Mayor Bill Falkner has announced he will not run for another term as the city of St. Joseph’s mayor and is considering a bid for the Missouri House of Representatives.

In a post on Facebook Tuesday, Mayor Falkner announced he will not be seeking re-election.

“I’ve had the privilege of serving the city of St. Joseph for nearly 12 years, including the past eight years as Mayor,” he said. “During that time we’ve seen new businesses come to town, the growth and revitalization of our downtown and new educational opportunities for youth in our community.”

He said it’s not the end of his plans to serve the public.

“I’m excited to announce that after much consideration, I am exploring a run for Missouri House of Representatives District 10. While serving as Mayor, I saw firsthand how our elected officials in Jefferson City shape policies that directly affect our community. I hope to bring common sense principles to Jefferson City and support things like local control and oppose harmful unfunded government mandates,” Mayor Falkner said.

Falkner said he plans to make a formal announcement in early 2018.

Representative Pat Conway currently holds the district 10 seat.  His term is set to expire in 2019.

Buchanan County Commissioners said Buchanan County is one of 18 counties included in a Kansas City bid as possibilities for an Amazon headquarters.

As previously reported, the internet giant announced it was looking to establish a second headquarters earlier this month. Amazon said it will employ as many as 50,000 people at its new base, with average employee pay of more than $100,000, and with a capital outlay of more than $5 billion to fully establish the new headquarters. Amazon’s RFP specifies that it’s interested in metropolitan areas with more than one million people. In Missouri, that means only St. Louis and Kansas City will even qualify. In its Request for Proposal (RFP), Amazon calls for a “summary of total incentives offered for the Project by the state/province and local community”.

Buchanan County commissioners visited with the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce on Monday to talk about a bid for an Amazon headquarters.

“We visited with the Chamber yesterday just to get their ideas. They had submitted a bid through Kansas City on two possible locations,” said Eastern District Commissioner Scott Burnham.

Western District Commissioner, Ron Hook said the bid submitted was for two areas of 100 acres or better for a potential Amazon headquarters.

“The Kansas City Economic Committee included 18 counties around the area that are involved in this and we happen to be one of them,” Hook said. “In doing so, we provided the two pad sites we thought would be best for headquarters.”

Burnham said the possibility of having Amazon move its headquarters to St. Joseph is a long-shot.

“When you look at the requirements, they want a metropolitan area of one million people or more,” Burnham said. “But when you encompass the Kansas City area and the surrounding, as Ron said everything from Olathe really to even far as Topeka, then I think the draw from that is a lot greater and the possibilities are a lot greater.”

Cities have until Oct. 19 to apply. Amazon said a final site selection and announcement will be made next year.

(Post staff and Missourinet contributions)

Motorists are being asked to avoid the area of Parkway A from South 28th St. to 30th St. due to a water main break.

According to a Nixle alert issued at 4:32 a.m. Tuesday, the water company has been notified and crews are on scene working to find the source of the break.

Sgt. Brett Kelley with the St. Joseph Police Department said crews could be on scene for several hours.

A program to improve attendance in the St. Joseph School District is showing signs of success to start the school year.

According to a press release, the School District launched the “Strive for 5” attendance program a month ago to address the ongoing problem of chronic absenteeism in schools. The goal of the program is to encourage students to only miss five days or fewer throughout the year.

“While it is still too early to tell if the areas of growth are directly related to Strive for 5, we are thrilled to see improvement in attendance,” said Dr. Kendra Lau, Director of Assessment. “When students miss school, they miss opportunities to learn. This program is just one part of a multi-pronged approach being used to address chronic absenteeism in our district.”

The District set an attendance goal of 87% this year, which represents a three percent increase over last year. The following information includes highlights from the latest attendance reports:

District-level celebrations:

• District attendance is up 1.7% from this time last year (Current – 91.3%, Last Year – 89.6%)
• District attendance is currently 4.3% above its 2018 year-end goal of 87% 

 School building celebrations:

• Central High School attendance is at 91.8% up from last year by 1.9%
• Lafayette High School attendance is up 6.2% from last year
• Spring Garden Middle School attendance is up 4.5% from last year
• Truman Middle School is up 3.7% from last year
• Edison Elementary attendance is up 3.7% from last year
• Parkway Elementary attendance is up 3.8% from last year
• Hyde Elementary School was up 3.1% from last year

Other highlights:

• The number of high school students considered chronically absent by school year has dropped in all three high schools since last year.
• The number of middle school students considered chronically absent by school year has dropped in all four middle schools since last year.
• The number of elementary school students considered chronically absent by school year has either dropped or remained steady in nine of 16 elementary schools since last year.

A Lathrop man was seriously injured in a one vehicle crash early Monday morning in DeKalb County.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, at 5:05 a.m. Monday, 34-year-old Matthew G. Carrel was driving a Ford F-150 north on I-35 at mile marker 53.8 in the city limits of Cameron. Carrel’s vehicle ran off the east side of the road, hit a guardrail and came to rest on its wheels on the guardrail.

Carrel was transported by Cameron EMS to Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph.

According to the crash report, Carrel was wearing a seat belt.