More than 2,400 people are without power in St. Joseph after severe storms.

According to the Kansas City Power & Light Outage Map as of 10:56 a.m. 2,496 customers were without power in St. Joseph.

The National Weather Service was having issues getting warnings out due to a software glitch as storms pushed through the area . Hazards with this morning’s weather included reports of more than 60 mph wind gusts, hail, downed trees and power poles.

For the latest on power outages in the KCP&L area CLICK HERE.

A Committee to Save Jobs made a formal push to the public Tuesday on an upcoming Buchanan County ballot question.

Community members gathered Tuesday morning for a press conference on King Hill overlooking the Missouri River and industry protected by the levees. Bob Wolleman is the campaign chairman and owner of Deluxe Truck Stop which is one of the businesses protected by the levees.  Wolleman said the Committee to Save Jobs was formed to ask voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax on the Aug. 2nd ballot to repair the Missouri River Levees.

“For the purpose of creating part of the 35-percent of the revenue that’s going to be required by the federal government, matching funds for the reconstruction, redesign of the levees that protect the St. Joseph community,” Wolleman said. “Primarily those businesses and residents that are located in the southwest corridor.”

He said the levees are in great need of repair.

“The west levee is not certified at this time, the east levee has some major structures that need to be included in it to be more stable,” Wolleman said.

The project is estimated to cost more than $70-million.  However, funding for the repairs isn’t just coming from tax payers in Buchanan County.

“The federal government is providing 65-percent of those funds,” Wolleman said. “We have some money coming from Buchanan County’s existing treasury, we have some money coming from the treasury of St. Joseph and then there are three major levee districts that are contributing funds…The state of Missouri has come forward with an announcement a few weeks ago that the state of Missouri is going to put $5-million towards this project so it’s really multi-faceted as far as government funding. The remainder of the money is why we have this sales tax initiative.”

Even though the issue is the Missouri River Levees, Wolleman said more than 6,000 jobs and people’s homes as well as Lake Contrary Elementary School is what’s at stake.

“We have about 6,000 jobs that are located behind the levee protection,” Wolleman said.

The question on the sales tax is up for vote in Buchanan County Aug. 2nd.  For more information on the Save St. Joe Jobs campaign CLICK HERE.

 

The St. Joseph Emergency Communications Center has officially began accepting text 911 service for Buchanan County.

The department made the announcement Monday.  In the event of an emergency when calls cannot be made people can now send a text message of up to 140 characters to the communications center.

As we previously reported, authorities have been working on bringing the service to the community for some time.

“We’re always going to encourage people to call 911 just because we get better location information from that, we can obtain information a lot quicker from a caller and all of our 911 operators go through extensive training where we listen to things like background noise and we’re able to obtain a lot more information about the call from that but unfortunately there’s situation where that’s not an option,” said Dawn Hill, dispatch supervisor in a prior interview. “Such as an active shooter or a domestic violence situation so we want to look at what we can do to provide to our community to keep them safe.”

The department said the service should only be used when there is an emergency situation and a call is not possible.  Examples include if the caller is deaf, hard-of-hearing, speech impaired, or when speaking out loud would put the caller in danger.

For more information see the news release below.

 

 

A St. Joseph man has been charged after allegedly firing off a weapon last week during a domestic disturbance on the north side of town.

Wilbur Hurt, is charged in Buchanan County with a felony for unlawful use of a weapon.

According to court documents, on Thursday police responded to the 200 block of E. Highland Ave. where Hurt allegedly displayed and fired a weapon in what authorities described as an angry or threatening manner.

“The defendant was engaged in a domestic assault of a female victim who lives with him.  he then shot at several neighbors who came to her aid, injuring two of them,” said Det. Frank Till with the St. Joseph Police Department. “The defendant used a firearm to assault the victim’s in this case.  He has a previous conviction for domestic assault.”

As we previously reported, a man was arrested for investigation of unlawful use of a firearm last week near 3rd and Highland after police said he fired a shotgun and injured people during the incident.

Hurt is being held on $10,000 cash bond.  An arraignment is set for Tuesday.

Opponents of a wind energy project in northwest Missouri are voicing their concerns.

Ivan Klipenstein with Concerned Citizens for Clinton and DeKalb counties said the movement against the turbines started in August of 2015.

“By the time August came around many landowners already had contracts signed prior to that time,” Klipenstein said. “We were kind of on the following edge of learning about this and trying to decide what it is it was about and what needed to be done.”

A wind farm is being constructed by NextEra Energy Resources in DeKalb County.  As we previously reported, it’s expected to reach commercial operation by the end of 2016.

Klipenstein said he doesn’t believe wind projects in Clinton and Dekalb counties were highly publicized.

“I wouldn’t say that it was necessarily hidden but it sure wasn’t offered up for public discussion,” Klipenstein said. “We’ve created this group to ultimately oppose this project.”

Larry Runyan with Concerned Citizens for Clinton and DeKalb counties said meetings are being held to talk about the issues.

“In the zoned areas like in Clinton County we have hearings going on at present,” Runyun said. “We have hearings scheduled twice a month on different issues. We had one two weeks ago.  They are hearings presented to the county zoning board and they will take into consideration all the newest data we can present and also that the wind turbine companies can present.”

Signs can be seen along Mo 33 on the way to Maysville that read, “Have Pride In No (photo of a wind turbine) Our Community.”

Some of the issues the group said it has with the turbines include the sounds and flashing light made by the turbines, declining property values, and environmental issues including wildlife being killed by the turbines.

“Birds and bats and several other species of bird,” Klipenstein said. “Obviously the Eagle is part of our heritage but the bat kill is a great number so those are the two that are spoken of the most.”