An effort to save and restore the “Cracker House” in St Joseph has run into a technical stumbling block, but the group behind that effort will press on.

Mike Grimm of the Cracker House Project says the St Joseph City Council had no choice last week but to rescind a Save Our Heritage Grant from the City of St Joseph, because it had expired. Mr Grimm says they’re in the process of getting estimates this week for the first phase of the restoratio project. Once they know about how much it will cost, Mr Grimm says they will apply for the grant again.

He’s optimistic. “Very much so. Most everyone with the city is on board with this,” he said in an interview.

“There really are very few houses that have not been torn down that have national historic significance. This happens to be one of them.”

The Cracker House is the name given to the home of Frank L. Sommer at 914 Main St. It was built in 1882.

“Not only did Frank Sommer invent the Saltine Cracker, but he also operated the Sommer/Richarson Bakery,” Grimm said.

“He contributed a lot to the city, employing 300 people and producing 4,000 boxes of Saltines each day,” he said, “giving settlers heading west from St Joseph a non-perishable food source that they’d never had before.”

That bakery was located in the building now occupied by the Robidoux Landing Playhouse, at 103 Francis Street in downtown St Joseph. Mr Grimm’s family has lived in St Joseph for several generations. He says his grandfather, a trolley conductor, very likely stopped off at the bakery from time to time to enjoy the offerings there.

The city sets a dealine for the Save Our Heritage grants each year of June 30. The City Landmark Commission will go through them, and divvy up the available funds, before sending the package to the City Council for approval. The grants are expected to be awarded by August 4. The Landmark commission decides who gets the grants and how much money they get, based on the number of grant requests.

“You can apply for any amount you want, but the amount is decided by the landmark commission,” Mr Grimm said.

The building is not in very good shape. Grimm says the first phase of the restoration project would involve removing the roof and the debris from the inside, removing the collapsed parts of the structure and the floor and then bracing the walls. The group expects to get bids from contractors later this week or early next week. That will determine how much money they will request in the grant application. The previous grant, which actuall expired last August, was for $29,000. Grimm says they will likely ask for less that that, because the group has to come up with twice the grant amount in matching funds.

“We don’t want to get more than we need, because then we’d have to raise more,” Grimm says.

The group’s long-term goal is to open a non-profit museum in the space, and then put up exhibits at other museums in the city, to let visitors to St Joe know what’s available here. Grim says they’d love to see street trollies resurrected in St Joseph, and hopes the Cracker House would be the first stop.

You can find out more about the project at their Web site at www.crackerhouseproject.org, or you can visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/CrackerHouseProject. The photographs here are from the groups Web site and are used with permission.

A former officer for the Country Club Village Police Department pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from the theft of cash from the department’s evidence room

Dustin Kirschner admitted the theft in an interview with investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol late last year. Mr Kirschner was charged with stealing, a Class-C felony. In a plea bargain, Andrew County authorities reduced that charge to attempted stealing. The defendant pleaded guilty on Tuesday.

Andrew County Associate Circuit Judge Michael Ordnung accepted the plea and placed Mr Kirshner on three years of supervised probation.

Defense lawyer Jim Nadolski says his client’s law-enforcement career is over. Mr Nadolski says Kirschner is now working for a lawn service.

Officials say there were actually about two dozen incidents in which cash was taken from the evidence room, totalling about $4,100.

A preliminary hearing scheduled this week for a Cameron man charged with murdering his wife has been put off until next month.

Clinton County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Gagnon requested and was granted a continuance in the case of Adam Baker. Mr. Baker is charged with Second Degree Murder and Armed Criminal Action in connection with the fatal shooting of his wife Holly Baker in February.

The case was delayed earlier when the judge in the case recused herself. Several weeks later, Carroll County Associate Judge Kevin L. Walden was named by the Supreme Court of Missouri to hear the case. Judge Walden scheduled the hearing for April 1, but the case has now been pushed back to may 11.

According to a release from the Cameron Police Department, Clinton County deputies and officers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol responded to a disturbance call at the couple’s home. When officers arrived they found the victim dead in the home and took her husband into custody.

Mr. Baker is being held under $75,000 cash bond.

Richard Sipe, YMCA Board President announced today the decision by Mark F. Cartledge, YMCA CEO to pursue what he describes as his “calling”. “Mark Cartledge provided our Board with a letter of his intent to pursue other employment within the YMCA Movement. Mark Cartledge, in his letter of intent to the YMCA Board, wrote “I pray you will understand my life’s passion for the YMCA Movement and support me and my family with this important journey”.

“We understand Mark’s 35-year passion for the YMCA and fully support his desire to continue his journey within the YMCA Movement”, said Richard Sipe, Board President. The YMCA Board has a deep appreciation for the more than a decade of work that Mark has provided our YMCA and our community.

In 2004 when Mark Cartledge accepted the CEO position our YMCA had nearly a million dollars in loan debt, 13-years of annual deficits, a critical need for building infrastructure improvements, and hopes of a future campaign to build an additional YMCA Family Branch. Together as staff and volunteers, we have nurtured our YMCA back to health and with the generosity of our community we have a new Campus Family Branch in the new St. Joseph Community Campus”.

“Mark was asked a few years ago to make a commitment to seeing the “Building Dreams – Growing Lives” campaign through to the eventual building and opening of the new branch. Mark has honored that commitment and more,” said Richard Sipe, Board President.

Today our YMCA celebrates 8-years of balanced annual budgets, significant infrastructure investments in our Downtown Family Branch and Explorers Early Learning Center, has developed significant partnerships in our community that have resulted in a new Children’s Learning Campus at Oak Grove Elementary School, a new Campus Family Branch and soon a 10,000 sq foot fully accessible playground, located in the new St. Joseph Community Campus, to name a few.

“Any success our YMCA has achieved is the direct result of the strong partnership between YMCA staff and volunteers. Our Y is blessed to have such dedicated and committed volunteers and staff that roll up their sleeves and go to work for our YMCA and our community”. Our community is very generous and has demonstrated their support of the Y Mission through their many gifts”. My time here has truly been a blessing, said Mark Cartledge, YMCA CEO.

Richard Sipe said “Mark will continue to provide leadership to our YMCA Association, and provide a smooth and seamless transition in leadership. Our Board will begin the preparations needed to identify and recruit a new YMCA CEO. Until then, we look forward to Mark’s continued leadership of our Y, and want to wish Mark and his family the very best as they pursue their important journey.”

(UPDATE 2:33pm) According to Captain Jeff Wilson of the St Joseph Police Department two youngsters fishing at Corby Pond snagged some clothing on their fishing lines. The juveniles called police at approximately 1pm. Shortly after 2pm, crews pulled a body from the pond.

Captain Wilson tells Nadia Thacker there is no way to know at this time how long the body had been in the water. Captain Wilson says it appears to be the body of a white male in his mid-40s. They have not yet identified the body. An autopsy is planned as the investigation continues.

Crews from the St Joseph Fire Department, Buchanan County EMS, and the St Joseph Police Department are on the scene. They are not letting anyone into the area, which is standard procedure.

Northeast and Northwest Parkway are blocked off at the 22nd Street bridge as well as just north and east of the pond.

To read the latest on the police investigation click here.

The St Joseph City Council on Monday approved tax incentives and bond financing in hopes of luring a bacon producer to St Joseph.

Officials with the city and the St Joseph Chamber of Commerce say a move here by Daily’s Premium Meats would create more than 200 new jobs with average starting pay of over $32,000 per year.

Council members approved the two resolutions without discussion as part of the council’s consent agenda. The company would qualify for $15 million in financing through Industrial Development Revenue Bonds. The city would also abate the company’s taxes through the St Joseph Enhanced Enterprise Zone Program. The resolution would abate 100% of the company’s taxes for the first five years, and 75% for the next five years.

Daily’s is partly owned by Triumph Foods and Seaboard Corp. The company is considering a production facility at 5501 Stockyards Expressway, across from the Triumph facility here. The company markets bacon primarily to restaurants.

A 21-year-old Cameron woman was injured in a rollover crash near Kingston last night.

According to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Amanda Wiedmaier lost control of her Mitsubishi along S.W. Duroc Road seven miles west of Kingston shortly after 11pm. The vehicle left the roadway, struck a utility pole and overturned three times.

Ms Wiedmaier was transported to Cameron Regional Medical Center with what were described at the scene as moderate injuries.