Kyle Palmer  - JoCo Notes

JoCo Notes: Blue Valley North standout Noah Barber signed by Royals

The University of Kansas football team congratulated Noah Barber after he signed a contract with the Royals. Photo via Twitter.

Welcome back, Blue Valley!

🌤 Today’s forecast: Mostly sunny with a slight chance for storms this afternoon. High: 88. Low: 70.

🚨 One thing to know today

Former Blue Valley North multi-sport star Noah Barber has been signed by his hometown big league club.

The Kansas City Royals signed Barber to a post-draft free agent contract, the team announced through its official player development Twitter account last week.

Barber, the son of former NFL player Shawn Barber, was a standout at Blue Valley North both on the baseball diamond and football field.

He had been originally recruited as a non-scholarship player for the University of Kansas football team.

KU congratulated Barber on his new Royals contract with a tweet.

🗓 Public meetings Monday

🚀 Post’s top stories since Friday

  1. 40-acre Metcalf Village project would remake this south Overland Park site
  2. Here’s what’s going up at Overland Park’s Bluhawk
  3. Pickleball lawsuit filed by Jonson County mayor appears to have been settled
  4. Commission OKs revised Schlagel Farms plan in south Overland Park
  5. Habitat for Humanity pares back plan for Olathe affordable housing development

📰 Other local news

  • Bank of Blue Valley warns customers of imposter scam. The Overland Park-based regional bank said someone has been calling customers claiming to be from the bank’s fraud department and asking for customers’ full card numbers. [Fox 4]
  • Kansas Board of Regents recommends special education funding  increase. The board unanimously voted to recommend Gov. Laura Kelly and the GOP-dominated Legislature tackle spending increases totaling $86 million per year for the next four years, to bring the state into compliance with state law. [Kansas Reflector]
  • Applications for JoCo Academy’s fall session now open. The semi-annual training give residents a chance to learn about how local government works. [JoCoGov.org]

📸 A thousand words

The calm before the storm. The view from Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead as the line of severe thunderstorms moved into Johnson County on Friday. Photo via Instagram.

Hi! I'm Kyle Palmer and I'm the editor of the Blue Valley Post and the Shawnee Mission Post.

I believe deeply in the power of local news and strive each day to make our readers feel informed, so they can get the most out of life in this great place we all call home.

Our work is only possible because more than 7,000 Johnson Countians subscribe. To those of you who already support us as subscribers, THANK YOU! If you aren't a subscriber yet, I hope you'll try it out today! Your first month of full access is just $1.

A bit about me and my background:

Prior to joining the Post in 2020, I served as News Director for KCUR. I got my start in journalism at the University of Missouri, where I worked for KBIA, mid-Missouri's NPR affiliate. After college, I spent 10 years as a teacher and went on to get a master's degree in education policy from Stanford University.