Dozens of students at Pickett Elementary School got a free trim and style Wednesday in St. Joseph.

Pickett Elementary School Principal John Davison said around 70 students got a chance to get a free haircut.  Two stylists from Edmond Street Parlor volunteered their time Wednesday at Pickett.  Davison said students from Kindergarten to 6th Grade took part

“About a month ago we sent home information.  We gave them flyers and they all had to have parental permission,” Davison said. “The parents just kind of explained what they liked to have done.  Cut and style.”

Michael Vasquez Lopez is 9 years-old and said he was getting a Faux Hawk.

“My mom wanted me to get a haircut because my hair is getting a little bit too long and I can see it,” he said.

8-year-old Chandlyr Durbin said she just wants a trim and a style.

“I’m hoping it looks good,” Durbin said.  “I’ve only been sitting here for like five minutes.  It hasn’t been that long but it looks like they’re doing actually pretty good hair cuts.”

Hair Stylist Michelle Peters said shortly after lunch they had already given haircuts to around 30 students.

“A lot of braids with the girls, a lot of curls, short cuts, a lot of spiky hair for the boys,” Peters said. “A lot of excited.  A lot of being able to get extra pretty or handsome at school, plus they get out of class for a little bit.”

Peters said this is the second year they have volunteered their time to cut students’ hair.

“Just offering it to whatever student wants it,” Peters said.

We also asked Peters to describe a Faux Hawk.

“It’s kind of like a Mohawk except for the sides aren’t as short,” she said.

It’s not a Cyber Monday deal but dozens of people turned out to the former Ramada Inn in St. Joseph Monday for a bargain.

Carl Kimble Auction Service and Jim Barnett Auction Service opened up bids Monday morning at 10 on the contents of 160 rooms.

“We’re going to sell all the beds, all the armoires and part of the stuff here.  TVs we’ll sell about 25 or 30 TVs today, some heating and cooling units today.  So every day we’ll be selling TVs, heating units every day,” said Carl Kimble, auctioneer.

He said Monday they plan to sell Furniture and Furnishings then Tuesday it’s off to the Kitchen and Bath items.  Wednesday they plan to sell the contents of Monkey Cove the four-story high water slide and enclosed staircase and Thursday, the final day of the sale will be the contents of the basement and anything that’s left.

“We’re going to be selling by lot so everything has a lot number,” Barnett said. “What we sell today we’d like to be out today, everything we sell tomorrow we’d like to be out tomorrow but everything has to be out within a week.”

Barnett said the process to sell the contents has been underway for about a month.

Roger Frear from Savannah said he came to the auction to look for stuff for his rental business.

“I’m hoping for good deals,” Frear said. “Possibly some air conditions, some refrigerators.”

Greg McCurley said he came to the auction to look for stuff for the Harvest Baptist Church in Savannah.

“I’m looking for a bargain.  Been thinking about getting a refrigerator, maybe an air conditioner,” McCurley said. “We’ve got certain items that we’ve picked out and all ready to bid to see what happens today.”

Barnett said it’s a commercial auction so there will be people in from other states looking at items but anyone can show up to bid.

“They just need to show up and bring money and get them a buyer’s number,” Kimble said. “We’re going to start at 10 o’clock and we’re going to shut down at 5.”

Barnett said he expects to have a select group of people interested in the water-slide.

“Not everyone can handle a four-story water-slide unless you have a lot of acreage and you want something special for your kids,” Barnett said. “It’s going to be pretty much businesses that will be interested in that.”

The Ramada Inn shut down in August.  Demolition on part of the structure has already begun.

For more information on the auction CLICK HERE.

 

 

All of the Noyes Home children currently on the K-JO Toy Hookup list have been checked off as of Friday morning.

Gregg Lynn is the program director for K-JO 105.5 and said all specific lists for the toy drive have been fulfilled.

“We’re not anywhere near done,” Lynn said. “We’ve got thousands of kids we still need to take care of through Adopt-A-Family.  So we’re asking now for any new unwrapped toy. If you think a kid would want to play with it we want it and cash donations.”

Lynn said he fully expects to see more children come in to the Noyes Home before the annual Christmas Party Dec. 14th and they want to be able to provide those children with gifts as well.

“We’re going to want to buy them presents too.  We don’t want to have a Christmas Party and no presents.  So if we can do cash donations right now as new kids come in we can make sure to buy them gifts too,” Lynn said.

As of Friday morning 32 children were taken care of for Christmas at the Noyes Home.

“I think almost every fire house has purchased everything for at least one kid if not one per shift,” Lynn said. “Some listeners have taken on lots and lots of kids.”

Lynn said additional donations will be given to the AFL-CIO’s Adopt-A-Family program to benefit other children in need in the community.

Anyone interested in donating toys to the 14th annual K-JO Toy Drive can do so until 5 p.m. Friday at the KKJO Studio located at 4104 Country Lane or at Olive Garden, this year’s sponsor of the drive.

Firefighters are going into day three at the scene of the Pioneer building in downtown St. Joseph and expect to be there over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Crews with the St. Joseph Fire Department arrived on scene at Francis and 5th Streets Monday shortly after 10:30 a.m. Even after the flames shooting up into the air died down firefighters have remained on scene continuously battling hot spots and pouring water on the smoldering rubble.

“Day three is pretty much a repeat of day two,” said Chief Training Officer Mike Neylon with the St. Joseph Fire Department. “We still have two trucks down there spraying hot spots as much as they can.”

He said they have taken down part of a wall that was preventing power officials from restoring power to the area but as of 11 a.m. Wednesday the success of restoring power had not yet been seen. Neylon said the building will continue to smolder for days if not weeks.

“We are not going to go into the building until the structure is safe for people to go in there and that’s up to engineers. That stubborn wall still appears to be ready to collapse but as of yet it’s hanging tough,” Neylon said.

Neylon said until crews can get into the building to investigate the fire, a cause cannot be determined.

“We will not know until we investigate it as much as we can and that’s going to require heavy equipment and other equipment that has to get in there to look around, sniff around and see what we can find. There’s no way of knowing what’s under those bricks it’s speculation and we can’t deal with speculation,” Neylon said.

Crews will be manning the fire in downtown St. Joseph over Thanksgiving.

“We’ll have a regular crew, 33 people on duty.  And of course the rest of us will be on call as usual,” Neylon said.  “To fire, police, public works, and God bless them the dispatchers in the Communication Center it’s just another day.”

When the St. Joseph Post asked him if there was anything the public could do to make their holiday a little better Neylon joked that cookies and pie are always nice.

“I’ve seen people bring a cake or two to the nearest fire house.  That’s never a bad thing.” Neylon said. “We’re pretty well known for our affinity for pastries.”

 

A Troy student was taken to the hospital Tuesday evening with minor injuries after a multi-vehicle crash on 36 Highway.

Deputy Raymond Hall said authorities responded to the crash around 4:45 p.m. on the highway in-between Wathena and Blair.

“There was a semi heading westbound with two individuals in it.  It tried to pass a dually pick-up truck and in doing so failed to see a small car going eastbound.  The vehicle was able to swerve to the right and avoid direct impact but still made impact with the trailer of the semi down the driver’s side of the vehicle causing injuries to the lone occupant of that vehicle,” Hall said.

18-year-old Kassi Meng, a Senior at Troy High School who was driving the 2006 Nissan was transported to Mosaic Life Care by Troy ambulance for treatment of what authorities described as minor injuries.

Hall said the investigation is still underway.  However, he said the 55-year-old Sabetha man who was driving the 2007 Kenworth will likely be issued charge.

“We’ll complete the investigation this morning and we will probably issue those charges to the semi driver for passing without clearance,” Hall said.

Traffic was slowed on the highway at that location while crews worked the scene for about two hours.

“We never did shut the highway down we just had fire department and other law enforcement personnel slow traffic down.  The roadway actually stayed clear,” Hall said.