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Vending machines have become one of the latest tools in the fight against the opioid crisis.

Free naloxone vending machines will be placed in several counties across Kansas by the end of the year.

The machines will be in Douglas, Johnson and Wyandotte counties in northeast Kansas. They’ll also be placed in Crawford County in the southeast part of the state, and Reno and Sedgwick counties in south-central Kansas.

“Our goal is really to eliminate as many barriers as possible to getting naloxone in the hands of people,” said Chrissy Mayer with DCCCA, a nonprofit that helps distribute naloxone. “So this is just … one more way to equip people with a lifesaving drug essentially.”

Vending machines have become one of the latest tools in the fight against the opioid crisis.

Residents can access the naloxone by simply putting in their ZIP codes. Fentanyl test strips will also be available for free in the machines.

“What we're hearing is if people go to purchase [naloxone] over the counter, they're paying anywhere from $40 to $50 for a kit, which makes it very difficult to purchase if you're choosing between gas for the week or Naloxone,” Mayer said.

“It's a tough choice.”

The machines are part of DCCCA’s statewide naloxone access program. The agency also mails naloxone kits and fentanyl test strips to any Kansas resident for free.

Mayer said some of the counties were chosen because they were the biggest utilizers of the naloxone program.

From there, the agency said it would rely on data and its local partners on where the vending machine should be placed outdoors. The locations have yet to be announced, but Mayer said the machines will be outside for 24-hour access.

“We really are trying to focus on areas of high need and where our local partners think it will be most utilized best,” Mayer said.

Funding for the vending machines comes from several different means, including a donation from the Healthy Blue initiative and state and local opioid settlement funds.

A vending machine in Wyandotte County, which has seen a steep increase in overdose deaths since 2018 like several other parts of the state, was recently awarded funding through the state opioid settlement grants.

“This is something that can immediately save a life,” said Pat George, the chair of the board allocating money from the state’s opioid settlement funds.

Discussion for the vending machine has been ongoing with Douglas County’s local government and will be funded with its share of opioid settlement grants, The Lawrence Times reports.

Healthy Blue, an initiative from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, will fund the rest of the machines through DCCCA and help continue supplying the machines with naloxone.

“With the funding from Healthy Blue, it really was just to determine, are the machines being utilized? Are people receptive to them? Does that help reduce things like stigma? Does it normalize Naloxone usage?” Mayer said. “We're really just waiting to see, kind of, how it's received in Kansas.”

Once the machines are placed, residents can find their locations at dccca.org/naloxone-program.

Providence New American Kitchen closed in March 2020 as Covid-19 lockdowns swept the country. But instead of reopening as restrictions lifted, the restaurant inside the historic Hilton President Kansas City remained dark.

But at the end of September — more than three years after being closed — the Providence made its comeback. It’s akin to opening a new restaurant, Food and Beverage Director Matt McCormack said.

“We were just trying to figure out what we wanted and what our next step was going to be,” he said.

The biggest challenge in reopening was finding staff.

“Since the pandemic, I think a lot of people who were in the industry got out of it, and the ones that are still in it are often fatigued. The work ethic has definitely changed,” McCormack said.

The 2,000-square-foot restaurant started looking for employees early this year but had a “couple of false starts.” Now, it has a solid staff.

“We’re starting over, so it’s been a bit of a challenge, but we’re lucky enough to have the right people,” he said. “In the last year, we’ve noticed things are coming back to normal. People are wanting to have a dine-in experience.”

It was a sign it was time to reopen. There have been advantages in waiting, including paying attention to the local restaurant scene to see what’s resonating and what isn’t.

The new menu features staples like steaks and seafood, but it’s also leaning more into the backgrounds of its executive chef, who’s from Mexico, and its kitchen supervisor, who’s from El Salvador. The menu is eclectic and features more Latin American influences as well as fall-inspired dishes, such as butternut squash gnocchi. Providence also is revamping its cocktail menu and has put its spin on the trending espresso martini.

“We’re going with whatever is trending now,” McCormack said, “and what we think people are looking for.”

He said the restaurant now needs to get out word of its return and offerings.

“It can be challenging, especially for a restaurant inside a hotel," he said. "I think sometimes those kind of get lost in the shuffle. People just don’t think to go to a hotel to eat, so you have to highlight it and do more marketing to get the word out, which is what we’re working on right now.”

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In a perfect world, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority wouldn’t need a dedicated sales tax to provide public transportation in the metropolitan area. But operating a mass transit system comes with a cost to taxpayers.

Kansas City voters in Jackson, Clay and Platte counties could decide the future of public transportation in the region. On Tuesday’s ballot is Question 1. If approved, the measure would renew for 10 years a 3/8-cent sales tax that pays for bus service in Kansas City.

We encourage voters to say yes to Question 1.

If the measure passes, the sales tax could generate more than $421 million over the next decade for KCATA to maintain and operate RideKC and other public transportation services, according to transit officials. The money would not be used for other projects such as the KC Streetcar extension, officials said.

About 30% of KCATA’s annual operating budget — about $117 million this year — comes from the sales tax. The agency is also funded by a separate half-cent retail sales tax collected in Kansas City. That money is allocated during yearly contract negotiations between the KCATA and Kansas City.

Federal dollars also supplement the transit agency’s budget.

Critics rightfully contend the tax is regressive and disproportionately affects low-income residents, like all sales taxes. But if voters say no to renewing it, the KCATA’s annual budget could be cut deeply. Jobs would be lost and some routes would be reduced or eliminated altogether, according to KCATA officials. Thousands of Kansas Citians who depend on RideKC would be affected as well.

Public transportation is essential for some of Kansas City’s most vulnerable residents: hardworking, middle- and low-income families. More than 1 million trips are made on RideKC every month, according to the agency. Even in a car-centric city like ours, not everyone owns a vehicle. Countless low-wage earners without access to reliable transportation depend on bus service to get them to and from work and other important appointments.

A robust public transportation system is also beneficial to the environment. According to KCATA officials, even people with vehicles regularly ride the bus in Kansas City, leaving fewer automobiles on the road to pollute the air.

First enacted in 2004, voters renewed the tax for 15 years in 2008. It sunsets in March. Since 2010, it has generated $371 million, according to KCATA officials.

Eliminating this important funding mechanism would have a direct impact on KCATA’s planning for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Kansas City. To host a successful event, a viable public transportation system in our city is vital, KCATA president and CEO Frank White III said.

“If 30% of your budget disappears, it impacts your ability to even provide basic level service,” White said. “When the World Cup comes, we still have to maintain our level of service for the people that use it every day. It is imperative that we maintain this funding.”

Jerry Nolte is presiding commissioner of the Clay County Commission. Scott Fricker is his counterpart in Platte County. In October, Nolte and Fricker released a statement that could sway some in those counties to vote no on Question 1. And that would be unfortunate.

Yes, bus service north of the Missouri River and other areas must improve. But a no vote would most likely make it even more difficult for Northlanders who use RideKC to get around.

Nolte and Fricker have an issue with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, Nolte told a member of our board in a recent interview. Lucas ignored the commissioners’ pool of candidates for open seats on the KCATA’s 10-member governing board. By law, Lucas must choose at least one person from a three-person list approved by the respective commissions in Clay and Platte counties, Nolte said.

Lucas didn’t follow the law as prescribed — valid claims that must be investigated further — but hasn’t said why, according to Nolte. As a result, Nolte and Fricker asked Northland voters to consider a no vote.

“They are being asked to vote for a tax but they are not getting the representation as outlined in the law,” Nolte said. “To say it’s taxation without representation might be overstating it, but not much. That’s not too far off base.”

In the statement, Nolte and Frocker wrote: “Clay and Platte voters should ask, ‘Without proper representation, will Northland taxpayers get their fair share of tax revenue and KCATA services?’ On November 7, Clay and Platte Kansas Citians should consider whether or not to support this taxation without the legitimate representation as guaranteed to us by law.”

Aside from objections from these commissioners in their individual capacity, we’ve seen little organized opposition to renewing the 3/8-cent sales tax.

Considering the overall benefit, Kansas City voters should say yes to Question 1.

Editor’s note: Our next local elections are next week, Tuesday, Nov. 7, and average voter turnout across the Kansas City area has been low. This week in Opinion, we’ll have editorials and columns on several elections across the metropolitan area. We can’t cover each one, but we’ll highlight a few that are hotly contested.

The Kansas City Star has published a Voter Guide for several areas in our metro to help voters keep informed. Before you cast your vote, use the guide at kansascity.com/election to research what’s on the ballot. Stay tuned this week for more on the elections on these Opinion pages.

Your Johnson County voter guide for city council & mayor candidates

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This story was originally published November 1, 2023, 5:02 AM.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo — The German duo behind Affäre, located in Kansas City’s Crossroads District, say metro residents have stopped by the restaurant in the days leading up to this week’s Chiefs game in Frankfurt, Germany.

VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Abby Dodge

Katrin and Martin Heuser were born in Germany and met at a local bar.

They have worked alongside each other in restaurants ever since.

In their 30-year-marriage, they've lived and worked in three countries and a handful of cities.

They've called Kansas City, Missouri, home for the last 16 years.

“In Kanas City, we have beautiful friends, so it feels like home. It feels like home now,” Katrin said. “And Kansas City has a way of sucking you in. It really does.”

It wasn’t the sports teams that pulled the Heusers in, but they’ve found a way to embrace the now world famous Kansas City Chiefs.

“It was a new sport to learn, but a lot of our friends were into it so it’s contagious a little bit,” she said.

Martin and Katrin are experts in their respective fields.

Martin is a Master Chef who worked in Michelin Starred restaurants, while Katrin is a sommelier.

Aside from traditional dishes passed down through his family, Chef Martin has other modern German interpretations on the menu.

“They’re getting the traditional dishes, but also getting Chef Martin Heuser dishes, which I gained over the years being in Canada, Sweden and Germany. Different restaurant and hotels,” Heuser said.

Martin uses their rotating menu to experiment with an ode to his home country.

“That’s what I like on German culture. They really celebrate seasons of something,” he said. “Don’t have it all year available, you know, which makes it so special.”

If you are looking for a taste of tradition, the Heusers keep the classics all year round.

“When you eat [the brats] here and you have had one in Germany, you really taste it. It’s absolute the same,” Chef Martin said. “I am proud of that and have a lot of fun doing that.”

The restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday.

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Facing fierce pushback from defenders of Kansas City’s parks system, Mayor Quinton Lucas shelved a plan last spring that would have stripped the parks board of the special status it has enjoyed for more than a century.

Almost every other city board or commission is toothless when compared to the parks board, which uniquely has the power to hire and fire the parks director and decide where most parks funds are spent.

That has lead to friction over the years with mayors, city managers and others in city hall who would rather make those decisions.

But Lucas did not give up. While he failed in that first attempt to reduce the board’s power, he’s now taken another approach to possibly rein in the board’s independence by appointing an almost entirely new roster of board members.

He did that in October by replacing two commissioners and filling two seats that he had left open for months on the five-member board. Those vacancies had made it difficult for the board to conduct business. If someone was absent, meetings would have to be canceled because there wouldn’t be a quorum.

The new members took office this week. The only holdover from the previous board was the one who had the least experience, having only served since February.

Most notably, Lucas removed the board’s president, financial executive Jack Holland, who had hoped to keep the unpaid, volunteer job that Lucas appointed him four years ago.

Holland’s sin: he’d spoken out against the mayor’s proposed charter change that would have lessened the board’s power.

Some former parks board members saw the manner in which Holland was dismissed an insult. He learned second hand that he’d been let go because he claims to have never gotten the dismissal letter that the mayor’s office says it sent him.

“The way Jack was treated, and not even having a passing of the gavel ceremony in the parks department, that is another de-emphasis of the importance of the board,” said former parks board member David Mecklenberg, who got a similar, terse letter from the mayor’s office 18 months ago.

He thinks he, too, was removed for pushing back on issues, particularly the city administration’s growing habit of spending parks levy revenues on central administrative functions while questioning the parks department’s spending priorities.

“Over a good deal of my tenure on the board, having the funds to be able to do what was being expected was difficult to do,” said Scott Wagner, a former city councilman who served on the parks board from late 2019 until early this year when he took office as a Clay County commissioner.

Holland declined to comment on his removal other than to say “I just wish the best for the new board of parks and rec commissioners.”

Was his ouster political payback? Or was it merely time for some fresh faces on the board at the beginning of the mayor’s second term, as Lucas maintained through his press secretary?

Either way, it wouldn’t be the first time that Lucas was accused of using board appointments to exert more influence on an arm of government that receives city funds but is not under the director control of Lucas and City Manager Brian Platt.

In October, Lucas faced criticism in a joint statement issued by the presiding commissioners of Clay and Platte counties for his reliance on a loophole in state law that they say disenfranchised their constituents. Lucas ignored their lists of nominees in choosing members to fill seats on the commission that runs the bi-state Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.

“Without proper representation, will Northland taxpayers get their fair share of tax revenue and KCATA services?” asked Jerry Nolte, the presiding commissioner in Clay County, and Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker.

Half of the KCATA’s 10 board members represent Kansas and half Missouri with the mayor of Kansas City picking three of those appointees. One he picks directly and the two others are supposed to come from lists of nominees forwarded to him by the county commissions in Clay and Platte counties.

But the statute does not specifically compel him to choose from the names on the lists, and Lucas ignored the nomination lists and picked people who weren’t on them. Clay County’s new representative on the KCATA board is Kansas City deputy aviation director Jade Liska, which Nolte and Fricker said “raises concerns about the independence of the KCATA Board and the undue influence of the Kansas City Mayor.”

That makes it two city employees on the KCATA board, as two years ago Lucas appointed Michael Shaw, public works director and husband of Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw as Kansas City’s representative.

Nolte and Fricker went on to say their constituents might want to take into account the way Lucas ignored their nominees for the KCATA when deciding how to vote next week on the proposed extension of the 3/8th-cent sales tax supporting KCATA bus service.

“Before Northlanders vote to extend this tax, Kansas City should comply with the law and appoint members to the KCATA Board of Commissioners as required by Missouri Statute. On November 7, Clay and Platte Kansas Citians should consider whether or not to support this taxation without the legitimate representation as guaranteed to us by law.”

Fricker said he did not hear from the mayor after issuing that statement on Oct. 17. On Thursday morning of week, his press secretary, Jazzlyn Johnson, responded to the concerns raised by Fricker and Nolte in an email that addressed questions posed by The Star this week.

“As the statute requires, the mayor appointed members of the KCATA Board of Commissioners from Platte, Clay, and Jackson Counties,” Johnson said. “The plain language of the statute does not dictate the nominees need come from the county commissioners’ list. The Platte County Commission has previously recommended a City employee—Kansas City Water Services Director Wes Minder—to serve on the board, so he also finds surprising the new-found concern with commissioners who also serve in other government positions, including with the City of Kansas City.”

According to the emailed statement, Lucas further said the dispute should not be a reason for voters to cast ballots against the bus tax extension.

Ahead of the statement from the mayor’s office, Fricker said that he will ask the Missouri General Assembly to pass legislation that would remove any ambiguity in what he believes was the law’s original intent that the mayor pick from the nominees that the counties have chosen.

As for her boss’ handling of the parks board appointments and why he had kept two seats empty since April, Johnson had this to say:

“Given both an upcoming election and a new Council term starting in August 2023, the mayor elected to wait until the new Council term to name new members to the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners and other City boards and commissions, which are currently all being evaluated after the expiration of a commissioner’s four year term.”

She said the mayor advised all members serving on Kansas City boards and commissions in early July 2023 that he may be replacing them.

“With Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, the Board of Zoning Adjustment, and several other boards, he followed up directly informing commissioners several months later that he would appoint new members,” she said in that email.

Beth Haden, a partner at the law firm Lathrop GPM, was sworn in Tuesday afternoon as the new president. Joining her and recent appointee Stephenie Smith on the board are construction company executive Pat Contreras, investor Tom Gorenc and DePrice Taylor, executive director of community relations for the Kansas City Current soccer team.

Holland, Mecklenberg and Wagner say they will be happy to help the new members learn the board’s history and provide background on current issues in order to provide the continuity that was lost.

“At the end of the day, the City Council of Kansas City tells the Parks Department what budget it has. They have the power of the purse,” Wagner said.

But what he would tell new members is that it’s the duty of the parks board to advocate on behalf of the parks system, even if that means taking positions that make city hall unhappy at times. It’s a tradition, he said, that goes back to the formation of the board and the Kessler plan that was the basis for the city’s system of parks and boulevard.

“That board has always depended on its advocates,” he said. “Almost 130 years later now, someone may say these advocates for our parks department are too loud, well then I guess they’re performing a function that has been necessary for 130 years.”

This story was updated to include a comment from the mayor’s office that was sent after publication.

This story was originally published November 2, 2023, 6:00 AM.

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