Early numbers show a high turnout at the polls in Buchanan County.

As of 11 a.m. 29.3 percent of registered voters had cast a ballot or 15,230 people out of the 52,918 registered. County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey said she is still predicting a turnout of around 80-percent.

By 3 p.m. 45.4 percent of registered voters had cast ballots, or 23,587 voters.

We spoke to voters at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Tuesday morning.  Diane Ford said she actually expected to see more people at the polls.

“I expected more today but there’s more places to vote than I expected.  Usually there’s only like a dozen and they can accommodate way more people today,” Ford said. “How could you not come out to vote today? We want this to come to an end.”

Larry Edwards said he also expected a little more turnout when he came out to cast his ballot shortly before 10 a.m.

“There is a lot of things at stake here and this is very very important,” Edwards said. “The country is divided and to determine which direction we go from where on out everyone has a stake in this because we all live here.”

By 11 a.m. Our Lady of Guadalupe saw 1,993 ballots cast. Ernie Frye  is a supervisor for the precinct. He said he has been involved with elections in Buchanan County for more than 20 years.

“This morning before we opened there were two lines the came in from outside the door there all the way in, waiting for us to open the door,” Frye said.  “It’s been steady all day.”

Election officials were seen assisting voters with mobility issues.

“We bring all the paperwork and everything out so they can do it,” Frye  said. “We want to make sure everybody votes.”

Polls close at 7 p.m.

(Update 11:21 a.m.) – An investigation into a potential arson fire at an apartment complex is underway in St. Joseph.

Sgt. Roy Hoskins with the St. Joseph Police Department said a maintenance man let authorities know there was black smoke coming from a unit in the Brookside Apartments located at 1602 Brookside shortly after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Hoskins said everyone was evacuated from the building and that a woman said the man who started the fire was causing a disturbance in the parking lot.

Hoskins said the man took off from officers and a foot chase ensued but he was shortly taken into custody.

Hoskins said a 31-year-old St. Joseph man is in custody as a person of interest and that the case is currently being investigated as a potential arson.

The St. Joseph Fire Department and the St. Joseph Police Department were on scene investigating the fire Tuesday morning.

Krug Park has been temporarily closed to traffic while City of St. Joseph crews decorate for the holidays.

The city sent out a news release Friday afternoon to announce that the park has been closed to vehicular traffic so Parks, Recreation, & Civic Facilities employees can decorate for the holiday lighting.

Julie Noel with the City of St. Joseph said the park will be closed to traffic at all times until Holiday Park is lit on Nov. 25.

“After that, the park will only be open to vehicular traffic at night for visitors to view the lighting and displays,” Noel said. “The park will not be open to full time vehicular traffic until about the second week of January, similar to the schedule from previous years.”

The City of St. Joseph Streets Department has spent the past week gearing up for the first snow fall.

Steve Kendall with the Streets Department said this week workers have been taking part in classroom training and going over equipment ahead of the winter season. Snowplow drivers took part in a snowplow rodeo Thursday at Heritage Park. Kendall said the course was set up to get drivers back in the swing of things before the first snowfall.

“It’s a refresher course for the guys who have been here for a long time and the guys who haven’t ever done it it gives them a feel for what they’re getting into,” Kendall said.  “The little metal pipes we have there you want to get as close to the cones as you can without hitting them and knock the pipes over.”

Kendall said this year around 17 trucks will be out each shift pushing snow and there are around 35 crew members who will be working in shifts.

The Missouri Department of Transportation will hold its statewide drill to prepare for the upcoming winter season on Wednesday, Nov. 9. MoDOT said that day drivers may notice increased numbers of MoDOT vehicles on state routes during the drill. In rural areas, crews will deploy after 8 a.m. In urban areas, the drill will not begin until after 9 a.m. The exercise should be completed by 3 p.m.

(Update) – A rollover crash tied up traffic on Belt Highway near Mitchell Wednesday morning.

Officer Brian McClintick with the St. Joseph Police Department said around 10:25 a 55-year-old St. Joseph woman was driving a red van north on the Belt and tried to turn right onto Mitchell and beat a yellow light. McClintick said a pickup driven by a 55-year-old St. Joseph man was westbound and had a green light. McClintick said the pickup hit the minivan causing the van to rotate and roll over.

The woman was reported to have minor injuries and refuse treatment at the scene. The driver of the pickup was not injured.

A red-light ticket was issued to the driver of the minivan.

Both directions of the Belt Highway were down to one lane while crews worked the scene. The highway reopened by 11:15 a.m.

Doniphan County officials have launched a new website in the hope of increasing the county’s online visibility and public awareness of area business and resources.

Adrienne Korson is the Dir. of Economic Development for the county and said the website launched Oct. 7.

“We have completely redesigned the website,” Korson said. “We redesigned it around economic development. Just to offer more of a new image and kick off the branding for the county.  With the website we also designed a new logo for Doniphan County as well.”

Korson said work on the new website began in March and the platform creation began in June.  She said the cost of the project was around $12,000 and included a $6,000 discount from Webcom Resources, the web development company based in Atchison, Kan. Half of the cost came from economic development, the Doniphan County Chamber of Commerce contributed $2,000 and the remaining amount was split between the other county departments.

“We saw that this could be an opportunity not to just list out what’s going on with the government and each department but also to kind of showcase the community.  Kind of give them a voice and create transparency and communication between all the cities and unincorporated areas,” Korson said. “Also to highlight the businesses in the area and really give them a digital presence as well.”

Features include a county news portal, community event calendars, pages for each of the cities, and a county-wide business directory. Korson said around 8,000 people live in Doniphan County.

“It really is a one stop shop for anything that you’re looking for dealing with in the county,” Korson said. “We’re hoping once everyone gets used to it and sees what kind of potential it has that we will be able to keep adding to it. Such as each of the city pages maybe to integrate more of the history about each of the city on there and making it into a news source for each area as well.”

She said businesses in the county can utilize the county’s website.

“We’re actually hoping that businesses will be able to market through the website. A lot of the businesses don’t have a digital presence so unless you live in the county and know that they exist people have a hard time knowing that they are there. Especially if they’re trying to Google the area and see what’s around and they don’t show up,” Korson said. “We’re trying to help them with their search optimization by giving them the opportunity for a small fee to be able to have their own landing page and be a featured business.”

To view the website CLICK HERE.