Aftermath of fire on Mitchell and 9th St. Photo courtesy Matt RiveraEarly morning fire on Mitchell and 9th St. Photo courtesy Matt Rivera
(Update 12:43 p.m.) – The cause of a fire that destroyed a vacant house near downtown St. Joseph is being ruled as undetermined.
Mike Neylon, Chief Training Officer with the St. Joseph Fire Department said it’s believed the fire at 1310 S. 9th St. began around 3:15 a.m. The first fire unit arrived at 3:43 a.m. and crews found heavy fire and smoke throughout the building.
“Shortly after the first unit arrived, part of let’s say a third of the building collapsed. So there was no attempt at going inside to fight the fire. It was all done from a defensive position,” Neylon said.
He said currently, the fire is undetermined and there is not much left to investigate. No utilities were hooked up to the house at the time of the incident. No injuries were reported. The property loss is estimated at around $25,000. Neylon said a nearby structure at the corner of 9th and Mitchell sustained some damage to the roof but did not appear to be extensive.
The scene was cleared shortly before 9 a.m.
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The St. Joseph Fire Department is investigating after a large fire destroyed a vacant house early Monday morning on Mitchell.
A fire engulfed a building located near Mitchell and 9th St. The St. Joseph Police Department issued an advisory around 4 a.m. warning people to avoid the area. Sgt. Brett Kelley said the house was vacant at the time. Nearby resident, Matt Rivera said around 9 a.m. fire crews appeared to be back at the scene. He said the home has been boarded up and vacant for at least a year.
We are currently waiting to hear back from fire inspectors for an update on the cause and circumstances surrounding the fire. We will update this post as we learn more.
A Cameron teenager was seriously injured in a one vehicle crash early Sunday morning in DeKalb County.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, 20-year-old Riley D. Wiglesworth of Cameron was driving a 2000 Hyundai Tiburon west on Northeast Platte Road just west of Cameron at 12:16 a.m., when he lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle went off the north side of the road, through a fence, into a field, overturning several times and coming to rest on the passenger side. A passenger in the vehicle, 18-year-old Dawson R. Clark, was transported to Mosaic Life Care for treatment of serious injuries. Wiglesworth was transported to Cameron Regional Medical Center for treatment of moderate injuries.
According to the crash report, neither was wearing a seatbelt.
Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90. South wind 8 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 69. South wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 85. South wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.
Tuesday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 67. South wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Wednesday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 1 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Breezy, with a south wind 14 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Wednesday Night: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 a.m. Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Thursday: Partly sunny, with a high near 81.
Thursday Night: Showers and thunderstorms. Low around 61. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Friday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Friday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Saturday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 68. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 51. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
The “Women Build Week” program at Habitat for Humanity entered its 10th year in the week ended Sunday, and a handful of St. Joseph women took part.
Volunteer Coordinator Rita Boyer says they used to hold the clinics and put women to work helping build houses the day before Mother’s Day. But she says in the seven years she’s been organizing the event they’ve gone from one day a year to two Saturdays and four weekdays. During the events they see a total of 75 to 100 women taking part.
We caught up with one of them putting up siding on a new home on Locust Street. Judy Jacobs of St. Joseph says she still works full time, but began volunteering for Habitat for Humanity as something to share with her husband when his health took a turn for the worse.
“It’s a complete different skill set from what I normally do,” Jacobs said. “I enjoy picking up skills that I can use at home, and I can tackle some home-improvement projects now that I wouldn’t have been able to tackle earlier.”
“Today we are putting up siding,” she said. “Some of the other guys on the other side of the house are finishing up the blue board so we can put the siding up. So, we’ve got a couple of different projects going, but I’ve been helping with the siding.”
Paul Davidson has been working as a construction supervisor for Habitat for about seven years, but began volunteering for them in 2006. Davidson is among those who host the clinics to teach the skills needed for the work they will be doing. That can include framing, siding, roofing, installing sheet rock and a lot more. The house they’re constructing on Locust Street should be done in two or three months, weather permitting, then they’ll present the keys to the new owners.
National Women Build Week was May 6-14. It was launched by Lowe’s in 2008 to empower women to advocate for affordable housing and spotlight the homeownership challenges faced by many people. Women are invited to devote at least one day to help families build decent and affordable housing in their local communities. This year, more than 17,000 women including Lowe’s Heroes volunteers from across the country were expected to volunteer at construction sites.
Lowe’s donated $2 million to Habitat’s 2017 National Women Build Week. St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity receives $5,000, which Boyer says is spent on building materials, supplies, tools. Whirlpool donates the major applicances and other donors provide cash and other materials for home construction.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
Stock Healthy Photo courtesy St. Joseph Health Dept.
There’s been movement in both direction in efforts to alleviate so-called “food deserts” in St. Joseph. Efforts to offer grant support for grocers or convenience stores to offer healthy food choices came at about the same time as a downtown organic grocer went out of business.
Json Myers’ Goode Food Delivered at 801 Francis closed last weekend. The space at 8th and Felix is available for lease.
“It’s been just me trying to keep that going,” Myers said, but he said some local outlets are beginning to offer healthy options. “I’m not a person who goes to the government to cover that, but I believe it’s something that should probably happen.
Myers says the downtown area is once again a food desert, with no options outside of restaurants and convenience stores. But he says St. Joe is so small that you can easily drive from edge to edge. “We don’t have walkable communities, unfortunately, which definitely would have kept it alive,” he said.
Officials with the City of St. Joseph Health Department, the University of Missouri Extension and the State Dept. of Health and Human Services are offering grant money to encourage more access to healthy foods, especially in areas that are more than walking distance away from a grocery store.
“We have a lot of grocery stores on the Belt, but then past that everything dwindles significantly,” said Nancy Taylor, the Health Educator for the Health Dept. “We’ve got the Green Hills on the North End and the South end now, thank goodness, but there’s still gaps.”
Taylor said there are efforts afoot to improve “…walkable, bikeable, multi-modal means of transportation” so we’re not so “car-centric.” That requires sidewalks in good working order, and safe places to walk and bike with adequate street lighting.
“We’re working on trying to get St. Joseph to become a bicycle-friendly community,” she said. “There’s also a walk-friendly community designation that we’re looking into as well.”
“We understand the importance between transportation and public health.”
The Stock Healthy – Shop Healthy” initiative is a partnership between the Health Dept., the University of Missouri Extension that address both the supply and demand sides of the food-desert conundrum. Taylor says they’ve reached out to several corner grocery stores and convenience stores, particularly those without bakeries and other healthy options. But she says they have not had a very good response.
Taylor stresses that such a move is good for business. One Missouri store discovered dramatic increases in sales.
“His biggest income was from alcohol, but after he implemented Stock Healthy – Shop Healthy he actually moved his alcohol display toward the back of the store,” Taylor said. “He was having so much success offering healthier foods that that become the focal point of the store when you first walked in.
The grant program offers marketing tools, everything from shelving and posters, to advice on taste testing, cooking classes, setup and layout.
“We can provide some of the fruit baskets, or the racks and trays, things that you can store to sell the healthier food options. And then like the posters, they call them ‘shelf talkers,” where you put them on the shelf and people would see ‘do you know that the cost of a banana is cheaper than the cost of a candy bar?, and they say ‘hey, I’m going to buy a banana instead of a candy bar.’ ”
Businesses interested in taking part in the grant program can call Taylor at the City of St. Joseph Health Dept. at (816) 236-1491. You can also find details at the Missouri Extension Web site here.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – High school educators interested in learning computer science skills and trends they can use to help prepare students for the 21st century workforce are encouraged to participate in a summer workshop sponsored by Northwest Missouri State University.
The workshop, offered during two weeks in June on Northwest’s Maryville campus, will train teachers on coding and creating websites in addition to introductions of mobile apps and the internet.
Interested individuals need no background in computer science to participate.
“We will literally start from scratch, and our goal is to provide a gentle introduction to these topics,” Dr. Michael Rodgers, associate professor of computer science and information systems at Northwest, said. “All of the presenters have experience working with teachers and are attuned to their needs.”
Participants will receive hands-on introductions to new technology during each day of the workshop. They will work through entertaining exercises suitable for students, develop lesson plans and test those plans by teaching them to peers.
The workshop incorporates Scratch, a kid-friendly and popular visual programming language, and Cloud 9, a cloud-based environment that allows students to publish their work, as well as mobile app development using Android Studio and Swift Playgrounds, internet of things, and Hour of Code.
Participants will attend two sessions, June 19-20 and June 26-27. Lodging may be included with registration. The first 25 individuals to register will receive $400 plus lodging expenses for completing the program.
Registrants also may choose to receive one or two graduate credit hours from Northwest and a professional development certificate.
For more information about the workshop, contact Michael Rogers at [email protected]. To register, contact Beccy Baldwin at (660) 562-1995 or visit nwrpdc.org
1926 Missouri map. Photo courtesy Missouri Department of Transportation website.
The new 2017-2018 Official Missouri State Highway Map is now available.
The map features brighter colors and stronger paper to make it both easier to read and more durable. Also, new interstate interchanges and exit numbers have been added since the last published edition in 2013.
The map shows Missouri’s 33,873-mile highway system and is distributed free of charge.
“We created the map using cutting-edge Geographic Information System software to provide Missourians with the most accurate information possible,” said MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna. “In addition to the traditional paper map, drivers can also visit our online Traveler Information Map to get current updates on road closures, work zones and road conditions.”
The location of truck parking along the interstates is now designated on the map and legend. Missouri State Parks have been updated and include the new Rock Island spur of the Katy Trail. The location of Missouri Conservation Management Areas and National Fish and Wildlife Areas are new to this map. The Kansas City inset map now shows the KC Streetcar line with stations.
Other information includes easy-to-locate emergency telephone numbers, reminders about some of Missouri’s traffic laws and contact information for the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Missouri Department of Transportation district offices. The map also marks historic sites, hospitals, airports, Amtrak stations, colleges and universities.
Map facts:
There are more than 4,000 highway shields and 1,500 towns shown on the front of the current map.
The first road map released by the State Highway Department was in 1918. The map was printed in black and white with no photos.
There are two versions of the 1939 map. The maps have the same cover but carry different information on the back.
The 1942 and 1944 maps have the same cover.
There was no map printed in 1943 because of World War II.
Special maps were printed in 2004 to commemorate the Lewis and Clark bicentennial and again in 2013 to commemorate MoDOT’s centennial.
Jefferson City is one of only four state capitals not served by the interstate highway system. Juneau, Alaska; Dover, Delaware; and Pierre, South Dakota are the others.
To request a free map, contact MoDOT at 1-888-ASK-MODOT or click here.
Mary Poppins performance coming to Bode Ice Arena. Courtesy Photo
Local skaters to present “Mary Poppins, Across the Frozen Pond” next weekend at Bode Ice Arena.
According to a news release, “Spoonful of Sugar”, “”Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” and other classic songs will be brought to the ice in the St. Joseph Figure Skating Club’s annual spring show.
The St. Joseph Figure Skating Club will present “Mary Poppins, Across the Frozen Pond” on May 19, 20 and 21. Show times are 7 p.m. on May 19 and 20, and 2 p.m. on the 21st.
More than 70 skaters from the Figure Skating Club and Bode’s Learn to Skate USA Program will perform in a production based on the musical. The show features the magical nanny character as well as George Banks and his children.
Show Director Debbie Cole Gerber said “Mary Poppins, Across the Frozen Pond” includes some elements that weren’t in the well-known film, such as statues that come to life.
“There are a lot of underlying lessons to learn about how you deal with people and friends while growing up,” she said. “And the skating is better and better.”
Tickets are $10 for adults, with children 12 and under admitted for free, if accompanied by an adult with a ticket. The performances are at the Bode Ice Arena, 2500 Southwest Parkway. For tickets, call Bode Ice Arena at 271-5506 or send an email to [email protected].
Levester Harvey
A St. Joseph man accused of assaulting his roommate with a golf club was granted bail this week, but remains in custody in the Buchanan County Jail. In court documents, police said Levester Harvey was drunk and got into an argume nt with his roommate on April 28 at their home.
An affidavit accuses Harvey of approaching the victim from behind and hit him in the head with a golf club, causing serious injuries.
Harvey appeared in court Thursday for the preliminary hearing docket on one count of domestic assault in the third degree. A judge originally denied bail, but Associate Circuit Judge Rebecca Spencer on Thursday agreed to set bond at $7,500 surety at the request of Harvey’s attorney. Judge Spencer ordered Harvey to have no contact with the victim, not consume alcohol and wear a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM) bracelet.
Harvey waived his right to a preliminary hearing. By Saturday he remained in custody in lieu of bond. He’s due back in court for arraignment May 18 at 8:30 a.m. before Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg.
An upcoming bull riding event will honor and benefit veterans.
“Riding For Our Veterans” is a non-profit organization based out of Carrollton that started in 2014. One of the founders, Larry Oster said their mission is to help veterans and veterans organizations that are in need.
“If a veteran is in need, they are more than welcome to be able to fill out an application for whatever that need might be. That goes in front of our board, that might be monetarily, it might be able to help them get to another agency, we’ve helped guys find employment,” Oster said. “We don’t just give a hand out, we give a hand up. It’s not a habitual deal, we go to the source of the problem… Especially if it’s a monetary deal, we go to that problem and we take care of that issue, we don’t just hand the money out. We want people to be assured that if they trust us with their money to be able to help these guys and gals, our veterans that have given so much for our country, that it goes to the needs that they have.”
“Riding For Our Veterans” will hold a bull riding event this month in Chillicothe. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. with the main show starting at 7 p.m. on May 26 and 27 at the Litton Ag Center.
