Platte City Waffle House is temporarily closed for remodel so you’ll have to go elsewhere for deep conversations.
Now in the monstrous building formerly known as the Platte County Resource Center, the size of the new Platte County Sheriff’s Department headquarters is 39,800 square feet. If you think that’s large just wait till Judge Hansbrough updates her request for expanded courtrooms.
Scott Fricker, presiding commissioner for Platte County, has said the county commission will be putting a major jail expansion proposal on the August ballot. He made that statement at the dedication of the new sheriff’s department, which as you know if you read the above paragraph is in the building formerly known as the Platte County Resource Center.
Fricker’s announcement narrows down a time line for a ballot question for a major expansion of the county jail. But no sense for us to get too deep into further discussion until it is known exactly what the ballot proposal is, how it’s worded, how much the proposed jail project will cost and how big of a tax increase it will take to pay for it.
The deadline to get an August ballot question certified to the board of elections is May 28.
As reported last week, there will be three Republican primary elections on the local ballot in August.
One of those is a Republican primary for county assessor. Current assessor David Cox is retiring and the contenders to be his replacement are Dagmar Wood, who is currently the district one county commissioner, and Marcus Farr, who currently works in the assessor’s office under Cox, who we’re told spends much of his time in Florida these days.
If money wins elections–and it certainly helps but offers no guarantees–Wood has to like her campaign’s financial position. A report filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission for the Woods For Assessor committee shows that Wood has total receipts of $94,526 for this election. She has spent only $1,207 thus far, leaving her with cash on hand of $93,886 as of April 14.
Farr’s report on file with the Missouri Ethics Commission shows the Farr For Assessor campaign has $10,033 receipts for this election. Farr has already spent $7,809 of that amount, leaving his campaign with $2,050 in cash on hand as of his report dated April 12.
Of course money doesn’t always mean an easy path to victory. Wood, in running for reelection in 2020 to her first district county commission seat, won a Republican primary by only a margin of 52-48% over Dan Mason, a newcomer to politics who barely campaigned. Mason quite bluntly admitted to me after the close result that going into the race “I didn’t realize I had a chance to win.”
Emma Jo, the talented Kansas City singer-songwriter with roots in Platte County–in fact, with roots to The Landmark–is a winner in the 8th annual Missouri’s Best awards as handed out by Missouri Magazine. Emma Jo clinched the 2024 Best New Album for her soundtrack Girl Bandit. The awards will be presented at a ceremony and red carpet event on Thursday, April 25.
Emma Jo has been known to us at The Landmark for many years. Her mother, Connie McCann, served two stints with The Landmark in advertising sales throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. In the late 1990s, young Emma Jo, six years old at the time, won the talent contest at the Platte City Zed Martin Days festival.
More recently, Emma Jo was a guest with us on Landmark Live in April of 2018. If you watched that episode, hosted by our buddy Brad Carl and yours truly, you may not recognize the Emma Jo from that time period in her life to today’s version of Emma Jo. She will openly tell you, and in fact has written songs to this effect, that she is in a much happier place in her life these days compared to five years ago. And it shows. You can find out more about her online by going to emmajomusic.com. You’ll also find more on her professional Facebook page by searching “Emma Jo.”
Her awarded album Girl Bandit was recorded in Nashville and she calls it “an ode to empowered femininity and an invitation to grab the reins and rewrite your own story.” Her publicity folks will tell you the album “skillfully blends heartland rock and glossy country into a signature sweet Americana.”
She often performs live in venues throughout the Kansas City region. She’ll be performing at Country Stampede at Azura Amphitheater, on Friday, June 28, 9 p.m. on the platinum acoustic stage. Azura is the venue most of us still refer to as Sandstone.
I encourage you to check out any of her shows when you get a chance.
Brad Carl, by the way, used to be my favorite local musician until Emma Jo arrived on the scene. Brad’s biggest hit remains “Meet Me at the Speakeasy,” kind of an ode to a formerly secret spot in downtown Parkville and the town’s former mayor. The “Meet Me at the Speakeasy” YouTube video has thousands of views, hundreds of those by me.
If your boss ever plays a Brad Carl song while you’re on the job you’re immediately entitled to workers comp benefits.
Look it up, it’s the law in 57 states.
More details on this at a later time but DJ Gehrt, interim city administrator for Platte City, says the Hwy. 92 widening to four lanes from I-29 to Bethel is still very, very likely to happen. Like at 99% going to happen.
This despite low-key and not-so-low-key efforts to trash the vital project in recent months by the now-removed Camp Marji–Team Tony not-so-dynamic duo at City Hall.
(Find Foley stuffing the Waffle House juke box with Brad Carl songs. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)