RAYTOWN, Mo. (AP) — Police say a woman has been shot and killed in the Kansas City, Missouri, suburb of Raytown.

The shooting occurred early Saturday morning in Sarah Colman-Livengood Park in Raytown. Police found the woman around 12:30 a.m. Saturday in the park. Police say two people were seen running away from the park after the shooting while others attempted to administer first aid.

No one else was injured.

Police said the park office building and at least three houses in the area were hit by bullets overnight.

Police have not arrested anyone in the shooting. The name of the woman killed had not been released by midday Saturday.

By CORINNE BOYER

Every summer since 1922, locals and tourists have flocked to Garden City’s Big Pool. Once promoted as “the world’s largest outdoor free concrete municipal swimming pool,” it holds around 2 million gallons of water. “Holds” might now be an overstatement.

The Big Pool leaks. A lot.

Around 200,000 gallons of water from the pool seep into the ground per day — even after renovations that replaced pipes and sealed cracks in the concrete.

Even for a pool of its size, the water loss is “excessive,” according to Fred Jones, Garden City’s water resource manager. “It’s kinda to the point where we feel like it’s probably nearing the end of its service life.”

As the pool’s centennial nears, concern over costs and repairs have grown. The city has been asking residents this year about replacing it, though nothing’s been decided yet.

Drip, drip drip

Refilling the leaking pool costs Garden City $1,000 a day. During the period that the pool is open from Memorial Day until Labor Day, the city spends between $700,000 and $800,000 on repairs, staff and water, according to Assistant City Manager Jennifer Cunningham, who oversees the operation of the pool.

The pool’s water comes from the city’s potable water supply, which is drawn from the Ogallala and Dakota aquifers. Watering and irrigation of landscapes and lawns is the biggest consumer of water in the summer, but Jones said the 200,000 gallons the pool loses each day is still a worry.

“Concrete breaks down over time, especially when it’s out in the cold in the wintertime and it’s out in the heat in the summertime and it’s filled with water,” she said.  “It expands, it contracts and eventually breaks down.”

Instead of continuing to throw money into an old facility with porous concrete, Cunningham said bonding the amount spent on the pool and its repairs could pay for a new swimming facility.

The swimming days go way back

During the first weekend in June, Sherry Frizzell, 57, spent time at the Big Pool with her family like she’s done since she was born.

“I want to see the pool stay,” Frizell said. “Instead of putting other stuff in, they should have fixed what was wrong in the first place.”

Sixteen-year-old Ethan Rich has been going to the pool for most of his life too — since he was 3 or 4.

“It helps in the summer when it’s hot,” he said.

Back in 1921, Garden City’s Mayor H.O. Trinkle liked to swim too and he wanted a pool. So, members of the community started digging.

“It was dug with horse-drawn slips, which is kind of like a great big shovel pulled by horses, and men with shovels,” recounted Laurie Oshel, assistant director of the Finney County Museum.

Ice skaters glided across the frozen surface in the late 1920s — before the water was drained every year.

Two elephants were trained to walk over from the Lee Richardson Zoo next door and swam in the pool from 1987, when they were babies, until around 2004 when they were relocated to Florida, according to former education curator at the zoo, Whitney Buckman.

Former Garden City resident Hank Avila, now 74, remembers taking swimming lessons at the pool in 1950 and 1951. That was soon after Latino residents gained access.

The “water was cold,” he said.

But those lessons were evidence of a breakthrough. Avila recalls that some members of the Hispanic community never learned to swim because the pool was off limits. A few years before he learned to swim, the Latino community had petitioned the city for access to the pool and been denied.

The pool ultimately became integrated before restaurants and movie theaters in the area, and turned into a haven.

“I had a lot of fun there — it was part of daily life during the summer,” Avila said. He and his uncle snuck in on hot nights after hours.

Black residents in Garden City fought longer to gain access to city’s pool.

In a July 12, 1950, Garden City Daily Telegram article, one man demanded that black community members be allowed to enter the pool. S.M. Hawkins spoke at a Garden City Commission meeting and, the newspaper reported, said, “that it was all right for Negroes to participate when it came to paying taxes, but apparently it isn’t all right for Negroes to use the swimming pool which is supported by these same taxes.”

At the same meeting, Commissioner Al Gottschalk said, “It just has never been the policy to admit Negroes.”

Through the 1960s, about 65,000 people visited the pool annually, according to documents at the Finney County Museum.

A new Big Pool?

Around 300 people use the pool every day now. Cunningham said one reason attendance has declined is because of the cost, $2 per person per day. Admission was free until 2003.

To decide its future, Garden City officials gathered input all over town about the Big Pool. They talked with the Realtor’s Association, the Lion’s Club, the county health coalition, every Garden City student from 3rd through 12th grades, along with kids from nearby Holcomb, Lakin, Deerfield, and Cimarron.

Across all age groups — from households with kids to adults over age 56 — the majority responding to the city’s survey said they wanted a facility similar to the existing pool. Other options, including multiple community pools, splash parks or a water park, all ranked lower.

“This is what Garden City is known for,” said Lana Steinmetz, 46, a Garden City resident who has been coming to the pool since she was 8, hopes it will stay open. “They already put so much money into it.”

Corinne Boyer is a reporter for the Kansas News Service  Follow her @Corinne_Boyer or email cboyer at hppr dot org

COOPER COUNTY— One person died in an accident just before 4p.m. Friday in Cooper County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Jeep Wrangler driven by Richard E. Casanova, 75, Booneville, was northbound on Old Concord Road just west of Route B.

A 2011 Honda Odyssey driven by Leigh E. Snoddy, 31, Boonville was southbound. Both vehicle crossed the centerline while negotiating a curve, according to the MSHP.

Casanova and Snoddy were transported to Pinnacle Regional Hospital where Casanova died. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Efforts to put a new Missouri law banning abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy to a public vote hit another roadblock.

Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by prominent Republican donor David Humphreys, who is seeking to force GOP Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to approve his referendum petition on the new law .

Green on Thursday dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Missouri. He did not elaborate on his reasoning in either order.

Acting Executive Director Tony Rothert on Thursday said the state ACLU has already appealed and expects the issue will ultimately play out in the Missouri Supreme Court.

A spokeswoman for the Committee to Protect the Rights of Victims of Rape and Incest, which Humphreys is bankrolling , said the group is “reviewing all options to ensure Missouri’s abortion law is put to a vote of the people.”

“We are committed to protecting the rights of women and underage minors who are victims of rape and incest, and we are disappointed the court did not do so,” committee spokeswoman Mary Jenkins said in a statement.

A spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, whose office represents Ashcroft in the lawsuit, declined to comment.

Humphreys and the ACLU are seeking to put the abortion law to a public vote in hopes of repealing it. Humphreys has cited the lack of exceptions for rape and incest in his opposition to the policy, which does include exceptions for medical emergencies.

Ashcroft rejected petitions by Humphreys and the ACLU to put the law on the 2020 ballot, citing a provision in the Missouri Constitution that prohibits referendums on “laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety.”

A majority of the law, including the eight-week abortion ban, takes effect Aug. 28. But a provision that changed the rules on minors receiving abortions was enacted as soon as Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the bill in May.

The new law requires a parent or guardian giving written consent for a minor to get an abortion to first notify the other custodial parent, with exceptions.

The law’s “emergency clause” states that enacting the parental-consent portion is vital “because of the need to protect the health and safety of women and their children, both unborn and born.”

Humphreys and the ACLU sued when Ashcroft rejected their referendum petitions .

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is on a trade mission in Europe.

Parson left Friday for his first trade mission since becoming governor a year ago. He’s visiting France, then Germany and Switzerland.

In France, the governor and first lady plan to go to the Normandy American Cemetery and honor the dead with a wreath-placing ceremony. He’s also participating in a roundtable with French CEOs to promote Missouri’s business climate.

Parson will attend the Paris Air Show to meet with Missouri aerospace companies including Boeing.

The trip ends June 22. It’s being funded by the Hawthorn Foundation, a nonprofit that has paid for similar trade missions for former governors.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly says she plans to issue an executive order to end a longstanding economic border war between her state and Missouri in the Kansas City area.

Kelly told reporters Friday that her executive order will mirror a new Missouri law that prevents incentives from being used to lure businesses across the border in the metropolitan area. The Missouri law takes effect only if Kansas acts.

It was the first time that Kelly publicly committed to issuing an executive order. In Missouri, such a policy requires a change in state law.

Both states have spent millions of dollars luring businesses across the state line over the past decade. Area officials see such efforts as wasteful and want to focus on attracting businesses from outside the region.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of $470,000 in suspected drug money that was seized earlier this year during three Kansas traffic stops.

That one stop alone yielded $250,000 in cash. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper found that money in vacuum-sealed plastic bags and a duffel bag after stopping a rented car in February on Interstate 70 in Ellsworth County. Three days earlier, $55,000 was found during a traffic stop along I-70 in Wabaunsee County.

Another $165,000 was found in March wrapped in plastic and hidden inside the rear fender panel of a sport utility vehicle that was pulled over on Interstate 35 in Chase County.

For now, the money that the government wants to keep is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

TOPEKA —Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and other leaders are responding the state Supreme Court decision approving a new law boosting funding for public schools.

#ksleg pic.twitter.com/FfaGPbWaJt

— Susan Wagle (@SenatorWagle) June 14, 2019

Today’s KS Supreme Court decision was a victory for Kansas and our kids. Educating our kids is not just one of the best ways to address challenges facing our state, it’s also our moral and constitutional obligation. #ksleg pic.twitter.com/Xe0OX8prP0

— Governor Laura Kelly (@GovLauraKelly) June 14, 2019

The high court declined in its ruling Friday to close the protracted education funding lawsuit that prompted the decision.

The school finance law boosted funding roughly $90 million a year.

The court declared the new money is sufficient under the Kansas Constitution but said it was keeping the underlying lawsuit open to ensure that the state keeps its funding promises.

This is the Kansas State Department of Education official statement: https://t.co/oYRIgrUe8h #KansansCan

— KS Dept of Education (@ksdehq) June 14, 2019

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly had hoped the Supreme Court would end the lawsuit. Four local school districts sued in 2010.

The districts’ attorneys argued the new law would not provide enough new money after the 2019-20 school year. Education funding tops $4 billion a year.