The second half of 2025 brought more news, with several ground breakings, a dangerous season on the roads and a state win for Platte County R-3...
JULY
July 2 – The two men – Jordan Willis and Ivory Carson – involved in the deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans in 2024 were charged with murder; Two Platte County farmers markets offered more than just farm-fresh fruit and veggies and their stands; Platte City launched an ambitious planning effort aimed at revitalizing its downtown district and enhancing its parks and recreation system; A construction worker was struck and killed on Barry Road by a hit-and-run driver, who was later apprehended.
July 9 – Contestants lined up for the second annual Fetterman’s Hot Dog Eating Contest held July 4 in Platte City; An 18-year-old Kansas City, Kan. resident, Emmelie Rodriguez, died in a two-vehicle head-on crash on Highway 45 near Kisker Road; An audit of the Platte County Treasurer’s Office was released, covering the transition between Rob Willard and Interim Treasurer Chris Kendall, finding several issues, with none deemed too severe; Park University celebrated its 150th anniversary, commemorating its beginning as the Park College for Training Christian Workers.
July 16 – The Platte County Fair was almost here, with the president of the 162nd annual fair stating the event boils down to three things at its heart – family, friends and community; Weston resident Rogers Strickland celebrated his 75th birthday by transforming a patch of farmland into a 1920s-era baseball field for the Field of Dreams event; Frustration over Platte City’s current trash and recycling services escalated in recent weeks, becoming a topic of discussion at the city’s public works subcommittee meeting.
July 23 – The Firehouse Market was held Saturday, July 19 in the Central Platte Firehouse on Main Street in Platte City; The Platte County Fair kicked off on publication day, with the queen competition held that night, featuring the crown of the oldest continuous county fair west of the Mississippi; Platte County Commissioners called for a reconfiguration of the board of directors at the Clay-Platte-Ray Mental Health Board of Trustees, which was established in 1981; The University of Missouri Extension was working to build up membership in its Master Gardeners program in Platte County.
July 30 – Fairgoers enjoyed the rides, shows and other attractions at the 162nd annual Platte County Fair, although extreme heat and rain led to the cancellation of the truck and tractor pull; The Platte County School District was set to join public schools across the state in banning cell phones and other personal electronics ahead of a state mandate banning such devices; A 22-year-old Park Hill High School graduate, Carter Jensen, was promoted to the Omaha Storm Chasers baseball team, moving one step closer to the Major Leagues; Layla Barbur resigned from the Park Hill Board of Education, leading the district into a search for a new member to appoint.
AUGUST
August 6 – The Missouri State Tax Commission ordered the Platte County Clerk and the Board of Equalization to impose an across-the-board 15 percent increase in residential property valuations, prompting officeholders to cast blame at one another and particularly Assessor David Cox; The KC Current and Riverside officials broke ground on the newest expansion of the soccer team’s footprint in Riverside, adding a 2,000-seat stadium and player development center; A construction project off Highway 4 west of Parkville attracted attention due to a dramatic drop-off from the highway; Parma Woods Shooting Range expanded its program offerings with the creation of a shotgun program offering sporting clay instruction; The City of Parkville had a tax question on the Aug. 5 election ballot – the sole issue on the ballot this year in August – seeking the continuation of a property tax first approved in 2004.
August 13 – Ground was broken on phase two of the Platte County High School reconstruction project in Platte City, bringing all classrooms and programs back under one roof; Voters turned down an extension of a Parkville property tax, which city officials say will have repercussions residents will see in the coming years leading to deferrals of needed infrastructure projects; Park University head golf coach Martha Linscott had the opportunity to compete alongside some of the greatest players in the sport’s history; Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker and Recorder of Deeds Christopher Wright announced their campaigns for re-election, although earlier in the year Fricker had announced he had no plans to run for re-election and Wright planned to seek the presiding commissioner’s seat.
August 20 – Platte City Middle School hosted the annual Platte City Cops and Kids event, featuring KC Wolf, a police helicopter, drone demonstrations, K9 officers and more; A Park Hill School District teacher, Isaiah Washington, was arrested and charged with three counts of assault for alleged inappropriate behavior with middle school students; The Platte County Sheriff’s Office donated a police vehicle at the end of its service life for the department to the Edgerton Police Department; Heroes to Hives, with program availability in Platte County, became the largest agricultural training program for veterans in the United States in just 10 years of existence; The Parkville Main Street Association invited the community to the annual Parkville Days in downtown.
August 27 – The annual Parkville Days celebration was held in downtown Parkville, featuring a carnival, parade, live music, helicopter rides and more; Members of the Platte County Sheriff’s Office and descendants of former Sheriff John Dillingham remembered him in the 125th anniversary of his death at the Platte City Cemetery; Platte County commissioners reached an agreement with the Missouri State Tax Commission regarding property tax increases for 2025 – capping the increase at about 6.8 percent – but the Platte County Assessor didn’t think this was a victory for taxpayers; Native grapes shape the direction of TerraVox Winery near Farley.
SEPTEMBER
September 3 – State, local and school district officials took part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Northland Workforce Development Center; The Northland Workforce Development Center will be a 145,000-square-foot facility dedicated to preparing students and adults for high-demand careers; Incoming Assessor Marcus Farr, who took office Sept. 1, issued a statement saying he seeks to restore trust in the assessor’s office and the assessment process; The 10th annual Art in the Park event was coming up at Platte Ridge Park, presented by Platte City Friends of the Arts and Platte County Parks and Recreation; Parkville resident Adrian Horton, 21, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, in addition to rape charges filed earlier in the year, after the death of an infant in Platte County.
September 10 – Platte County Commissioners voted unanimously to end the county’s involvement with the Clay-Platte-Ray Mental Health Board to pave the way for establishment of its own mental health board; NeuroDiverseCity provided an accepting social and recreational experience for neurodivergent teens and adults in the local community; Elijah Johnson, 29, was last seen Aug. 31 and his abandoned car was found at the Green Hills of Platte Wildlife Preserve in Parkville, along with a detailed suicide note, but Johnson’s body was not found; An incident involving a mentally unstable armed man attempting to flag down drivers on Highway 45 near Baker Road closed the highway for some time.
September 17 – Northland Career Center students in law enforcement and crime scene investigations recited the Pledge of Allegiance on Thursday, Sept. 11 in memory of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; Ruslan Huseynov, the man accused of killing Citizen sports reporter Dennis Sharkey had made more than 300 phone calls, many in Azerbaijani, during his two months in jail; Kansas City Parks and Recreation hosted a public meeting to gather feedback and plan the future of Frank Vaydik Park, home to the Kansas City Northern Miniature Railroad and the Line Creek Community Center; The Platte County R-3 School District celebrated 20 year of the Pirates ROCK (Raising Outstanding Character Kids) program.
September 24 – The 10th annual Art in the Park event was held at Platte Ridge Park, featuring art on exhibition and for sale from local artists, as well as live music and family activities; Kaitlynn Donnelly, assistant Platte County prosecuting attorney, was named a recipient of the Missouri Bar Foundation’s Lon O. Hocker Award in recognition of her outstanding trial work; The new Main Street Grill and Bar in Dearborn’s downtown was set to open just in time for Dearborn’s Reminisce Day; Dearborn’s Reminisce Day was coming up, with a car show, pancake breakfast, vendors, Main Street Grill and Bar grand opening and community garage sales scheduled to be part of the event.
OCTOBER
October 1 – The Platte City Fall Festival was held downtown, featuring arts and crafts, vendors, live music and family activities; The City of Platte City hosted a special session regarding problems with its trash services, debating whether to continue in-house trash services or to contract to an outside service such as Redgate Disposal; A coalition of groups in the Northland organized the first ever Kansas City Women’s Freedom Forum at the Park Hill School District’s LEAD Innovation Center in southern Platte County; The Park Hill Board of Education welcomed a new member, Alexia Norris, who was appointed to fill a vacancy made by a resignation a few weeks earlier.
October 8 – Platte County High School celebrated its homecoming with a parade through campus; Platte City residents spoke out at a public forum about trash services, with the city discussing seeking a contract for outsourcing trash services; New Platte County Assessor Marcus Farr released a statement to Platte County taxpayers stating he wished he had some input on the 6.8 percent tax increase implemented by the Missouri State Tax Commission in August, as he came into office in September; One of Parkville’s most popular restaurants, Stone Canyon Pizza, celebrated its 30th anniversary in the city.
October 15 – It was a dangerous month on Platte County roadways with an interstate closure lasting hours, a fatality crash, a pursuit, an officer injured in a crash and more; Northland resident Matthew Duddeck competed in the Face of Halloween competition, hoping to win the nation-wide contest; The Platte County Health Department announced that members of its staff received awards for excellence during the 2025 Missouri Public Health Association conference; The annual Carved Experience in Riverside was coming soon, featuring a haunted trail, kids’ spooky trail, fortune tellers, fire performers, vendors and more.
October 22 – Parkville Nature Sanctuary prepared for its annual Ghost Stories Night, featuring a haunted trail, a kid-friendly trail, s’mores, spooky stories, live music and more; Riverside and American Medical Response partnered to provide a new Riverside-branded ambulance to the Riverside community; The annual carp removal project by the Missouri Department of Conservation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the first time removed invasive carp from the Platte River; The new terminal at Kansas City International Airport was named in honor of Independence native and former U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
October 29 – The Platte County Community Center North hosted its annual Trunk or Treat event, featuring a Wizard of Oz theme; Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker spoke out about his concerns regarding a $100 billion data center development in the KCI corridor; Platte City man Richard Jackson took off the weight with the Platte County Chapter of Take off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS) and won the organization’s top honor for improving his health; Park University prepared for its annual Fright Night event, inviting ghosts and ghouls to its Copley Quad residence halls for some Halloween fun; The ribbon was cut on the newly-restored Banneker School in Parkville.
NOVEMBER
November 5 – Siegrist Elementary School’s Career and Community Student Leader Team designed and painted a Platte City Public Works plow blade for the winter season; The Citizen published its annual salute to veterans; The Platte County Commission moved forward with a $1 million bridge replacement project near Parkville to rebuild the South Crooked Road bridge; The Platte County Court Pretrial Program grew rapidly as one of the state’s newest pilot programs under a service expansion project; Accused Wendy’s shooter Terrion Gully-Henry went to court to seen a bond reduction, which was once denied earlier in the year.
November 12 – St. Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church hosted its annual turkey dinner; A county officeholders meeting created a divide between county officials when a 30 percent pay raise for officeholders was introduced at a meeting, then approved; Platte County comedian Elliott Threatt has performed around the country but always returns to Platte County to help out his hometown community.
November 19 – West Platte Elementary School students in Mrs. Reynolds’ class earned the Character Class Award and received a special lunch from Tin Kitchen; Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd gave his annual report on felonies and misdemeanors in Platte County, announcing the county had a record number of murder cases on its dockets; Gregory Hicks Jr. of Dearborn was found guilty after exposing himself to two female high school students in 2019; The Missouri Department of Transportation had several road closures and other work projects set for the rest of the year; One person was killed in a two-vehicle, wrong-way crash on International Circle at Kansas City International Airport.
November 26 – Platte County football advanced to the state semi-finals; The Platte County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office collected 1.2 tons of food for Platte County residents in need; 18-year-old David Peebles was arrested after he allegedly took a gun to school at the LEAD Innovation Center in the Park Hill School District; Local author TJ Dailey wrote his first novel, Pure American Nostalgia, about the Northland communities where he grew up.
DECEMBER
December 3 – The annual Platte City lighting ceremony was held the night before Thanksgiving, this year featuring a White Christmas theme; David Peebles, accused of taking a loaded gun to the LEAD Innovation Center, posted bond after a reduction was granted; The Platte County Commission joined forces with the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City to approve a resolution supporting its campaign to “let builders build;” The Ben Ferrel Platte County Museum prepared for its annual White Christmas holiday tour.
December 10 – Platte County’s football team won its second consecutive Missouri Class 5 Championship; The Kansas City 2026 FIFA World Cup Committee, dubbed KC2026, announced routes for its special fan transporation shuttles, including two routes into Platte County; The annual Shop with a Deputy event was held at the Boardwalk Walmart, providing Christmas gifts and essentials for more than 50 kids in need; Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd announced he will run for a record seventh term as the county’s prosecutor; The Kansas City Aviation Department selected a vendor to develop the last 20 acres of land available at the Kansas City Downtown Airport – Wheeler Field.
December 17 – The scouts of Scouting America Troop 1351 laid greenery on veteran graves at Hampton Cemetery, in a local twist on the Wreaths Across America program; The North Platte Historical Museum received a grant from the State Historical Society of Missouri, a grant intended to help fund educational programs or to preserve their museum holdings; Platte County commissioners voted unanimously to expand the county’s senior property tax credit program, in part to eliminate the requirement to apply for the credit each year; Jaquan Wilson was charged with multiple offenses, including human trafficking, after his alleged victim escaped from his grip at a KCI-area hotel in September.
December 24 – A portion of Highway 169 near the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport was closed after a potentially dangerous structural issue was found; Winning Women Wednesday group members took to the streets in Parkville, carrying marked $20 bills, to shop local for the holiday season, and spread the word about their organization.