A child with Cerebral Palsy in northeast Kansas now has a safer ride after a community effort.

Cindy Moorhaus is a Hiawatha, Kan. resident and a mother of three including 13-year-old Katie who has Cerebral Palsy and Microcephaly. Recently, Brown County Sheriff John Merchant said he learned that Katie needed a special car seat for her condition.

The car seat retails at $1,900, something Cindy said her family couldn’t afford with two other children to care for.

“We kind of got a few folks together and made it happen,” Merchant said. “These car seats are manufactured for special needs children for those special conditions. Like in Katie’s case she has Cerebral Palsy so she doesn’t have a lot of neck or muscle control in the upper torso. It’s basically a reinforced seat that provides extra padding, or reinforcement.”

Cindy said she mentioned to John in June that Katie was having issues with her car seat.

“I just got to saying ‘she’s laying over in her seat and I just don’t feel safe going back and forth to Kansas City to Children’s Mercy because we’re constantly having to stop to adjust her so she’s not laying over,” Cindy said.

This is the second specialized car seat Katie has had. Cindy said about eight years ago, Katie had a car seat until their van was stolen in the middle of the night.

“We got another car seat but it wasn’t a special needs car seat,” Cindy said. “I didn’t think anything of it until her seizure activity increased and she was laying over more.”

Sheriff Merchant said he did some research after hearing about Katie’s need.

“Phyllis Larrimore, we really owe a big debt of gratitude to her. She works at Children’s Mercy,” Merchant said. “She walked me through how to order this car seat based on Katie’s measurements and everything else and make sure everything was the right fit for her.”

Merchant said volunteers came together from not just Brown County but some from across the state to get Katie a new seat. Last week, Phyllis Larrimore, the Program Coordinator for Children’s Mercy Hospital, came up to Hiawatha and installed the new seat. The staff with the sheriff’s department and many community members came together to witness the installation and see Katie try out her new fit. Cindy said, so far the seat is a success.

“She absolutely loves it. She sits up, not completely straight but she’s up and looking out the window more. She’s not flopped over, it’s amazing. She’s so safe now,” Cindy said.

Now, Cindy said she feels much more comfortable taking Katie to Kansas City for her treatments.  Sheriff Merchant said he was happy to see the community come together for Katie.

“I want to personally thank everyone for their support of this very worthwhile project and to let you all know how much it means to have the support of the county when it comes to the safety of this little girl. You are all to be commended,” Sheriff Merchant said.

In a last-ditch effort to get people registered to vote the Buchanan County Clerk’s office will head out to Ray’s Green Hills Wednesday evening.

Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey has asked the media to clarify its hours of operation and location for the last day of registration.

Today, (Wednesday) the Clerk’s Office in the Buchanan County Courthouse will stay open until 7 p.m. for registration.  This evening, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. workers will have a registration booth at Ray’s Green Hills on the North Belt.

Baack-Garvey said it’s important for people who have not voted in a long time or who have moved or changed their name to check on their voter registration to make sure they are able to cast a ballot in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

“I highly recommend they give us a call, and we’ll let them know right away what they need to do and what their status is,” she said.

As we previously reported, Baack-Garvey expects voter turnout to hit around 80-percent this election.

 

The City of St. Joseph has seen an increase in Ball Pythons found around town this year.

During this week’s Tuesday Tails our own Sarah Thomack learned that the St. Joseph Animal Shelter has found four Pythons around town this year and two other people have called in to report finding two others and keeping them. That’s the most snakes found in St. Joseph so far according to Stephen Norman with the animal shelter.

The latest snake that’s up for adoption was found in the Olive Garden parking lot in St. Joseph.

“Somebody called and found it next to their car,” Norman said. “He is very docile.”

The shelter is opening up bidding Tuesday for the snake for interested adopters. The winning bid will be selected Oct. 14.

In August we told you about a python found outside First American Title.  It was also adopted out by the shelter.

For more information call the St. Joseph Animal Shelter at (816) 271-4877

A St. Joseph man is considered a person of interest in threats made against students in numerous states.

Officer Ron Reardon with the Riverside Ohio Police Department said on September 29 in Ohio many students in the age range of 11 and 13 were receiving direct threats on their Facebook and Twitter accounts in relation to a social media account “Aint Clownin Around.”

“We found out on Sept. 30, on the day that they threats were supposed to take place. I think the post said that the killing and the kidnapping of students and teachers were going to occur at 2:30 on Friday, Sept. 30th which gave us about four hours to prepare for that time frame,” Reardon said. “So we made emergency contacts with Facebook and Suddenlink Communications out there in Missouri. They were very helpful and very quick with the responses which allowed us to obtain email address, IP addresses and finally the address where it’s all located.”

Reardon said once they discovered that the IP Address was located to the St. Joseph area he began working with the St. Joseph Police Department.

Last week, officers with the St. Joseph Police Department arrested a 27-year-old St. Joseph man in connection with the investigation of similar threats made against the St. Joseph School District during the same time period as the threats made in Ohio.

Reardon said the man arrested is being investigated as a person of interest in connection with similar threats made in at least three counties in Ohio, as well as jurisdictions in New Jersey, and Georgia.

“Some of what I’ve read on the news clippings is some of them immediately deemed them not credible, the ones that I did read that are investigating I will be forwarding everything I have so they can expedite the process of doing what they need to do with this individual,” Reardon said.

Officer Reardon told the St. Joseph Post he is still in the process of investigating the case to submit a case to the prosecutor’s officer in Ohio for consideration of charges.

“We’re making sure that we have all of the elements covered before we submit it to the prosecutor’s office,” Reardon said. “I just received the interviews and some additional information from St. Joseph today. It’s kind of hard when you’re working across lines.”

The St. Joseph Police Department said last week it submitted the case to the Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s office for consideration of charges. As of Monday charges have not been filed.

Reardon said it’s still unclear if the threats were legitimate.

“I do know when they surrounded the house and made entry they did find loaded assault weapons with a bunch of ammo in the house,” Reardon said. “That’s the problem with him being in Missouri and us being in Ohio is I have to review the sit-down interviews that the detective over there had with this individual to determine for myself if I think they were credible or not.”

Reardon said the man arrested does have a lengthy criminal background but as charges have not been filed he cannot reveal it at this point.

The City of St. Joseph Health Department will be giving out flu shots in a drive-up only clinic this week.

Thursday the Health Department will be holding its annual clinic at Krug Park, located at the intersection of St. Joseph Ave., Karnes Road and Northwest Parkway.  The clinic is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and run until noon or until supplies run out.  The city said Buchanan County residents 18 and older and who are not pregnant are encourages to participate.

“Patrons are asked to wear a shirt that allows access to the shoulder area, where the vaccine is administered,” the Health Department said in a news release.

The flu vaccine is free, however those with privately provided health insurance, medicare, or Missouri HealthNet are being asked to bring their card at clinic registration.

No services are being provided at the Health Department located on S 10th St. the day of the clinic but services will resume Friday.

For more information on the drive-up only Flu clinic CLICK HERE.

The St. Joseph School District is short thousands in state aid after student attendance took a huge drop last week in the wake of threats made on social media toward area schools.

As we told you last week, the St. Joseph School District increased security after a parent notified the district of a social media account, “Aint Clownin Around” featuring a clown in the profile picture, which posted at least three threats against all schools.  The St. Joseph Police Department said it arrested a 27-year-old man Tuesday in connection with the investigation and that the case has been submitted to the prosecutor’s officer for consideration of charges.

Dr. Solon Haynes, Dir. of Student Service with the district said that last week from Thursday to Friday more than 1,300 students were absent from district schools.  That resulted in a monetary loss of state aid of around $27,500.

“Every day that a student attends school we receive state aid for the student being in school,” Haynes said. “Considering our budget is over $100-million dollars that is still significant but as far as the overall budget it’s just a small portion of it.”

Having an additional 1,300 students absent was a huge increase over normal. Haynes said the day prior to the incident around 535 students were reported absent.

“Overall anytime you lose money out of the instructional funds that would go to a school it does have an impact on the education of our children,” Haynes said. “So that is money that we will not receive from the state to help educate our students.”

The investigation into the case is ongoing.  As we’ve previously reported, the individual arrested may also be tied to another police investigation relating to a similar incident in another location.

The St. Joseph Police Department has confirmed a man arrested after “clown threats” were made on social media toward area schools is also under investigation for a similar case in another location.

Capt. Jeff Wilson said a 27-year-old St. Joseph man was taken into custody Tuesday in connection with the St. Joseph case.

“After an extensive and thorough investigation the suspect involved in the threats against the Saint Joseph School District was taken into custody. This occurred after Special Response Team Officers and Detectives served a search warrant at a local residence,” Wilson said.

As we previously reported last week, the St. Joseph School District increased security after a parent notified the district of a social media account, “Aint Clownin Around” featuring a clown in the profile picture, which posted at least three threats against all schools.

Wilson said the case has been submitted to the Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s office for consideration of charges.

When we asked Wilson about the possibility of other law enforcement organizations investigating the man in custody he confirmed that another agency is investigating him in connection with a similar case.  Little other information has been released.

As we learn more we will update this story.

Four defendants have pleaded guilty and are set for sentencing in December after the May shooting death of 18-year-old Skylar Powell.

Six individuals were charged earlier this year in Buchanan County in connection with the case and in August those cases were joined. Thursday in court Gabriel Dawson and Ashten Surritte each charged with first-degree attempted robbery, and Dayne Matthews and Kyle Smith each charged with possession of a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence pleaded guilty to the charges against them. Each are scheduled for sentencing Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.

Justin Smith, charged with voluntary manslaughter and armed criminal action had his plea rejected by Judge Patrick Robb and his case was continued to Oct. 13 at 2:45 p.m.

Jay’Den Maynard charged with first-degree attempted robbery had his case continued to Oct. 13 and will also appear at 2:45 p.m.

Prosecutors believe Powell was killed during a drug transaction and attempted robbery May 17 in the area of 2200 Calhoun.