The City Council approved a $1 million contract yesterday with ReDiscover to keep the Kansas City Assessment & Triage Center (KC-ATC) running for another year.

Why it matters: KC-ATC is where police officers and emergency departments send people in a mental health or addiction crisis whose cases aren't appropriate for jail or the hospital.

Catch up quick: It opened in 2016 after Truman Medical Center, now University Health, shut down its behavioral health ER in 2015 and left police and hospitals cycling the same people through ERs and holding cells, some racking up more than 100 ER visits a year.

• The original deal split funding among the city, Missouri's mental health department, Ascension, and six area hospitals.
• A $20 million Ascension contribution, paid at $2 million a year for 10 years, has covered most of the operating budget since then.
• That money has come from Ascension's 2015 sale of St. Joseph Medical Center and St. Mary's Medical Center. The money was set aside for KC charity care and is winding down this year.

How it works: The 24/7 center at 12th and Prospect takes referrals from KCPD and area ERs, stabilizes people, and then connects them with housing, treatment or medication.

• The average stay is about 16 hours, according to a Truman Medical Centers case study. Clients come voluntarily and can leave whenever they want.
• The center doesn't take walk-ins; officers and hospitals must call first.

By the numbers: In its first six months, the center took in more than 700 people and saved local ERs an estimated $1.5 million, according to Missouri Hospital Association data.

• KC ERs had been getting 17,000 visits a year from people with mental illness or substance use issues, the data shows.

What's next: The state is also building a new $300 million psychiatric hospital at Belvidere Park, expected to open in late 2027 or early 2028.

Armed with brushes, buckets and a biodegradable cleaner, volunteers are quietly restoring KC's oldest public burial ground.

Why it matters: Union Cemetery holds more than 55,000 Kansas Citians, but decades of neglect and an 1889 fire that destroyed nearly all of its early records left hundreds of graves marked only by wooden stakes that have since rotted away.

State of play: Union Cemetery Historical Society, which started in fall 2024, has been leading workshop volunteers through more than 5,000 markers.

• Heather Faries, the society's vice president, runs the classes. Volunteers learn to use a biodegradable cleaning solution called D2 that lifts lichen without damaging the stone, then keeps working every time it rains.
• The society got an $800 grant from Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area to fund supplies for more than a dozen classes in 2024 alone.

Context: The cemetery dates back to 1857, when Westport farmer James M. Hunter deeded 49 acres halfway between Westport and the town of Kansas after an 1849 cholera epidemic filled both towns' burial grounds.

• By 1910, the property had fallen into such disrepair that the Union Cemetery Association sold off 18 acres at 27th and Main to pay for maintenance.
• KC Parks took over what remained in 1937 and continues to maintain the grounds today.
• The society finished digitizing more than 35,000 burial records in 2022 to help fill in for what was lost in the fire, and is now reviewing them for errors, according to UCHS.

Zoom in: Among the gravestones being restored are those of veterans who served from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam.

• Lt. Joseph A. Boggs served in the Pennsylvania militia during the Revolutionary War. He died in Westport in 1843 at age 93, and his remains were later moved to Union Cemetery.
• Pvt. Nathaniel Gwynne was a 15-year-old Union soldier when he charged a Confederate position at the Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Virginia, retrieving his unit's flag. He later moved to KC, where he served in the Missouri House.

If you go

🏠 KC's Housing Trust Fund is asking voters to approve $100 million in no-tax bonds, which the city projects could fund about 4,700 affordable units on top of the roughly 2,600 already in the works from previous bonds. (The Business Journal)

✈️ The Kansas City Council advanced plans for a 165-room "Stealth Hotel" at KCI, the airport's first new-build on-site hotel since 1974, with a projected 2028 opening. (KCTV)

🚌 Bus fares return to RideKC on June 1 at $2 a ride, but a new United Way partnership will offer 50% off and free passes to eligible riders, including seniors, kids and low-income individuals. (United Way)

👋 Travis here. I'm like most folks — I like potatoes in pretty much any form. So imagine my delight when I saw this spiral-shaped spud.

Dig in: City Market Coffee Roasters announced its "tornado fries" in April, with three flavors — salt and vinegar, barbecue bacon and elote.

• The comfort food creation goes by many names, including potato tornado, rotato potato, potato on a stick.
• It's part of the cafe and eatery's summer menu.

What we tried: The elote tornado ($9) was doused with a creamed corn sauce, with the potato spirals both crispy on the edges and delicately soft on the inside.

• This is a snack for an empty stomach — I was medium hungry, and couldn't quite finish the whole thing, despite its deliciousness.

💭 Travis' thought bubble: I remember potato tornadoes were all the rage at Mizzou during State Music Festival, so this was a fun throwback.

• I'm not aware of any other place around KC selling these, and Googling "potato tornado Kansas City" just pulls up stories about "potato-sized hail."

If you go: The store is open every day 6:30am–5pm.