Lee's Summit Lowdown

Welcome to the Lowdown! I am so glad you’re here!

Happy Sunday, Lee’s Summit! ☀️

I’m easing back into things post-accident, and my TENS unit (one of those little devices that zaps your sore muscles with electric pulses so they hurt less) has quickly become my favorite piece of technology I own. Genuinely considering naming it. Somewhere in between medical appointments, my daughter and I went to schedule pickup for middle school, so August has me feeling both extremely fragile and extremely behind on parenting logistics at the same time.

This week’s got a little of everything: road closures you’ll want to plan around, three local farm stands to hit instead of the recalled stuff, a new menswear resale shop, and a Freddie Mercury tribute taking over Legacy Park. Let’s get into it. 👇

🚧 Big Closures on 291 Start Tuesday

If your commute touches MO-291 or US-50, mark your calendar now, and maybe queue up a good podcast. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 18 at noon, southbound 291 closes completely from Blue Parkway to US-50, and stays closed through Nov. 13. MoDOT’s detour routes drivers over to Blue Parkway to Todd George instead, so get familiar with it now, before you’re relearning your commute live during Monday morning rush hour. Northbound 291 gets its turn starting Sept. 11, closing from the south side of US-50 to the north side through that same Nov. 13 date, plus a full weekend bridge-demo closure Sept. 11-14. Yes, they are demoing an actual bridge. No, you do not need to evacuate.

All of this is part of the larger 291/50 interchange overhaul, which isn’t expected to fully wrap until January 2027. Set a reminder on your phone now so future-you isn’t shocked to find this still going on at Christmas.

🍅 Skip the Recall, Buy Local

Timely nudge: with iceberg lettuce recalled nationally over a cyclospora outbreak and jalapeños (plus a chunk of the country’s egg supply) pulled for salmonella, this might be a good week to buy your produce from someone whose farm you could actually drive to. Three places to start:

Brooks Family Farm Market just opened off Douglas and Third, right next to Poppy’s Ice Cream, and it’s basically a permanent farmers market for downtown, which is exactly the kind of energy this town needs more of. Fresh veggies from Emily and Harrington Family Farm, local milk and coffee, flour from Fyler Farms, dog treats from Heather Holt, plus pasture-raised poultry, pork and eggs. Open daily 10-6.

Oma’s Farmstand is back after a vacation break, set up on the corner of Ash Street and Douglas. This week’s haul includes fresh-picked Roma tomatoes from a new local garden partnership, plus bird feeders, bath soaks, beeswax candles, ranch mix, farm eggs, pickles and cookies. No card reader, no fuss, cash or Venmo only, which honestly feels like a small act of rebellion these days. Thursday and Friday 9-6, weekends 8-4.

And if you want produce with a hundred years of history behind it, The Produce Market at Unity Village, run entirely by volunteers out of a 100-year-old barn off NW Colbern Road, has been selling homegrown produce for close to a century. Everything sold there, tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, berries, whatever’s in season, is grown on site and either sold at the stand or donated to local food pantries like Lee’s Summit Social Services. Volunteers will genuinely walk you to your car with an umbrella if it’s raining. There’s a resident barn cat named Lilly who has her own dedicated webpage, which is more of an online presence than most local businesses manage. And every fall they close out the season with an Oktoberfest that includes stirring apple butter in a 100-year-old copper pot over an open fire. Open 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays through fall.

🛍️ New Shop Worth a Visit

Revive Collective opened its doors at 127 SE 3rd St, right off the new Green Street. It’s a designer resale shop focused on menswear, mixing local vintage finds with designer resale pieces. I already spotted some Foster Huggins Underwater Flyzone shirts on the racks, the “Your Life Is Worth Living” ones. I own a solid handful of those myself. Foster’s been doing genuinely great work raising mental health awareness in this community, so if you haven’t grabbed one yet, here’s your excuse.

🏘️ Keeping an Eye On

Lee’s Summit’s Costco is officially set to open Aug. 28 at 10 SE Oldham Pkwy, the metro’s newest location. Crews still have roads and parking lots to finish before shelves get stocked, so it’s coming down to the wire. Clear your Saturday. The rotisserie chicken line alone is going to need crowd control. (And yes, we are all watching how this is going to affect the area traffic!)

Also worth knowing: Lee’s Summit voters approved a 1/4-cent stormwater management sales tax in the Aug. 4 primary (56.43% yes), which will raise about $6 million a year starting in January for stormwater crews, equipment and flood mitigation work across the city.

⏪ The LS Loop

Meetings that happened while you were living your life last week.

🏛️ City Council 

Council formed a 12-member citizen Housing Task Force, which will spend the next six to seven months gathering public input to shape future policy on housing diversity, affordability and “missing middle” development.

Residents pushed back hard on the municipal court system, citing courthouse overcrowding, a lack of handicap parking, and the need to expand court dockets to four days a week to clear the backlog.

Neighbors called for utility companies to be held accountable for tearing up yards and sewer lines during installations.

Good news on the paperwork front: the county executive signed an agreement to restore tax collection services at City Hall, pending a few final legislative steps.

🍎 LSR-7 School Board No meeting this week. Their calendar has them back in session later this month as school kicks off.

🎸 Live & Local

Sunday, Aug. 16

• Jam or Open Mic | General Admission Sports Bar | 4-8pm

Thursday, Aug. 20

• Jam or Open Mic | The Fillmore Café | 6-9pm

• Bluzboyz Jam Night | Jack Ray Post 5789, VFW | 7-10pm

• Soul Fundamentals | The 1909 Club | 7-10pm | Funk, R&B and soul

• Nick Marshall | Iron Horse Bar & Grill | 7:30-10:30pm | KC’s self-proclaimed “Vibe Generator,” guitarist/singer for The Cowardly Lions

Friday, Aug. 21

• Kevin Church Johnson | The 1909 Club | 7-10pm | Hip hop

• Dueling Pianos with Tony Rustici & Dennis Laffoon | Konrad’s Kitchen and Tap House | 8-11pm

• Robert Quinn Harvey | Llywelyn’s Pub LS | 8-11pm

• DJ | Bricks Pub | 9pm-1am

• Wonderfuzz | Stuey McBrew’s

Saturday, Aug. 22

• The MGDs | The 1909 Club | 7-10pm

• Laura Fotovich | The Goat Brewing Co | 7-10pm

• Secondhand Smoke Band | Jack Ray Post 5789, VFW | 7-10pm

• Smokin’ J’s | Konrad’s Kitchen and Tap House | 8-11pm

• Kurt Allen Band | Iron Horse Bar & Grill | 8-11pm | Blues, funk, soul, jazz and rock

• Montage | Llywelyn’s Pub LS | 8-11pm | 80s & 90s dance

• DJ | Bricks Pub | 9pm-1am

• Grand Villanova | Stuey McBrew’s

📅 The Weekly Lineup

Sunday, Aug. 16

• 816 Day Pencil Pickup | Multiple metro stops, including Filling Station BBQ downtown from 1-2pm | Bring fun pencils (superheroes, sports teams, whatever) to help stock local classrooms for the new school year.

Monday, Aug. 17

• Adult Game Night | Colbern Road Community Room 1 and 2 | 6:30pm

• Pub Quiz Trivia | The Goat Brewing Co | 7-9pm | Free to play, teams up to 6, prize winners every week

Tuesday, Aug. 18

• Live Trivia | Konrad’s Kitchen and Tap House | 7-9pm

• Music Bingo | B&B Theatres Lee’s Summit New Longview 7 | 7:30-8:30pm | Free to play, all ages, prizes

Wednesday, Aug. 19

• Downtown Lee’s Summit Farmers Market | Green Street Market, 209 SE Green Street | 8am-noon | Weekly through Oct. 31, early birds get the best picks

Thursday, Aug. 20

• Critter Chat | Green Street | 6-7pm | Free educational program with KC Exotics-R-Us, includes a craft

• 3rd Thursdays at Bailey Farms | 5pm

• Storytime for Families | Lee’s Summit Community Room 1 and 2 | 9:15, 10:15 and 11:15am

• Pajama Storytime | Colbern Road Storytime Room | 6:30pm

Friday, Aug. 21

• Adult Night Out: Learn to Play Dungeons & Dragons | Green Street | 7-9pm | 18+

• Pokémon Play & Trade | Harris Park Community Center | 6-8pm | $5/person, ages 5+

Saturday, Aug. 22

• Kindness Rocks Painting | SereniTea Boutique | 11am-12:30pm | Free, part of the August Book Exchange

• The Fabulous Freddie Mercury: A Tribute to Queen | Legacy Park Amphitheatre | 8pm | Part of the summer concert series, early bird tickets available

• Mad Science’s Davidious the Dinosaur Show | East Lee’s Summit Community Room | 2:30pm

• Baking Basics: Fruit Pie | Lee’s Summit Community Room 1 and 2 | 4pm

• Craft Lab | Colbern Road Community Room 2 | 2pm

🤔 Lee’s Summit Trivia

Happy 816 Day! Our area code has been around a lot longer than you’d think. 816 was one of the original 86 area codes created back in 1947, when AT&T rolled out the very first North American Numbering Plan. It originally covered a huge chunk of western Missouri before getting split and overlaid over the decades to keep up with growth (shoutout to 975, the newest overlay, added in 2023).

So today’s date isn’t just a fun coincidence. 8/16 has been dialing us home for almost 80 years.

One Last Thing

If you’re at the Freddie Mercury tribute Saturday, know that I will absolutely be singing along to every word. Bohemian Rhapsody has been my go-to karaoke song for years, and yes, I do all the parts.

Thanks for being part of the Lowdown crew, and hit reply and tell me what you’re most looking forward to this week!

– Jen

 Editor, Lee’s Summit Lowdown

P.S. If you need a little horror story: I spent two days wondering why I kept finding wasps in my bathroom, one here, one there, no idea where they were coming from. Then I looked up at the ceiling vent fan, turned on the light, and found a full nest staring back at me. Exterminator has been called. That fan is retired indefinitely.

How did we do in this edition?

• 🏆 State Champ Worthy: Best issue yet.

• Ribbon Cutting worthy: a great surprise.

• 🌧️ Informed: Good to know before Tuesday.

• 🖤 Black Pudding Bad: Pretty “blah” today.

• 😬 Stepped in a Puddle: Let’s pretend this didn’t happen.