Most Missouri state and county offices are closed Friday to observe the Fourth of July holiday.

Most state offices are closed except emergency services like the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The Fourth of July is one of Missouri’s 13 state holidays. County courthouses are also closed today, so there is no court.

Most Columbia city offices are closed as well, except emergency services like police and fire. Columbia sanitation employees will be collecting residential and commercial trash Friday morning, and the landfill will be open to the public with normal operating hours.

Columbia’s Go COMO bus system will operate on its normal schedule on Friday. While Go COMO won’t operate fixed-route or paratransit service on Saturday, they will run shuttles between downtown Columbia parking garages and Stephens Lake park Saturday evening from 5-11 pm for the Fire in the Sky celebration.

Parking enforcement in city parking garages and at on-street parking spaces is suspended from Friday through Sunday.

What it means: The Fourth of July is one of Missouri’s 13 official state holidays. The holiday will be observed on Friday, since the 4th is on a Saturday this year.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council voted Thursday to begin an effort to restore the once-grand Federal Reserve building on Grand Avenue in the city’s downtown.

The council approved an ordinance that directs KCMO City Manager Mario Vasquez to begin the receivership process “for the vacant nuisance property known as the former Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.”

The building closed in 2008 and neglect followed the closure, according to a docket memo to the city council that lays out problems with the building.

You can read the docket memo below.

A developer bought the site in 2013, and the city approved a financial incentive deal in 2016 for the developer to build a 284-room hotel, a 450-space parking garage and a 40,000-square-foot family entertainment center.

The cost of the development was estimated at $182 million, but after investing $42 million in asbestos removal and interior demolition by April 2021, no other progress has been made on the project.

In 2022, the current developer got a temporary restraining order to avoid foreclosure after a default notice “alleging failure to maintain property insurance, unpaid property taxes, and outstanding mechanic’s liens,” according to a docket memo.

KSHB 41 News reached out to Alicia Brady, an Iowa-based photographer whose work includes photographs of the building’s decay.

Courtesy of Alicia M Brady, Urban Alicia Photography

“I was thrilled to learn that the mayor came across my post and photographs and that they helped spark action toward getting the former Federal Reserve building back on track for rehabilitation,” Brady said in an email to KSHB 41 News. “As someone who has been documenting abandoned and historic buildings since I was 15 years old, it’s incredibly rewarding to know that my work may have played a small part in preserving such an important piece of Kansas City’s history.”

KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas posted on LinkedIn about Thursday’s council action.

“Since 2008, the old Federal Reserve Bank building has sat empty, left open to the elements, vandals, fires, neglect and decay,” Mayor Lucas said. “ No more. We’re taking action to ensure accountability from property owners and new life in this tower in the heart of our downtown.”

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Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday with the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council at Ameren Missouri’s Callaway Energy Center near Steedman. The agreement is designed to better coordinate state and federal reviews, reduce permitting delays and increase transparency for major projects.

Kehoe said the partnership supports Missouri’s efforts to move quickly on future energy development, particularly nuclear energy.

“Missouri is proud to join four other states in signing the MOU, and we appreciate the Trump administration for helping us out to get to this goal, which, if you’ve been around me at all, you understand we don’t work at bureaucratic speed. We like business speed,” Kehoe said.

Under the agreement, Missouri will work with the Permitting Council to identify priority infrastructure projects and align state and federal review timelines. Federal officials say the partnership will help streamline project approvals while avoiding duplication between agencies.

The agreement comes as Missouri leaders continue exploring the future of nuclear energy. In May, Kehoe created a nuclear energy task force to examine how nuclear power can support the state’s long-term energy reliability and economic growth.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Kurt Schaefer said the state is well-positioned to take advantage of the opportunity.

“We’re right at this culmination of having the right people in the state of Missouri and having the right people in Washington, D.C. to really try and bring not only Missouri, but the country really up to speed on everything from energy development, particularly nuclear, to critical mineral development that really have been kind of languishing for a lot of years,” Schaefer said.

Schaefer said the agreement could help remove delays that have slowed major projects in the past.

“With the Department of Natural Resources, the speed of business gets T-boned by the speed of the federal government. So, this couldn’t have come at a better time to get these reports out of how we can advance both nuclear energy and critical minerals and then work with the federal government to make sure that we don’t have any bureaucratic slowdowns on that end,” he said.

The Trump administration is using the agreement process to work directly with states on critical infrastructure projects. Missouri is the fifth state to sign an agreement with the Permitting Council, joining Alaska, Idaho, Tennessee and Utah.

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