(Missourinet) – The National Weather Service is warning that there is a slight risk for severe thunderstorms in much of Missouri today.

The weather service predicts rain and thunderstorms this morning will break up by the afternoon, but another round is expected to develop around 5 or 6 this evening in western Missouri and sweep northeast according to lead forecaster at St. Louis, Jim Sieveking.

“That’s when we could expect the potential for some severe thunderstorms with large hail, some damaging winds, and we can’t rule out maybe an isolated tornado,” Sieveking told Missourinet.

Areas said to be at a slight risk this evening include the Kansas City and St. Louis regions and southwest and south-central Missouri.

The first round of severe storms in a season often catches some people off guard, so Sieveking is reminding Missourians to pay attention.

“This afternoon into this evening just be aware of if there are any watches that are issued, severe thunderstorm or tornado watches that are issued, and then if a warning is issued for your area then take action,” said Sieveking. “Go to the lowest floor of your building. Even if it’s severe thunderstorm, large hail and damaging winds can blow out windows and so forth so I always encourage everybody to just go downstairs until the storm passes.”

Another slight risk of severe weather is predicted for tomorrow but is more limited to southern Missouri.

Sieveking says southern Missouri could also be at risk for flooding tomorrow.

“That front kind of lights up tomorrow and it looks like the thunderstorms might train across southeast Missouri so we could get some heavy rainfall down there. Looks like one to two inches of rain could happen,” said Sieveking. “Those areas saw a lot of snow and a

lot of precipitation over the last couple of weeks.”

ST. JOSEPH, MO—The Allied Arts Council is proud to announce the winners of St. Joe’s Got Talent. The top acts took center stage March 21 at the Missouri Theater.  Mary Beth Rosenauer performing “Apres Moi” won the Critic’s Choice award, and RiverSong, performing “The Perfect Barbershop Song” was the People’s Choice recipient. 2nd place in the Critic’s Choice was Ashlyn Ford performing “I Know It’s Today” and taking 3rd place were Brandon Kusilek and Grace Chester performing a mashup of “Anywhere With You” and “Bright.”

Rosenauer, St. Joe’s Got Talent’s grand winner received $250 plus a chance to perform at the 2015 Trails West!®. Throughout the night the audience had several opportunities to vote for their favorite act by putting money in the jar of their favorites. People’s Choice award winner RiverSong also received $250, and donated it back to the 2015 Arts Fund Drive.

For additional information about the Arts Fund, or related activities please call the Allied Arts office at 816-233-0231, visit the office at 118 South Eighth Street in St. Joseph, or the website http://www.stjoearts.org.

The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce is warning its members not to give out information over the phone to a caller claiming to be doing business for the Chamber.

In an email sent out Friday afternoon the Chamber said, “Some Chamber members have notified us that they’ve been contacted by telephone by a person asking multiple questions about their business. When asked the purpose of the call, the caller has said that they are updating their Chamber information.”

“The Chamber received a call last week and then one this week from some members saying that they had received a call that was a little suspicious,” Kristi Bailey, Chamber Spokeswoman said. “Asking a lot of questions about their business and when the person asked who’s asking the person that was calling said they were calling on behalf of the Chamber wanting to update their information.”

However, Bailey said the Chamber has not authorized any outside company to do this.

“As far as we know they weren’t asking for any financial information.  One was asking about office management.  Not really sure what profitable information they were seeking,” Bailey said. “I think it’s probably better just not to share anything because they were obviously misrepresenting themselves.”

Bailey urges anyone contacted by the caller to simply hang up and not give out any information.

The Chamber adds that if it conducts a survey like this in the future staff will notify members via mail or email beforehand.

The list to fill the St. Joseph School Board spot left vacant by Dr. Dan Colgan’s resignation has already topped 14 as of Friday afternoon with several more days left for applications to be received.

Three more letters of intent were received Friday in the Superintendent’s Office. Letters were received from:

Larry Hahn
Mary Jo Burger
Karen Hauser

The following have already submitted letters of intent:
Eric Bruder
Brian Cronk
Matthew Brock
Jeff Bird
David Mason
Dennis Dornhoffer
William “Bill” Church
Michael Dulcan
Roy Kunkle
Diana Slawson
Mike Veale

Letters of intent must be delivered by Monday, March 23 at 4pm to the Superintendent’s Office to be considered.

Carden Park Elementary School Counselor Amy Adkins was surprised Friday morning to be named the Northwest Missouri Counselor of the year.

“I did not have any idea, totally suprised,” Adkins said. “They kind of tricked me into going to this meeting this morning and then it was announced while we were there.”

Adkins was named counselor of the year by the Northwest Missouri School Counselors Association during a meeting Friday morning at EmpowerU.

Adkins has been a counselor with the St. Joseph School District for 13 years and said she deals with many different types of situations facing students.

“It could be anything from being upset over a bad grade to not having sufficient clothing to troubles at home,” Adkins said.

Prior to working at Carden Park Adkins was a counselor at Humboldt Elementary and Webster when it was still an elementary school.

The St Joseph Police Department is searching for a suspect after six historic gold coins disappeared from the Pony Express Museum Thursday afternoon.

Museum Executive director Cindy Daffron said a maintenance worker first notice the coins were missing from the Pony Express Era Coin display around 7 p.m. while cleaning up the museum located at 914 Penn St.

She said surveillance footage caught a man in the act taking the coins from the case.

“There’s a camera on it and so we have it on tape,” Daffron said. “Hope that he hasn’t melted down our wonderful coins, they’re gold.”

She said in 2008 the coins had an appraised value of around  $6,000.  The missing coins date back to the 1800s.

“They date back to 1860 or 1861 they are the most valuable ones,” Daffron said. “One of them was very rare and minted well, so somebody knew what they were taking.”

The missing coins had been kept locked in a glass case with more than a dozen other coins.

“Always with a lock you’re always thinking you’ve done the best that you know how to do and of course with technology today maybe we can put some senors in and improve with wireless and do something different but at least we had the camera on it,” Daffron said. “It’s sad because the children and the visitors are coming through and people enjoy looking at the exhibit.”

Police Department Captain Jeff Wilson said officers reviewed the surveillance video and determined the coins stolen between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

The man on the footage is described by police as an older white male with gray hair, wearing blue jeans, a black shirt, a black ballcap with red writing and a gray jacket.

Wilson said anyone with information is asked to contact the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.

(Brown County, Kan.) – On Monday, March 23, a bridge repair project will begin to replace a broken wing wall on the south side of the U.S. 36 bridge located approximately two miles west of the U.S. 75 and U.S. 36 interchange near Fairview in Brown County.

Crews will replace the existing 24-foot long by 13-foot high broken wing wall with a new reinforced concrete wall of similar size adjacent to the bridge structure. Work will take place daily Monday through Friday during daylight hours throughout the project duration.

Beginning early morning on Monday, March 23, eastbound and westbound U.S. 36 will be reduced to one lane for both directions over the bridge, 24/7 round the clock, throughout the project duration. Traffic will be directed via signage and temporary traffic signals at either end of the work zone over the bridge. There will be a 30 mph posted speed limit through the work zone throughout the project duration.

Drivers should expect only minor delays through the project work zone. The Kansas Department of Transportation urges all motorists to be alert, obey the warning signs, and “Give ‘Em a Brake!” when approaching and driving through the project work zone.

Reece Construction Co. (Scandia, KS) is the primary contractor on this bridge wing wall replacement project with a total contract cost of $135,832. Project work is scheduled to be completed in early June 2015, weather permitting.

Businesses are being sought out by the St. Joseph Employment Coalition for the 11th annual Career and Resource Fair.

“We are about 2/3rds full with employers we are still seeking any type of employer,” said Nshan Erganian, Employment Coalition Chair. “It is very diverse, anything from manufacturing, sales, retail, healthcare and everything in-between that are simply looking to find good perspective employees and have openings available within their companies.”

Area employers wanting to participate in the 2015 Career and Resource Fair can sign-up for free by clicking here or by contacting Jennifer Whitson at (816) 390-8083.

Erganian said usually around 80 employers take part.

“You’ll have everything from the largest manufactures in the community, right now we have nine out of the top 10 largest employers already on board down to the small business that may employ, six, eight, 10 employees,” he said. “They key really is the diversity so there’s something there for everybody.”

The event will take place April 7 at the Civic Arena.  The event will open to the public from 2 to 5 p.m. but will open to High School Seniors at 1 p.m.

“We are going to be focusing strictly on high school seniors with the St. Joseph School District and the surrounding school districts,” Erganian said. “The seniors will have an opportunity to look at perspective employers but also some perspective colleges and universities depending what route they’re going.”

Erganian said businesses wanting to take part should register before the end of March.