The St. Joseph Police Department has found 10-year-old Elena Hernandez who was reported missing at 10:24 a.m. Tuesday

The Department said she went missing from the area of Mark Twain Elementary School.

According to Capt. Jeff Wilson Hernandez’s coat and bag were located in the school cafeteria. School officials notified authorities that the girl was missing when her items were located but she was not there.

Police located Hernandez and found her safe around 11:30 a.m. after they were able to make contact with the girl’s mother. No further information is available at this time.

An upgrade the Northwest Missouri State University’s Internet bandwidth was approved by the University’s Board of Regents Monday.

The Board gave the approval for the school to increase its Internet bandwidth as well as a series of curriculum proposals.

MOREnet, the school’s Internet provider will increase the service to 750 megabytes under a five-year agreement at an additional cost of $10,000 per year.

Dr. Roger Von Holzen, Vice President for Information Technology presented the proposal for the increase and said the number of Internet-connected devices on the Northwest campus continues to increase and current bandwidth usage consistently nears the University’s maximum allocation of 500 megabytes daily during key hours.

Among the curriculum proposals approved by the Board, as presented by Northwest Provost Dr. Tim Mottet, Northwest will begin offering a master’s program in sport and exercise psychology to align with current occupational trends. Mottet said that Northwest has about 20 students enrolled in related minors and five health and human services majors with a high interest in a sport and exercise psychology graduate program. He said no peer institutions offer similar programs and, according to the Association of Sport Psychology, the field is expected to grow rapidly, especially for applicants with appropriate graduate-level training. Completion of the Northwest program will allow students to apply for Sport Psychology Consultant Certification through the Association for Advanced Sport Psychology.

Northwest will also pilot a course, titled Academic Success Seminar, in the spring as a component of the University’s new Academic Success Coaching program. The course will be geared toward freshmen placed on academic probation, and students will utilize various strategies and skills learned in the course to foster success in their other coursework.

A fundraiser to help a family offset the cost of burial expenses is being investigated by the Trenton Police Department after no monetary funds were ever distributed to the family.

According to Trenton Police Chief Tommy Wright the department is investigating the theft of money from an August 2014 charity softball tournament.

“Several area residents formed a two day softball tournament at Griffin Field…to raise money for three area men who had died in a vehicle accident in 2009 and in 2012,” Wright said in a statement released on social media. “The money raised was to be distributed to the families to help offset the cost of burial and headstone expenses.”

However, to date the police department said no families have ever received any funds raised from the event.

Wright said that the department has developed leads on an individual or multiple individuals in the investigation and has asked anyone who contributed to the softball tournament to contact him at the Trenton Police Department via email at twright@trentonmo.com or by phone at 660-359-5557.

Currently an investigation is on going.

The St. Joseph School District Board of Education received an audit
report Monday from Westbrook & Associates, regarding the financial health of the St. Joseph
School District.
Auditors complimented the district on sound financial management for the period of 2013-14.
No material findings were reported.
The audit did express concerns regarding the financial challenges the district might face in the
future. The report states “Further complicating the matter is the fact that 16.7% of the district’s
property tax revenue for operations is set to “sunset” in August 2015, making long-term facility
and financial planning difficult if not impossible. This amounts to nearly $6.5 million annually.
The District’s operating levy has not been increased since 2004. The total tax levy rate of
$4.0886 for the 2014-2015 school year is lower than the tax rate for fiscal year 1974-75, 40 years
ago. Seeking an increase in the operating levy sometime during the next few years appears to be
a necessity.”
The report concluded, “The District continues to provide quality programs and its students
continue to achieve at high levels. The School District of St. Joseph has committed itself to
financial and educational excellence for many years.”
The complete report can be found on the district website:
http://esb.sjsd.k12.mo.us/attachments/ddbd2d27-2e9d-4908-8ae4-3cffaf18fbaf.pdf

St. Joseph, Mo. —Dec. 8, 2014—The Winter Commencement Ceremony for approximately 300 graduates of Missouri Western State University will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13 in the arena of the M.O. Looney Complex. Karen Graves of St. Joseph will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Dr. Brenda Blessing, professor and chair of the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, will be the commencement speaker. The MWSU Alumni Association will host a free reception for graduates and their families after the ceremony in the Looney small gym.

The ceremony is free and open to the public. For those unable to attend, the ceremony will be streamed live online at www.missouriwestern.edu.

Karen Graves has been an active member of the community since moving to St. Joseph in 1991. That first year, she was taking a class on local history at Missouri Western when she realized that St. Joseph would be celebrating its 150th anniversary in 1993. To help commemorate the sesquicentennial, Graves helped organize the first Trails West! Arts Festival, which has been held annually at Civic Center Park in downtown St. Joseph since then.

In addition to founding Trails West!, Graves has led numerous community boards and organizations. She was president of the Neighborhood Partnership, a revitalization project which culminated in St. Joseph’s designation as an “All American City” in 1997. She has also served as president of the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, the Allied Arts Council and the Downtown Partnership; co-chair of the St. Joseph Millenium Commission; and a member of the Missouri Tourism Commission, among many others.

Graves has also been an active volunteer at Missouri Western, co-founding the Missouri Western Arts Society and serving on the MWSU Foundation Board of Directors, the Outdoor Campus Committee, the search committee for the Founding Dean of the School of Fine Arts, two capital campaign advisory committees, and presenting at the Eggs & Issues speaker series.

Prior to coming to St. Joseph, Graves was the first woman elected to serve as mayor of Salina, Kan. Among many other positions, she was president of the Kansas League of Municipalities, a board member of the National League of Cities, and a delegate to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Dr. Brenda Blessing has been on the faculty at Missouri Western since 1987. She has chaired the HPER department since 1994, and has twice served as interim Dean of Professional Studies. Dr. Blessing has been Missouri Western’s faculty athletic representative since 2000 and served a two-year term as president of the university’s athletic conference, the MIAA. She is a member of Missouri Western’s Faculty Senate and served five terms as the Senate’s president. Dr. Blessing received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Indiana State University and her Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

St. Joseph, Mo. – The ramp from northbound Interstate 229 to Highland Avenue will be closed this week, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

A concrete replacement project will close the ramp to all traffic from 7 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, until 8 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014.

The ramp will remain closed overnight. Motorists will need to use an alternate route during the closure.

Kirksville, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports that one case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been found in an adult buck harvested by a hunter in Adair County. This is the first case of the deer disease found in Missouri since early 2013.

This new case represents the 11th free-ranging deer that has tested positive for CWD and brings the statewide total of captive and free-ranging cases of CWD to 22. All previous cases of CWD in free-ranging deer were from a small area of northwest Macon County where the disease was detected in a private hunting preserve in 2011. CWD was first discovered in Missouri in 2010 at a private hunting preserve in southeast Linn County.

As done in the past three years, MDC is again working with hunters, landowners, taxidermists, and meat processors in north-central Missouri to collect tissue samples from adult deer harvested during the fall archery and firearms deer seasons. MDC will report a summary of all testing efforts and results in early 2015.

The Conservation Department encourages hunters to take deer harvested in MDC’s CWD Containment Zone of Adair, Chariton, Linn, Macon, Randolph and Sullivan counties to one of numerous cooperating locations in the region to have a tissue sample taken for testing. Sampling locations include area taxidermists and the Northeast Regional MDC office in Kirksville during normal business hours. The sampling effort is taking place through the end of archery season, which closes the evening of Jan. 15, 2015.

Taking a tissue sample is free, takes only a few minutes and will not reduce the food or taxidermy value of harvested deer. Test results typically take 3-4 weeks and are posted for participating hunters on the MDC website. Since 2001, MDC has collected and tested more than 41,000 free-ranging deer for CWD statewide. This includes more than 7,800 samples since 2010 from free-ranging deer in north-central Missouri.

Chronic wasting disease infects only deer and other members of the deer family by causing degeneration of the brain. The disease has no vaccine or cure and is 100-percent fatal. There is no evidence that the disease can affect humans.

Missouri offers some of the best deer hunting in the country, and deer hunting is an important part of many Missourians’ lives and family traditions. Infectious diseases such as CWD could reduce hunting and wildlife-watching opportunities for Missouri’s nearly 520,000 deer hunters and almost two million wildlife watchers.

Deer hunting is also an important economic driver in Missouri and gives a $1 billion annual boost to state and local economies. Lower deer numbers from infectious diseases such as CWD could hurt 12,000 Missouri jobs and many businesses that rely on deer hunting as a significant source of revenue, such as meat processors, taxidermists, hotels, restaurants, sporting goods stores, and others. CWD also threatens the investments of thousands of private landowners who manage their land for deer and deer hunting, and who rely on deer and deer hunting to maintain property values.

St. Joseph, Mo. (Dec. 8, 2014) – Beginning January 1, 2015 Royal (R.T.) Turner, retiring Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner, will join KCP&L as a Community Affairs Manager for KCP&L’s North District.

“We are fortunate to have someone with R.T.’s experience and reputation working with us at KCP&L,” said KCP&L North District Manager Tom Burke. “With eight years of experience in county government, R.T. will be instrumental in building and maintaining relationships with community partners and promoting economic growth in our service territory.”

Turner will be working closely with current KCP&L Community Affairs Manager, Dan Hegeman. R.T. will be an additional contact KCP&L’s community partners while Hegeman assumes additional legislative responsibilities in the Missouri General Assembly.

Turner retired, after 35 years, from Hausman Metal Works and Roofing in 2005. He has cultivated strong ties to Northwest Missouri through his community involvement, which includes, St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, Community Action Partnership, Community Alliance and United Way’s Success by Six program. He is also involved with the communications committee of the National Association of County Organizations, Northwest County Commissioners Association, Military Officers Association of America American Legion Post #359, Sheet Metal Workers Union Local #2 and is longtime member of the St. Joseph Central Christian Church.

Turner and his wife, Karen, have been married for 37 years with two children, Kristin and Nathan.