FREEPORT, Kan. (AP) — The conversation varied at the old bank building, where 15 folks gathered around a table for the most recent Freeport coffee.

Some talked about the cotton harvest. Others admired the newly paved road - and first ever - which runs in front of the abandoned storefronts here. But Carol Peterson had a more pressing request before visitors Harper County Sheriff Tracy Chance and Road and Bridge Supervisor John McClure left on this November morning.

"Do I see you about changing our little sign to the village of Freeport?" she asked McClure.

"Village, huh," McClure said, drawing...