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Returning to Council Chambers after holding several meetings virtually, the Board of Aldermen moved through several resolutions and ordinances, including an ordinance which would have approved a conditional use permit to operate a portable asphalt plant on approximately 14.3 acres located at the northeast corner of McQuerry and Seymour roads.
Capital Paving, the business requesting the permit, reported trucks would be turning at a rate of 125 turns every 24 hours, meaning 125 trucks would have entered and exited the site in a 24-hour period, 7 days a week. Citing concerns over the wear and tear to McQuerry and adjoining roads, and disruption to nearby residential areas, no member of the board seconded the motion to allow the resolution to move forward for a second reading. City staff had not recommended approval, and the Planning and Zoning Commission had sent the resolution to the Board with several recommended conditions. In other business, the Board approved fireworks permits for the Grain Valley Band Parents Association and the Grain Valley Partnership and approved an amended resolution appointing James Hofstetter to the Grain Valley Planning and Zoning Commission to fill an unexpired term vacated by Paul Loving. The board will meet for its next regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, April 26, 2021 at 7:00pm in the Council Chambers at City Hall. While Kansas City is still known as "the BBQ Capital of the World, some would argue for Lockhart, Texas or Memphis, Tennessee.
Known as the “father of Kansas City barbecue” and dubbed the “Barbecue King," Henry Perry sold slow-smoked meats wrapped in newspaper for 25 cents in the Garment District in the early 1900s. He opened the city’s first barbecue restaurant in an old trolley barn, according to the Barbecue Hall of Fame. Perry trained Charlie Bryant, who took over the restaurant when the BBQ “father” died in 1940. Bryant passed the torch to his brother Arthur in 1946. Arthur added sweetness to Perry’s original barbecue sauce. The sauce helped put Arthur Bryant’s on the map. No less than four US presidents have eaten at Bryants. by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society As a nearly lifelong resident of Grain Valley and one who attended twelve years of school in the same two-story brick schoolhouse where my parents graduated in 1932, I am astounded. But then, as I think back over those past many years, I realize that like our community, most of the growth has occurred in the past twenty-five years.
In January 1996, the high school moved from Main Street to the present location on Eagles Parkway. Many of you will remember the first phase of that building housed the middle school. The second phase included athletic facilities and by the fall of 1996, the high school plus eighth graders, about 475 students attended school there. The middle school campus on Main Street housed fourth through seventh graders, about 480 students and Matthews Elementary was used for kindergarten through third grade. In total, the district had approximately 1,400 students, doubling the number just 10 years earlier. In 1996, more that 200 housing permits were issued. Twenty-five years ago, in April 1996, the bond issue was passed to build the second elementary school. Sni-A-Bar Elementary was, of course, built on the campus with the high school. Since then the Early Childhood Center, two more elementary schools, two middle schools, and numerous additions to the senior high school have been added. And enrollment has increased by more than 300%. Twenty-five years ago baseball, softball, and wrestling were “new” sports. Grain Valley was playing nine varsity sports in the Show-Me West Conference with Butler, Holden, Pembroke Hill, St. Mary’s and Sherwood. Today, Grain Valley is one of the 27 schools in the Kansas City Suburban Conference and they participate in 17 varsity sports, band, choir, cheer and dance, speech and debate, and Scholar Bowl. And, they have their own broadcasting studio with GVTV! Twenty-five years, in the fall of 1996, all of the classrooms throughout the district were air conditioned for the first time. The district has a “vision” for an aggressive program in the future to make the internet available to all high school students. I can only imagine what a COVID-19 outbreak would have looked like twenty-five years ago! A few years ago, my brother and his wife were visiting from Florida. I drove them around the district to see all of the new additions. From the Pink Hill Campus on the North to Stony Point on the South, we saw the administration building (originally the home of my high school classmate Nancy Norris), North Middle School, the Early Childhood Center, Prairie Branch, Matthews, Stony Point Elementary and Middle School, Sni-A-Bar, Moody Murry Stadium, the tennis courts, the softball and baseball complex, the greenhouse, the athletic building, and the Transportation Center. But only once did he ask me to stop and take a picture. He was “blown away” by the two semi-trailers that haul the equipment for the Marching Eagles! In 1961, the year he graduated there were 11 members in the band. Times change! Our fascination with having a space all our own and getting away from it all begins when we are kids, when we still have little reason to even escape the world. And yet at those early ages we are fort fanciers, treehouse seekers, and bolt-hole builders (more on this fascinating term to come…).
One of the best memories I have of my dad was him crawling through a tunnel of boxes with my toddler daughter, completely forgetting the back troubles that had hounded him for years. They rested somewhere deep inside the boxes and requested snack deliveries from us peasants around them. Just a short few years later my daughter cried when I sold some old ladder back dining room chairs with knobs that were perfect for making a beautiful canopy from a filmy opaque curtain I had tried to discard. “Where will I hook the clothespins?” she said desperately. She typically built her fortress right in front of the television and declared it off limits to the rest of us. That pieced together palace hosted many a tea party. I can’t say that I blame her. I myself have been a refuge seeker, way back into childhood summers. New appliances meant joy for mom, and for us it meant the best tunnel and hideout ever, as we toppled the boxes to their sides, filled them with expensive throw pillows and grabbed flashlights to enhance the mood. I draped sheets off the edge of the bunk bed my sis and I shared to enclose myself when it was my week for the bottom bunk. In our back yard, a chain link fence was the perfect start for our lean-to tents and hideaways. My dad’s old army blanket was the best ground cover, and then all we needed was a quilt, a sheet, even some plastic to create the triangle into which we would burrow ourselves for hours, hiding away from the world, fortified with Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. I was fascinated with movies where there were hideaways, like Swiss Family Robinson and Blue Lagoon. To this day, one of my favorite movie scenes is from Step Brothers when Brennan and Dale retreat to their treehouse to escape a mean brother. If you have seen Step Brothers you get it, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s a good laugh at the end of a lousy week. Truthfully, I am still mad at Greg, Peter, and Bobby for not letting their Brady Bunch sisters share the club house. I hold grudges. By the time I was a pre-teen, you would think the hideaway fascination would have stopped, but not for me. Across the road from my grandparents’ farm lived Natalie, a friend we only got to see on our twice or three-time yearly visits. She and Sally were our best buddies away from home, and while they might have enjoyed visiting us in the city, we thought nothing was better than a trip to the farm. Natalie’s four wheeler took us down dirt roads on the bottom land, and one day I noticed a house off in the distance, a bit dilapidated but intriguing. A family that worked for Natalie’s dad on their farm had once lived there. We headed over to it, and opened the door, despite the fact that looking back, just like I am 110% certain that leggings are not my best look, I am also 110% certain we were not supposed to have been in it. Some pretty dusty and ragged furniture and rugs were still in place. My vivid imagination had us all wearing head scarves, sweeping, mopping, and dusting until it was spic and span, and then spending the night there. A racoon or some animal that had taken up residence ran from a closet we pulled open, scared me enough to scream, and quickly snapped me out of my daytime reverie. But for a blissful moment, I thought we had found our bolt-hole (still promising more on this later…is the anticipation building?). It is possible that desiring a hideaway is a family trait. My mom recalls wishing her father would build her a playhouse when she was a girl, but alas, the months to relax are few and far between for the farmer, and he never got it done. He chose instead to build beautiful walnut clocks, which have been a much more transportable and lovely memory of his carpentry skills than a roughed out playhouse would have been. But when I talked about a little hideaway for my daughter, Mom was just as excited at the prospect as we were. My nephew may have inherited a little of the bolt-hole desire (there is that funny word again… I wonder when she will explain it, readers are surely thinking…). My sister has a lovely back yard, filled with all things blooming and green. When we visited one day, they had added a garden shed. Sis is happy with her hands in the dirt, and I think she imagined the shed filled with shelves of pots and trowels and other garden necessities (I am out of descriptive words here because gardening gives me metaphorical and physical hives…). But my nephew had other ideas. The next time we saw the shed, it had a bunk bed built in to the side, and he had officially claimed it. At first, it was furnished with a leaking bean bag and an old rug. The following time, they had gotten it wired for electricity, and he had plugged in an old lamp, quite the ambience. What followed were some serious decorating gaffes, like a Kansas Jayhawk banner (he is adorable but has terrible taste in sports teams), and some LED lights tacked around the ceiling to wall joist. He and his buddies had countless overnights there, their suburban camping experience, escaping their tyrant parents, and no doubt eating junk food until they fell asleep, LED lights blazing. My poor husband appeared to have outgrown the need for a bolt-hole (see now, you are just used to seeing this crazy word…) much earlier than the rest of us. When I asked him to construct a three poled tee-pee looking contraption for our daughter for the yard one summer, he thought I had lost my mind. “She has her whole room to herself,” he said. When I tried to explain that it needed to be a little smaller and cozy, her offered her closet. Not the same, I protested, and after I purchased the lumber and brought it home, pretending I would just build it myself, he caved. When he climbed inside the finished tee-pee with her, his feet sticking out, my heart melted. When summer ended, we couldn’t part with the tee-pee just yet and brought it inside. She was at a friend’s for an overnight once, and I came home to find he and the dog sound asleep in the tee-pee. I made enough noise to allow him to pretend to be awake, and he claimed he was looking for a flashlight they had left in there, but I still believe he was stepping back in time to his fort building days for just a moment. Maybe right when some of us adults were ready to let go of the whole hideaway thing, She Sheds became the rage. Moms all over the globe were claiming a space in their back yard and decorating that space in outrageous ways, lighting up Pinterest and home improvement magazine covers. Sheryl’s She Shed was even the subject of a funny insurance commercial. If you are driving behind me as I pass a lot where they are selling tiny homes and sheds, please move on by. I will be rubbernecking until I cause a wreck. I am busy visualizing what shrubs or perennials I will have my sister plant around my new She Shed. But big girl dreams die, too. My homeowner’s association prohibits me from having a fine looking She Shed. But the one in my mind has a big window that looks out over the acreage we don’t own, and my easel, where I use acrylic and other mediums to paint, never has to be folded and put away. In another corner, I have a cozy day bed for when I tire of my artistic pursuits and take a nap, from which no one wakes me and asks me if we have any pretzels or cheese or milk (wouldn’t you know where to look for milk, for Pete’s sake?) or where I put their one good pair of black athletic shorts. When I was watching the adorable series Grace and Frankie, even Frankie, who lives in a beautiful beach home that is another of my dreams had her own bolt-hole, which I suppose it is finally time to describe. The English coined the word bolt-hole, and used lovely Englishy sounding words like nook, and harborage and sanctuary and refuge and lair to describe it. I first read about a bolt-hole in a flowery gardening magazine that my sis probably subscribed me to, hoping to convert me. I was intrigued by the title, and then more intrigued by the author’s words. She actually purchased a home with a little secret passageway about which her husband knew nothing. As they renovated and refurbished their country estate, she saved scraps of wood and building materials to shore up her bolt-hole. She worked on it when the kids were at school and her hubby at work. She presented it to them with great fanfare one rainy afternoon and announced she was spending some time ensconced there while they all stayed away. It was the best piece of non-fiction I had ever read, though not enough to keep me subscribed to the magazine. I was teaching English at the time I saw the article, and I shared it with my students as a writing prompt. After we got past the muffled giggles when I discovered that bolt-hole sounded a lot like butthole to them, we talked about personal space. What would your retreat look like? Why do you need one? I received some of the best writing I had read from them, all of us just wanting our own space. I think as a writer, I will likely need a bolt-hole to escape with my thoughts. Stay tuned for the reveal, if I ever emerge from it. Cathy is a retired public school English teacher and Public Information Officer. by Megan Callahan, Hy-Vee Corporate Dietitian Spring into healthy habits by making Tilapia Tacos this week! Stop by your Hy-Vee seafood department for sustainably raised Rainforest tilapia.
Hy-Vee’s Responsible Choice program ensures top-notch, quality seafood where the best aquaculture practices are used to protect seafood ecosystems. Tilapia is a versatile, mild-flavored white fish, making it a family favorite. It’s easy to bake, grill, pan-sear or air-fry. Four easy ways to cook Tilapia: Bake: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a foil-lined baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Pat tilapia fillets dry and season tilapia as desired. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork and reaches 145 degrees F. Grill: Brush fish with olive oil and season as desired. Place on greased grilling screen and grill over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork, turning once halfway through. Pan-Sear: Pat fish dry and dip in seasoned flour mix. Sear in a tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until crust is golden and fish flakes with a fork. Air-Fry: Coat fillets with seasoning as desired. Air-fry at 375 degrees F for 5 to 10 minutes or until fish reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees F, turning once halfway through. With your health top of mind, eat seafood at least twice each week and connect with a Hy-Vee dietitian to enroll in programs to help you reach your nutrition goals. Programs include virtual or in-person nutrition store tours about heart-health or diabetes (more topics available) or individual nutrition counseling to discuss your personal nutrition needs or Healthy Habits menu program, all with weekly accountability check-ins. You’ve only got one body, so take care of it and keep it a top priority. Try this recipe for your next taco night. The information is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a medical professional for individual advice. by Denise Sullivan, Nutrition and Health Education Specialist, MU Extension Outside of lettuce or other types of leafy greens, peas are one of the early season garden goodies I look forward to every year. While some people might find the shelling of peas a tedious task, I prefer it to snapping beans and find it rather satisfying to ‘zip’ open the pod to get to the treasure inside.
For most purposes, peas may be classified as garden or English peas, snow peas, and sugar snap peas. English peas are further divided into smooth or wrinkled seed varieties. Smooth-seeded varieties are starchier, while wrinkled varieties are sweeter and are commonly used for home and commercial growing. Snow peas are meant to be harvested as flat, tender pods before the peas inside develop at all. Sugar snap peas have been developed from garden peas to have low-fiber pods that can be snapped and eaten along with the slightly mature peas inside. The starchier smooth-seeded varieties are used to produce ripe seed kernels that are fractured to be used to make split-pea soup. The Southern pea, or cowpea is an entirely different vegetable that is planted and grown in the same manner as beans and legumes. In the mid 1900’s, studies by Gregor Mendel working with seven characteristics of pea plants (plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color, and flower position and color) laid the foundation for modern genetics by identifying dominant and recessive traits in organisms. Peas are the seed of the Pisum sativum plant, which originated in the Mediterranean region of Greece, Syria & Turkey. They are a frost-hardy, cool-season vegetable grown wherever a cool season of sufficient duration exists. Today, most production occurring outside of the United States is in colder regions like Canada, Russia, England, and France. The highest producing states in the US are Washington, Montana, and North Dakota. No matter how you roll them, peas are nutrient-dense packages of carbohydrates, protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals (especially iron, potassium, folate and vitamins A and K). A half-cup of cooked green peas contains 4 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber, 12 grams of carbohydrate, and 641 IU of vitamin A. On the flip side, peas also contain phytic acid and lectins, which are often referred to as anti-nutrients, that may interfere with nutrient absorption and promote bloating in some people. To minimize these effects keep serving sizes to around 1/3 to ½ cup, eat them fully cooked instead of raw, and try sprouted or fermented preparations. Peas can be enjoyed alone as a side dish, or added into soups, stews, or salads. Green peas can even be baked (tossed with a little olive oil and spices) on a baking sheet for a healthy, crunchy snack. Combining fresh peas with grape tomatoes, the pasta dish below can be served warm as a hearty main dish or chilled as a salad by thinning the cheese mixture with lemon juice. Denise Sullivan is a Nutrition and Health Education Specialist for MU Extension in the Urban West Region, serving Jackson and Platte Counties. For research-based nutrition and food safety information and programs, visit https://extension.missouri.edu/counties/urban-west-region by Cathy Bylinowski, Horticulture Instructor, University of Missouri Extension- Jackson County I’m always looking at other people’s yards and admiring their gardens, trees, and flowering shrubs. If I see an attractive plant that is new to me, I try to figure out what it is, if it will grow in my yard, and where I can get one. This spring, take some time to enjoy the flowering trees and shrubs in your neighborhood, nearby parks, even in the woods and green spaces around you. If you see some you like, now is a great time to figure out what they are and if they will grow in your yard. Spring is also a good time to plant new flowering trees and shrubs to enjoy for years to come. Here are several spring-flowering trees and shrubs that grow well in western Missouri: Serviceberry- (Amelanchier arborea) Serviceberry, native to Missouri, is an attractive small tree with smooth gray bark, that grows on wooded slopes. The snowy white flowers appear in early spring before anything else in the woods has leafed out. Tasty berries appear in June and leaves turn pink and orange in the fall. Unfortunately, invasive, non-native Callery Pears (Bradford Pear being one type) are moving into Missouri natural areas. Do not mistake the white flowers of Bradford Pear for Serviceberry! (Photo credit: Pixabay by deniseellsworth) Flowering dogwood- (Cornus florida) The flowering dogwood is a popular native flowering tree. Johnson County, Missouri is its nearest natural range to the KCMO region. It can be grown in our region, if it is put in a protected, partly shady site in the yard. Growth is fairly slow. Their branching is open and horizontal, with a rounded mature shape. They can get up to 30 feet tall. Their spectacular white bracts appear before leaves. Small, red fruit persist in fall and attract songbirds. It has lustrous, scarlet foliage in fall, too. They can be used as specimens, in masses or naturalized under larger trees, preferring moist, humus rich, slightly acidic soils. Avoid planting in hot, dry exposures. Use an organic mulch under the tree. Dogwoods need water during drought. Old or injured specimens are subject to borer damage. (Photo credit: C.Bylinowski) Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) Redbuds can get up to 30 feet tall. The clusters of purplish pink small flowers clusters appear before leaves emerge. Heart-shaped leaves turn yellow in fall. Plant redbuds as specimens, in masses, or naturalized at edge of woods. They are hardy in sun or part shade and tolerant of a wide range of soils. (Photo credit: C.Bylinowski) Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) Lilac is one of the best known and most commonly planted of all the introduced, flowering shrubs. Lilacs are worth having in your yard or garden for their once-a-year display of incredibly fragrant flowers. For the classic lilac fragrance, plant Common Lilac or one of its hybrids. Lilacs get up to 9 feet tall. Lilacs perform best in well-drained soils in full sun. Plants should receive at least six hours of direct sun each day for maximum bloom. Proper pruning is necessary to keep the plants attractive and to promote flower production. After the plant becomes established, about one-third of the old stems should be removed each year. Older lilac stems may be attacked by borers. (Photo credit: Pixabay by deniseellsworth) Flowering Magnolias (Magnolia soulangiana)
These magnolias look like beautiful pink clouds in the spring. The only drawback is that the flowers can be damaged by spring freezes. You might enjoy the scented flowers so much that you are willing to take the of risk flowers turning brown some years, after a freeze. There are cultivars that bloom later in the spirng with pink, purple, or yellow flowers. They are worth investigating. Some magnolias can get to 30 feet tall. Plant in protected parts of your yard away from southern exposures. (Photo credit: C.Bylinowski) These are some of the many ornamental trees and shrubs, native and introduced, that offer beautiful spring color. Contact me (bylinowskic@missouri.edu) if you want more information on flowering trees and shrubs. You can also explore University of Missouri Extension’s website for more information on gardening- https://extension.missouri.edu/. by Burton Kelso, The Technology Expert Cyber attacks are at an all-time high and hackers are always looking for new ways to get access to your devices. Criminals know there's important data stored on your gadgets.
Think of all of the passwords you store on your tech devices, as well as the sensitive sites like your bank you use your devices to connect to on a daily basis. It makes sense that you want to keep that information out of prying eyes, if you don't, you risk cyber crooks stealing your personal and financial information. Big tech has stepped in recent years to keep your computers and smart devices are safe from most of the cyber attacks out there. 99% percent of all cybercrime requires user interaction. which means if your device ends up getting hacked, it means you fell for a hacker's clever trick to get you to click on a phishing link or tech support scam that gave them access to your devices. The firewall and anti-virus protection in modern operating systems can stop most attackers. Even though it's rare for someone to just force their way into your device, there are some vulnerabilities that allow them to get directly into your gadgets that you need to be aware of. 1. Tech Companies Won't Call Out Of The Blue To Alert You To a Problem With Your Device. It's important to understand big tech doesn't care what happens to your devices. Sure you will get the occasional reminder for device maintenance or updates, but you will never get phones from Microsoft, Apple, or your Internet provider informing you of problems with your devices. I know there are some of you reading thinking "No one falls for these scams", but in reality a good percentage of the population does. My company Integral is constantly bombarded with calls from people who have fallen victim to the "Tech Support" scam. If a tech company calls you out of the blue, simply hang up the phone. If you're surfing the web and alerts appear telling you there is a problem with your devices, simply turn off your device and turn it back on to disable these fake alerts. 2. Keep Your Devices Up to Date. Cybercrime is always evolving which is why you need to make sure you update your computers, smartphones, and tablets. Updates are a pain in the "you know what", but downloading them helps keep your devices safe from the latest operating system vulnerabilities from viruses and ransomware. Your mobile devices and computers are designed to automatically download updates. When you're asked to install them, resist the urge to prevent them from installing. When you use devices that don't have the latest updates, you open your gadgets up to hackers gaining control of them. 3. Watch Out When Installing Programs. Don’t just download any old apps to your devices. Apps in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and the Microsoft Store are normally checked before they are uploaded to the store. Sometimes a malicious app can slip through. If these apps get on your gadgets, they can create havoc. 4. Not all Websites are Safe. Criminals are aware you spend a lot of your time surfing the web and have set up bogus websites that are designed to trick you into thinking there is a problem with your devices and ones that are designed to hack into your gadgets. Watch the spelling of your favorites as a misspelling can get you into trouble. Pay attention to those ads and popups as well. Criminals actually spend money to take out ads to get you to click on them in order to trick you out of your money or gain access to your computer and related devices. 5. Use Strong Passwords. I know you hate passwords, but it's best you create strong passwords to keep your devices as well as your online accounts safe. If you struggle at creating passwords, use the password creators built into most password keeper software such as LastPass or the one built into your web browser. Change your passwords at least twice a year. Also, practice the art of cyber lying and don't give truthful answers to those security questions you're asked when setting up online accounts. 6. Keep Your Mobile Number Secret. Just like you didn't give out your landline phone number to anyone who asked, use that same practice with your mobile number. The more people and apps that have access to your mobile number puts your devices more at risk to SMS text scams that can give criminals access to your mobile devices. The above steps can help you safeguard your personal and sensitive data from criminals. When you have protective measures in place, it makes it less likely that thieves will be able to steal your identity, delve into your personal life, steal your money, control your computers and devices, and make your digital life miserable. Want to ask me a tech question? Send it to burton@burtonkelso.com. I love technology. I've read all of the manuals and I'm serious about making technology fun and easy to use for everyone. Need computer or technology help? If you need on-site or remote tech support for your Windows\Macintosh, computers, laptops, Android/Apple smartphone, tablets, printers, routers, smart home devices, and anything that connects to the Internet, please feel free to contact my team at Integral. Reach out to us at www.callintegralnow.com or phone at 888.256.0829. |
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