Special Olympics of Missouri’s North Area will hold its annual Area Bowling Tournament Saturday at the Southside Family Fun Center in St Joseph (6938 King Hill Ave).

Opening ceremonies will begin at 7:40am and the competition starts at 8am.  Organizers expect athletes from Maryville, Rockport, Mound City, Savannah, St. Joseph and Kansas to take part.  

 

Officials with the St Joseph School District say 40 students from the district will be taking part starting at 8am, with another four starting at 11am and four more at 2pm.

Athletes compete to qualify for the State Games in Fort Leonard Wood in March.

Athletes compete in individual, doubles, team, bumper, ramp and unified bowling throughout the day.

Special Olympics Missouri is a year-round program of sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. More than 17,000 athletes participate in 21 Olympic-type sports throughout the state. Special Olympics provides people with intellectual disabilities continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, and experience joy as they participate in the sharing of gifts and friendship with their fellow athletes, their family and friends, and communities across Missouri.

Visit Special Olympics at www.somo.org or on Twitter: @somissouri; fb.com/specialolympicsmo.

An outdoor severe weather siren will soon make several neighborhoods in eastern St Joseph safer. The siren was donated by Altec Industries and is placed on Weisenborn Road near US-36 highway and Riverside Road.

Following the recommendations from local contractor Blue Valley Public Safety, Altec’s local Safety Department spearheaded an effort to keep businesses and citizens of the eastern portions of the city aware of severe weather and an eminent tornado.

“After Blue Valley Public Safety toured the campus, it was determined that a new siren would benefit not only our associates, but the eastern parts of the city located on the perimeter of coverage by the closest existing outdoor weather siren,” said Sandy Travis, Corporate Regional Health and Safety Representative.

To further increase severe weather safety, Altec held a series of events to help establish safer evacuation and shelter plans for the company. Shelter locations were moved to centralized locations rather than small offices and bathrooms located throughout the campus.

“After reviewing our tornado warning in our plant safety events, it was realized that siren coverage in this part of the city was limited. This siren not only ensures the safety of our associates, but it gives Altec a great opportunity to give back to our neighbors and community,” said Colby Edwards, Altec Midwest Director of Operations.

St. Joseph now has 22 outdoor weather sirens. The new siren can be heard up to one mile away in all directions and covers the areas of Deer Park and Mitchell Woods. All city sirens are narrow-banded and have two-way capabilities, meaning they can transmit information along with receiving transmissions. The siren was purchased from Blue Valley Public Safety, which has contracted with the city to maintain the sirens.

(News Release, City of St. Joseph)

Two more people have been charged in connection with a child-endangerment investigation in Ravenwood. Investigators now say James and Sabrina McDaniel allowed their two pre-teenage daughters to remain with Gary Alan Koebel. According to the probable cause affidavits, the children were left in a situation where they were “in danger of suffering from mental, physical and/or sexual abuse.”

Koebel has been accused of fondling the older daughter. He’s charged with child endangerment, child molestation and possession of methamphetamine. (Click here for more)

The McDaniels are each being held under $4,900 bond pending their first court appearance November 18.

MoDOT has announced formation of a new Web site dedicated to bridge closures. They say there’s been a recent flurry of unplanned closures.

The bridge closure page can be found on MoDOT’s website at http://www.modot.org/. Click on the “bridge closure” banner.

Or click here.

Included on the page are inspection photos, the reason for the bridge closure, corrective actions to be taken and how they will be paid for, a map of the bridge location and recommended detours by way of state highways.

“With the large number of bridges we have in Missouri, all of which are aging every day, and with our construction budget continuing to decline, it’s likely we will see more closures in the future,” Chief Engineer Ed Hassinger said.

“We close bridges if we deem them to be unsafe as a result of an inspection or some other incident – like a crash,” State Bridge Engineer Dennis Heckman said. “We want to provide drivers and residents with all of the information they need to cope with an inconvenience that can have quite an impact. In some cases a closure can cause significant detours.”

–MoDOT News Release

Platte County authorities announced an arrest in a homicide last weekend.

Investigators say  Francisco Javier Vargas III was found in a home on Twin Springs Road north of Parkville November 1.  Officials said Vargas suffered multiple injuries.

The case was assigned to the Metro Squad, which was able to track down a suspect in Kansas City, Kansas Thursday afternoon.   The case remains under investigation and is being transitioned back from the metro squad to the Platte County Sheriff’s Office.  The suspect’s name has not been released.