By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Voters in the St. Joseph school district will decide a 61-cent tax increase tomorrow.

St. Joseph School Superintendent Doug Van Zyl says the increase in the school levy is needed to stabilize the district’s finances. He says public opinion polling indicates voter favorability falls with anything larger than 65 cents.

“And it’s still probably going to be close the way it is,” Van Zyl says. “People don’t necessarily like to pay taxes, but 61 cents generates for us what we feel comfortable being able to say will at least get us through the five-year sunset portion of this.”

The levy increase does have a five-year sunset provision. Again, Van Zyl indicates any school tax increase won’t pass without a sunset provision.

The increase is projected to general $6.5 million. The district proposes using the money for teachers and staff, security upgrades, and operational costs.

Voters soundly rejected a proposal to increase the levy by $1.15 in November of 2017. More than 70% of the voters cast “No” ballots in that election, perceived by many as a referendum on past financial problems at the district.

St. Joseph School Board President Seth Wright says the district understands it must repair its image and a sunset clause is designed to be a step in that direction.

“Sunset clauses are really about accountability,” according to Wright. “We have a trust and credibility problem at the school district. There is no other way to put it, except to be a straight shooter about that and this is part of that plan to try to rebuild that trust and credibility over the next five years.”

Van Zyl says a 61-cent increase will allow him to address some issues on the stove top.

“Right now, there are just so many pots on top of the stove I can’t get them all to the front burner,” Van Zyl says. “This allows us to stabilize that and start addressing some of those things, behavioral issues and academic issues and attendance and the age of our buildings and the things that we need for safety and security above and beyond this.”

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

United States Sen. Roy Blunt came to St. Joseph to attend the Special Olympics Missouri Indoor Games.

Blunt remembers pushing through the “healthy athletes” initiative which provided routine health examinations for Special Olympians, such as eye screenings. He says he heard about the impact of the initiative while on a college campus which sponsored a Special Olympics event.

“Some young man walked up to me who had just gotten glasses that day, probably in his early 20s, and he said, ‘Man, softball’s a lot easier if there is only one ball,’” Blunt recalls with a chuckle. “He had been playing this sport for years as a Special Olympic athlete and nobody had ever caught the fact, and he wasn’t able to quite communicate the fact, that he was not seeing the ball like other people were seeing it. He didn’t know he wasn’t seeing it like other people were seeing it.”

The Special Olympics Missouri Indoor Games being held this weekend at the Southside Family Fun Center on King Hill Avenue in St. Joseph incorporates basketball and bowling.

Blunt has long supported Special Olympics and, as chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies he championed federal funding for Special Olympics.

Blunt is not surprised President Donald Trump rejected a proposal from his administration to cut $17.6 million dollars in federal funding for Special Olympics.

Blunt says the proposed cut was a non-starter in Congress.

“Again, it’s a very small part of Special Olympics’ total funding, but still important,” Blunt says. “And, I said we’re clearly not going to eliminate Special Olympics funding and the president the next day agreed with me and said, I think this is a great program, I think my staff’s wrong, and of course we’re going to continue to recommend that Special Olympics be funded at this small federal level that is has been in recent years”

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Congressman Sam Graves wants to see a change in how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the Missouri River.

Graves says the Corps has placed too much emphasis on recreation and habitat reclamation and too little on flood control. Still, Graves doesn’t entirely place the blame for this year’s flooding on the Corps.

“How much can we blame the Corps?” Graves asks. “I think the Corps has some issues, again, with management of the river. I think they are partially to blame for this. It was also the fact that we had some heavy rain and we had a lot of snowmelt that happened very, very quickly. There’s plenty of blame to go around, whether that’s Mother Nature or the Corps.”

Graves says the Corps needs to return to the original intent when the six dams upstream of the Missouri River were built:  flood control and enhanced navigation.

The Corps manages the Missouri River through water releases from six upstream dams. As an abnormal amount of water entered the system from early snowmelt and rains in Nebraska, the Corps increased releases from Gavins Point Dam, the farthest dam downstream. At one time, the Corps was releasing 90,000 cubic feet per second from Gavins Point even as downstream farms and communities fought losing battles to contain floodwaters.

Flooding did total or partial damage to 52 levees along 350 miles of the Missouri River basin in Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri, according to the Corps. That damage has left downstream communities vulnerable to any further flooding this spring.

Graves accuses the Corps of favoring recreation at the upstream reservoirs and habitat reclamation downstream over flood control. Graves points out the Corps has already lost a lawsuit which blamed its management for five floods between 2007 and 2014 that caused $300 million in damage. He says this year’s flooding adds to the notion that something needs to change.

“I think it’s going to have an impact and it’s already starting to have an impact, whether it be that lawsuit or the fact that we had a major flood in 2011 and now this flood in 2019,” according to Graves. “I think the Corps is rethinking, but you have to remember too that all of these districts are very autonomous.”

Graves says he has talked to both officials in the Omaha and the Kansas City offices.

Graves says he has seen some change by the Corps.

“They’re going to have to change the management. I think they are changing the management, not as quickly or as much as I would like to see and that’s something we’re going to have to continue to work on.”

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Members of the 139^th Airlift Wing are returning to Rosecrans Memorial Airport as the Missouri River retreats from major flood stage.

Vice Commander, Colonel John Cluck, says the Air National Guard followed a set plan in leaving Rosecrans when the Missouri threatened to flood Elwood, Kansas and overflow the airport.

“We thought we were prudent by removing our high-value assets, which obviously are our C-130 aircraft as well as many of the things on our base,” Cluck says. “We have a lot of industrial equipment that it takes to run a wing, things of that nature. We got it all out of the flood zone and out of the danger area and then just continued to operate as best we could.”

Cluck says evacuation plans began in earnest when the Missouri River headed toward 28 feet, a foot above major flood stage.

The 139^th flew its C-130 aircraft to nearby Forbes Field in Topeka, Kansas where the 190^th Refueling Wing with its KC-135 Stratotankers is based. It is not only near St. Joseph, the base is within driving distance for the personnel at the 139^th, who live in the St. Joseph and North Kansas City area.

Cluck says though the 139^th had to leave its home base during the threat of flooding, it maintained a state of readiness.

“As this challenge presented itself to us, we felt it was important that we maintain that readiness and with the question of rising flooded waters, honestly the best way to maintain that was to reposition our aircraft at a different base,” Cluck says. “So, really, it didn’t change anything.”

Cluck says the 139^th was prepared to respond to any call, whether from the governor or the White House.

Members of the 139^th worked along with Elwood, Wathena, and St. Joseph residents to reinforce the levee which protects Elwood, keeping the Missouri out of the town though it reached a reported record crest of just over 32 feet.

The National Weather Service reports the Missouri River Wednesday dropped below 26 feet, heading toward 25 ½ feet. It could drop below moderate flood stage by the first of April.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Interstate 29 north of St. Joseph remains closed as does Highway 59 south of St. Joseph as the Missouri Department of Transportation assesses the damage done to area roads and bridges.

Assistant District Maintenance Engineer, Jennifer Sardigal, says some roads and bridges might need repair once the floodwaters covering them recede.

“There have been some roadways that have been affected and some of the asphalt is coming apart and then we do have a couple of bridges that are having some structural issues due to the flowing of the water,” Sardigal says.

Sardigal says MoDOT hopes to reopen I-29 to Rock Port by the end of this week. Reopening the interstate beyond that is not possible until floodwaters recede off the interstate in Iowa. It might take some time for Highway 59 and the Amelia Earhart Bridge into Atchison reopens.

Flooding has closed up to 30 roads in northwest Missouri.

Sardigal says some floodwater got underneath the pavement.

“In which case it causes the risk of the pavement falling in, which is kind of what’s happening at a couple of bridges where the water just came rushing in fast enough to erode away a bunch of the soil,” according to Sardigal.

Sardigal says the pavement and shoulder has to be assessed before a road can be re-opened.

Highway 59 remains under water and the water is deep.

“You can sort of see the center line all along the roadway between (Highway) 45 and the bridge going into Atchison, but it is still covered.” Sardigal says. “At this time, we cannot see any damage, but we won’t know for sure until the water recedes.”

Sardigal says pavement and shoulders must pass inspection before a road can be reopened.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Floodwaters recede in northwest Missouri as the Missouri River at St. Joseph drops out of the major flood stage into the moderate category.

But, widespread flooding has damaged the levee system.

Lt. Col. James Startzell with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Omaha office says 350 miles of levees on the Missouri, Platte, and Elkhorn River basins have sustained significant flood damage.

“Due to the magnitude of the damage along these levees, repair of the levee system will take an extended period of time to execute. The majority of the levee system remains compromised and vulnerable, due to record inflows surpassing their designed protection levels,” Startzell says during a conference call held by the Corps of Engineers.

The Corps counts 52 full or partial levee breaches in Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri.

The crest of the Missouri River is flowing downstream, putting pressure on the levee system in central Missouri.

Chief of Emergency Management in the Corps of Engineers’ Kansas City office, Jud Kneuvean, says several systems are handling as much water as they can, including those in Napoleon and Waverly.

“There is water against the sandbags that have been placed by the local flood fighters,” Kneuvean says. “We have projected that 18 levee systems will have less than two feet of freeboard. Ten of those 18 are projected to overtop. This estimate changes with each forecast.”

Kneuvean says though the flooding is beginning to ease, area residents cannot afford to let their guard down.

“Can’t say this enough, it’s dangerous river conditions out there. We continue to stress safety to all of our partners and all our own flood fighters.”