Patricia Hughes 38 Police said Hughes was beaten stabbed repeatedly and thrown into a drainage tunnel near 60th Street and Wabash Avenue Motel evacuated: Police evacuated the Crown Lodge 8500 Missouri 350 late Monday after the motel was robbed and police feared the robber was still inside Few details were available early this morning Police said a robber entered the motel about 11:15 pm Monday No injuries were House fire: Fire destroyed a garage Monday at 406 Evergreen St A neighbor saw the fire and called Gardner Public Safety at 8:21 am No one was home Firefighters confined the blaze to the garage and had the fire out in about 25 minutes The fire caused about $15000 damage Hotel robbed: A man in a Halloween mask robbed the Holiday Inn Express 7200 107th St early Monday The man walked in wearing the mask and threatened the clerk with a pistol He took a small safe and money from the cash drawer and left in a dark pickup about 1:42 am Tax debate: A traveling debate over whether the federal tax code should be shelved arrives in Overland Park today US Rep Dick Armey House majority leader and US Rep Billy Tauzin of Louisiana will participate in a discussion at noon in the Presidents Room of the Radisson Hotel 8787 Reeder Drive The event is free and open to the public KANSAS CITY JOHNSON COUNTY Fatal wreck: Police were investigating a car wreck Monday morning that killed a 46-year-old Kansas City man Police were called to Little Blue Road east of Noland Road at 6:53 am Monday They found a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air that had left the road near a curve and struck two trees Police were un Gun charge: a Shawnee man was charged Monday in Johnson County District Court with aggravated assault and battery David Lloyd Eubanks 39 was booked into the Johnson LOTTERIES YOU CAN HELP Record books onto tape for people with visual impairment Minimum of one hour a week Must have good reading skills and easy-to-understand speech Call Patty Petty of Alphapointe at ABOUT US After the First World War Harry Truman finally proposed to Bess Wallace some 27 years after they first met Mother of the American by Charles Phillips Cash 4 Life: 2-6-43-82 Kansas Pick 3: 9-0-7 Straight-play winners won $500 box-play winners won $80 A 50-cent bet paid half Kansas Cash: 2-3-11-25-26-32 for estimated $120000 jackpot winning lottery numbers: Missouri Pick 3: 8-5-4 Straight-play winners won $500 box-play winners won $80 A 50-cent bet paid half Missouri Show Me 5: 4-8-17-22-28 No winner of $25000 jackpot Four numbers paid $100 Sale of bonds delayed Students call for return Continued from B-1 ments for the track ought to be able to have full relocation benefits not Janie Stockman one of the plaintiffs said Monday stupid Nobody can move for The Unified Government has taken the position that most relocation expenses were included in the 25 percent premium the Kansas Legislature required that property owners receive above appraised values The legislation did not spell it out however Grant Lynch president of Kansas International Speedway Corp said 85 families have signed contracts to sell and about 60 others have chosen to go to condemnation got seven who filed the lawsuit holding up all these other people from getting on with their Lynch said in a telephone interview from his office in Talladega Ala If Kansas International Speedway cannot begin excava tion on the $207 million project in late September or October Lynch said it threatens the projected 2000 opening date Lynch said that if International Speedway Corp Kansas International pareht corporation could open another racetrack in 2001 it might consider pulling out of Wyandotte County want to do he said want to build a racetrack but got seven people standing in the way of millions Seven people are holding up the progress of Kansas" Hal Walker chief counsel for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City Kan said he was negotiating with the attorneys Joseph Borich III and Douglas Patterson A settlement is possible Walker said if it expose the project to excessive additional costs Borich and Patterson did-got return several calls Friday Jitttd Monday board that the Journal won national and state awards during the five years Halas was adviser The parents expressed anger Both told the board they believe Halas was removed because two years ago against the will of the administration she supported the publication of an article about businesses that allegedly sold cigarettes to minors smells of vengeance It smells of said Raymond Moore a lawyer whose two children go to Blue Springs schools In a statement issued before the meeting the district accused Halas of using students advance her personal private Halas who did not attend the meeting said later: have a personal private agenda teaching good journalism And as for the student protest I think it is a healthy constructive way to express opposition to decisions made bjy elected public teacher and newspaper adviser Halas still teaches English at the school but her extra-duty contract as newspaper adviser was not renewed this year Monday appeal to the Blue Springs Board of Education was the third attempt students have made since June to persuade school administrators to give Halas back her position After meeting newspaper staff members said their next move is to talk to school board members one on one and to write each of them letters stating the position want them to know how much Mrs Halas means to said Journal editor Jon David who led the protest on the lawn of the school board offices before the meeting Former Journal editor Monica Moreland and two parents later spoke on behalf during the public forum session of the board mqdting Moreland reminded the Journalism students in Blue Springs protest removal of teacher By MARA ROSE WILLIAMS Staff Writer For half an hour Monday night current and former staff members of the Blue Springs South High School Jaguar Journal carried signs and shouted in protest over the June removal of the adviser But later after students and parents addressed the school board at its regular meeting the president called the matter dead replacement has been Dale Walkup said a personnel matter and I discuss the details of But newspaper staff members said they would not give up their fight to get English teacher Valerie Halas ftinstated as a journalism For news from Missouri Kansas communities to The site at Twww kansascttycom click on Local News The archives are SSailable on the Internet 5sit The Star's site at AvwNJwstaMom I dick bn Star library oitycom I.