A family and firefighters are safe after a flue fire at a home in Livingston County Friday that ignited some ammo.

Chief Darrell Wright with the Chillicothe Fire Department said crews responded to a home located at in the 11000 block of Liv 2313 around 9:20 a.m.

“While we were in route we were advised that the roof was now on fire,” Wright said. “Upon arrival, we found a 1 1/2 story structure with smoke coming from the eaves.”

Wright said all of the individuals in the home were out when crews arrived on scene.

“We made entry with hand line to the upstairs part of the house.  We could hear ammunition popping so we waited until we had water to open the upstairs door and cool the room,” Wright said. “The upstairs storage room was hot enough that it had ignited some of the contents.  Entry was made and the fire was found to be behind the fireplace and into the structure framing around the fireplace.”

Wright said the fire spread into the storage room and smoke damage went throughout the entire structure.  No injuries were reported.

“We were on scene for about 3 1/2 hours,” Wright said. “Cause of the fire is listed to be started by a flue fire that was not contained to the flue.”

The Chillicothe Fire Department received mutual aid with a tanker from the Chula Fire Department.  The Green Township Fire Department was also called but canceled prior to arriving.

 

The Sears in St. Joseph is on the chopping block in the latest list of store closings.

Sears Holdings said in an effort to continue to strategically and aggressively evaluate its store space and productively it is closing some unprofitable stores.

Wednesday, the company informed associates at 78 Kmart stores and 26 Sears stores that their stores would be closings this spring.  On that list is the Sears in St. Joseph.

Sears Holdings said the decision to close stores is difficult but necessary as it moves to take actions to strengthen the company’s operations and fund its transformation.  It said many of the stores closing have struggled with their financial performance for years.

“We have kept them open to maintain local jobs and in the hopes that they would turn around. But in order to meet our objective of returning to profitability, we have to make tough decisions and will continue to do so, which will give our better performing stores a chance at success,” the company stated in a news release.

It said eligible associates impacted by the store closures will receive severance and will have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Kmart or Sears stores.

Liquidation sales will begin as early as January 6 at all closing stores.  Sears Holdings said the St. Joseph location will close at the end of March.  In December the company previously announced 46 other locations up for closure.

Snowplows are getting prepped to hit roadways as a winter storm heads towards the region.

The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 9 a.m. Thursday.  It’s predicting snow accumulations of two to three inches contributing to hazardous driving conditions during that time frame.  The Missouri Department of Transportation was already urging drivers Wednesday morning to stay home if possible Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

“If you don’t need to be out stay home,” said Marty Liles, MoDOT Northwest District Maintenance & Traffic Engineer.

Liles said MoDOT has around 180 trucks in the Northwest District to cover 20 counties.  He said they started evaluating plans for the incoming storm Wednesday morning in talking with officials across the region and looking at the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.

“With this one coming in during the day if it does happen we have people that are going to be watching.  Trucks are already ready to go with their salt and mixed material to start treating as needed.  We also have a night shift planned tonight to help with this snowfall,” Liles said. “Every storm is a little different.”

Liles said he’s expecting to see drier snow and cold temperatures.

“Pavement temperatures are going to get cold, the air temperature is going to be really cold and the snow is going to be drier so it’s not going to stick as well,” Liles said. “They did talk like the winds could be coming in a little more tomorrow and causing a little more drifting.”

Keven Schneider, Interim Superintendent of Streets for the City of St. Joseph said they are continue to monitor the forecast and will make a decision later Wednesday afternoon on if they need to pretreat roads.

“We’ll keep watching the updates as they come in and make a final decision late in the afternoon,” Schneider said. “If we don’t do pretreating.  If it’s a lower percentage what we do is we wait until it actually starts with winter weather.”

The Streets Department has around 14 trucks ready to go.  Schneider said they currently have one or two in the shop.

“The main routes always get hit first.  The designated emergency routes,” Schneider said. “Anytime when there’s winter weather those will 99.9 percent of the time be the best condition out of any of the streets.”

He said around three inches of snow is needed before city crews start plowing.

“If it’s 2.5″ and it’s still coming then yes we will start to plow,” Schneider said. “Or if we get to three and it’s still coming we’ll start to plow.”

However, there is a two hour delay before crews start plowing.

“Once we declare Phase 2 which removes parking from emergency routes…there’s a two hour window before it takes effect.  There’s two reasons, it allows residents to get their vehicles off emergency routes and it also allows us to get the plows mounted and get everything set to get out to plow,” Schneider said. “If you see us coming try to give us a little bit of room.  We hate people getting right behind us and getting salt all over their car.”

The National Weather Service is forecasting the incoming system to be fast-moving with most accumulation taking place overnight. However, NWS said several inches of snow accumulation at cold temperatures could mean potentially snow-covered roads on Thursday morning complicating the morning commute.  Both Schneider and Liles urge drivers, that if they have to get out to take their time, use safe driving practices and be on the lookout for plows.  Liles also urges people to make sure they have plenty of gas and blankets in their vehicles just in case.

Making your home look less appealing to burglars could make break-ins less likely.

St. Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally in an interview with KFEQ’s Barry Birr talked about how most burglars like to break-into homes.

Connally brought a report to talk about on the Hotline that was compiled by KGW out of Portland that asked 86 burglars how they broke into homes.

“Burglars don’t want to be seen.  They look for homes with big fences and overgrown trees or bushes,” Connally said. “A nice home and a nice car, a person with money in other words.”

Connally said he used the report as a tool for his class he teaches as an adjunct-professor at Missouri Western State University.

“Most burglars prefer breaking in earlier mornings or afternoon between 12:30 and 2:30,” Connally said. “Anyone who was home from lunch should be gone by then and most kids are gone at school.”

Having a big loud dog also seemed to keep burglars away.  Also, in many cases Connally said burglars knock on the front door before breaking in.

“He (burglar) said I’d act like I was lost or looking for a friend, I would approach the residence as if they’d posted an ad on Craig’s List,” Connally said.

Leaving a light on in your house 24/7 didn’t seem to bother many burglars in the survey.

“One burglar said the combination of lights on and blinds closed created an attractive location,” Connally said. “Would drive through upperclass neighborhoods looking for many things like porch light on and all blinds closed wrote one inmate.”

Connally said having a light on a timer is a better solution.  Also, leaving a radio or a TV on in the home seemed to keep burglars at bay.

“Almost all burglars said they would think twice if there is a car in the driveway,” Connally said.

CLICK HERE to read the survey he references in full.

Connally said if a St. Joseph resident plans to go out of town he suggests signing up for the department’s watch residence program.

“We’ll send an officer by every day to check on your house,” Connally said. “It’s a free service and I would encourage folks to take advantage of that.”

CLICK HERE for a link to sign-up for the watch residence program.

10. Python adoptions hit record numbers at St. Joseph Animal Shelter

The City of St. Joseph saw an increase in Ball Pythons found around town this year. In October we reported that the St. Joseph Animal Shelter found four Pythons around town and two other people called in to report finding two others and keeping them. That’s the most snakes found in St. Joseph ever, according to Stephen Normal with the shelter.

9. First time for second Shop St. Joseph grand prize drawing

For the first time in St. Joseph history, a second drawing of a Shop St. Joseph ticket resulted in a grand prize. Earlier this month, John and Mae Osborn of Savannah won the $10,000.

8. Area sports teams get new coaches

Both Northwest Missouri State University and Missouri Western State University hired new coaches in 2016.  Northwest named Rich Wright as the 20th head coach of Bearcat Football Dec. 19.  Matt Willimson was named the sixth head football coach in Western history Dec. 5.

The St. Joseph School District saw three coaches leave the district. In April, Chris Neff resigned as the boys basketball coach at Lafayette.  In November, Matt Tabor stepped down as head coach of Benton’s High School football program.  Earlier this month, Phil Pitts announced he’s resigning as Central High School’s head football coach.

7. Silver patrol cars make debut on St. Joseph streets

At the beginning of June, the St. Joseph Police Department started phasing in its new silver patrol vehicles.  The six new Impalas and one Ford Taurus arrived around the beginning of the year but setting up all of the equipment required for officers to hit the road took some time.

6. Spratt Stadium renovations completed

Spratt Memorial Stadium at Missouri Western held its grand opening of the new Craig Field in August. The over $7 million construction project began in May 2015. New at the stadium are a concourse, concessions area, restrooms, team store, club level, including suites, and press box. Repairs and improvements were made to the home grandstand seating. There is also new field turf, a 2,500 square foot video scoreboard and Victory Plaza.

5. November Presidential Election

In Buchanan County 36,222 people cast ballots in the Nov. 8 election, a voter turnout of 69.58 percent.  Around 15-percent less than the turnout predicted.

4. Winter weather causes crashes and delays in getting children home from school

Two police vehicles, three St. Joseph Public Works and Transportation spreader trucks and one pick-up were damaged as well as several school buses during a winter storm that hit earlier this month.  The slick conditions caused issues in transporting students in the St. Joseph School District home.  The last kids were dropped off around 10:15 Friday, Dec. 16.  During the weather event, officers with the St. Joseph Police Department responded to around 75 crashes around town.

3. Atchison Plume

A chemical release occurred at MGP Ingredients in Atchison, Kan. in October after two commonly used chemicals were inadvertently mixed during a routine delivery.  As a result of the chemical plume more than 100 people sought medical treatment related to respiratory concerns. While the plume was over the city of Atchison, residents were urged to stay inside for several hours, several schools were evacuated and residents were told to close all windows, and turn off air and furnaces.

2. Reuters report deems St. Joseph worse than Flint for cases of lead poisoning 

A special report released earlier this month by the well-known business and financial news organization names St. Joseph of of nearly 3,000 places with more cases of lead poisoning than Flint, Michigan.  Reporters tied St. Joseph’s lead poisoning in children mostly to neighborhoods with old homes.

1. Pioneer building catches fire

The building located at 5th and Francis, commonly known as the Pioneer building was destroyed by a large fire in November.  The building was also known as the historic Tootle Opera House.  The St. Joseph Fire Department said around 60 firefighters were on scene with around 15 firetrucks.  The Savannah Fire Department and the Rosecrans Memorial Airport Fire Department assisted. Crews are still investigating the cause of the fire.

Buchanan County has transferred land to the Missouri National Guard for the construction of a new training site in northwest Missouri.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Danner said the around 46 acres near the intersection of Interstate 29 and North 169 Highway on the northeast corner will eventually become a training site similar to Camp Clark in Neveda, Mo.

“We don’t have anything in northwest Missouri so as we continue to build our Army strength and Air quite frankly we need to have a training camp that our soldiers and airmen can use,” Danner said. “Camp Clark has barracks, training areas, firing ranges etc. We hope to build this piece of ground into a similar configuration.”

During a ceremony Thursday, Buchanan County Commissioners signed the paperwork to transfer the land.

“It’s going to be a big boost for the economy and the community,” said Dan Hausman, Eastern District Commissioner. “It’s great to be the commissioner that makes it happen.  It was a group effort and there were a lot of people involved. I’m going out of office tomorrow and I’m glad we got it done before I left.”

Engineers with the guard will now need to work on a strategy for the future on how to configure the camp. However, Danner said the land could be used as soon as 2017.

“In the army we do things in tents. So being in the field etc. is what we do every day. The piece of ground that we have here is already a training ground for us to be able to use,” Danner said. “This won’t happen overnight but we will be able to utilize it very quickly so I can see us next summer being able to do things here.”

Around 2,000 army units located in northwest Missouri would utilize the site. Danner said he’s also looking at bringing in additional units into the state.

“I think it will be hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in savings to the tax payers in reduced travel costs and fuel costs. Plus it will give me an opportunity to bring more units in,” Danner said. “Each of those units brings in $3-to-$3.5 million in payroll every year. So when I’m talking about bringing in five new units to the state that’s a lot of payroll to our folks and a lot of jobs.”

In order to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that a proposed asset swap with Sanofi would be anti-competitive Boehringer Ingelheim has agreed to divest several animal health products in the United States.

The FTC announced the agreement Wednesday.

As we previously reported, Boehringer announced in November asset swap plans with Sanofi. The FTC said under the proposed swap, Boehringer will acquire Sanofi’s animal care subsidiary, Merial, valued at $13.53 billion, and Sanofi will obtain Boehringer’s consumer health care business unit, valued at $7.98 billion, as well as cash compensation of $5.54 billion.

However, the FTC filed a complaint alleging that without Boehringer divesting its animal health products the asset swap would harm competition in the U.S. markets for various vaccines for pets and certain parasite control products for cattle and sheep.  The transaction would also lead to higher prices and reduced services in the markets.  Under the proposed consent order Boehringer will divest the companion animal vaccines to Eli Lilly and the company’s Elanco Animal Health division, and the parasite control products to Bayer AG.

Earlier this month, Bayer announced it signed an agreement to acquire Boehringer’s CYDECTIN bovine and ovine endectocide products.

“This transaction underlines our strategy to strengthen our portfolio with bolt-on acquisitions,” said Dr. Dirk Ehle, Head of Bayer Animal Health. “The U.S. is our most important market, and the addition of the CYDECTIN products will help further strengthen our position in cattle parasiticides in the U.S.”

According to the FTC to ensure the consent order is achieved Boehringer is required to provide technical assistance and other transition services so the companies can independently manufacture and sell the products. The FTC order also includes an asset maintenance order and it appoints a monitor to oversee the divestiture process.

CLICK HERE to read the FTC release on the divestitures conditions.

 

A chase out of Doniphan County ended in a crash in front of South Belt Walmart Tuesday night.

The St. Joseph Police Department shutdown South Belt Highway for about an hour Tuesday after the crash.  An advisory was issued shortly before 9:30 p.m. warning drivers to avoid the 3000 block of S. Belt.

Sgt. Roy Hoskins with the St. Joseph Police Department said the pursuit started in Doniphan County and the St. Joseph Police Department was assisting when it crossed into their jurisdiction.

Officer Patrick Zemer with the St. Joseph Police Department Traffic Unit said they were called in to work the crash.

“The vehicle was trying to elude them and went through a red light and struck a vehicle in the intersection and hit a median,” Zemer said. “All parties involved went to the hospital.”

Zemer said an adult and a small child in the other vehicle both from St. Joseph were transported with what police described as minor injuries.  The suspect, also a St. Joseph resident was also transported with what was described as a minor injury.

Authorities are still investigating.  Zemer said charges in reference to the crash in St. Joseph have been submitted to the prosecutor’s office for consideration. Both Zemer and Hoskins said they could not comment on the pursuit.  We are currently awaiting a call back from the Doniphan County Sheriff’s Office for further details in the case.