LifeFlight Eagle plans to relocate its Trenton base to Chillicothe.

Matt Daughtery, Dir. of Business Development for LifeFlight said the move is due to several issues including a flood at the Trenton Airport in 2014 which forced crews out of the facility for around 10 weeks. Daughtery said there is no way to prevent that from taking place again. Also, fog is often a concern at the current location.

“It’s very prone to fog and as a result we are unable to respond to some patient transports because of very localized fog there when it’s perfect flying conditions a mile or so away at Wright Memorial Hospital,” Daughtery said. “Moving to the Chillicothe Airport provides us with an opportunity to avoid those potential issues and we will be able to respond to more requests for emergency transport.”

LifeFlight has signed a letter of intent with the City of Chillicothe. The next step is to finalize a lease agreement before breaking ground on a new hanger and crew quarters that the City of Chillicothe will build at the airport.

“We’ll probably be there sometime in the fall but we don’t have a specific time set yet,” Daughtery said.

The move from Trenton to Chillicothe will take about eight additional minutes for the aircraft to respond from the Airport to Wright Memorial Hospital.

“It takes a long time when you’re driving between the two but when you’re flying 140 miles an hour in a straight line it doesn’t take very long to get between there,” Daughtery said. “We just want to reassure the community in Trenton and Grundy County and the surrounding area that we’re not abandoning the community by any stretch of the imagination. We’re really trying to position our program in a place that we can be most responsive in emergency requests.”

LifeFlight has had a base in Trenton since 2005. It also has bases in Odessa, Clinton and Harrisonville as well as an additional helicopter dedicated to the Children’s Mercy Critical Care Transport Team in Kansas City.

A St. Joseph man has been charged after allegedly forcing his girlfriend into a vehicle and leading police on a high-speed chase.

Mark Clevenger, 31 was charged Monday in Buchanan County with a felony for resisting arrest and a misdemeanor DWI.

According to court documents, Clevenger is accused of assaulting his girlfriend by forcing her into a vehicle against her will and then eluding police in a forty minute high speed car chase Sunday afternoon. Eric Powell, an officer with the St. Joseph Police Dept. said in court documents that once Clevenger had the woman in the car he left at a high rate of speed.  The felony complaint said the vehicle made it up to speeds on highways in excess of 100 miles per hour.

“Drove to Savannah, Mo. then back to St. Joseph,” Powell said. “Avoided spike stop sticks, however eventually ran over one which let the air out of the left front tire.”

Powell said after the tire was destroyed Clevenger stopped at the Burger King on St. Joseph Ave.

“The defendant committed the crime of domestic assault then eluded police on a high speed car chase,” Powell said.

Bond for Clevenger has been denied.  According to online court documents the court finds the defendant to be a danger to the victim.

He’s scheduled to appear in court Mar. 25.

Previously police had reported that a woman was also arrested at the scene, Capt. Jeff Wilson said the woman in this case was not charged with a crime.

 

A nearly hour long police pursuit that crossed county lines ended without injury Sunday in St. Joseph.

Sgt. Roy Hoskins with the St. Joseph Police Department said officers responded to a call of a domestic situation involving a possible abduction with the suspect possibly being armed around 2:56 p.m. and located the vehicle in the area of Woodbine and Faraon St.

“The license plate was registered and we determined ownership of the vehicle,” Hoskins said. “Officers were familiar with the driver.”

Hoskins said officers pursued the vehicle with the 31-year-old St. Joseph man and a woman inside along I-29 into Savannah and back down 229 to I-29 then across Cook Rd. to Riverside, back into Andrew County then back into St. Joseph traveling down K Highway. Hoskins said they finally apprehended the suspect at Burger King on St. Joseph Avenue around 3:43 p.m.

Law enforcement agencies from Andrew County, Buchanan County, St. Joseph Police Department and the Missouri Highway Patrol assisted in the pursuit. Hoskins said multiple spike strips were deployed. One by the Highway Patrol on I-29 that he believes the vehicle struck and another by the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department that may have missed.

He said the chase ended without injury. The man is in police custody and Hoskins said the woman was not injured during the altercation.

The case is being forwarded on to the prosecutor’s officer for consideration of charges.

When there’s a stop in action during the NCAA’s March Maddness one St. Joseph company gets a little time on the court.

Hillyard’s Surefoot® mop is the official game day mop of NCAA Basketball.  Randy Roth is the Eastern Zone Manager for Hillyard, Inc.  He said Hillyard has been the official mop for the NCAA since 2013.

“It’s used when a player falls or it there’s a timeout they use the Surefoot to absorb any moisture or sweat that’s landed on the floor to keep the playing surface playable,” Roth said. “Basically it’s a mop to remove perspiration from the floor to keep the floor safe.”

He said the Surefoot was developed around 10 years ago.

“It was used kind of as a marketing tool.  You’ve probably seen the big round mops that are still in use today.  We made ours square so we could tell on TV that it was ours,” Roth said. “This made it more affordable for all the way down to the high school level for people to get a personalized game day mop that they could keep under the basket.  When the players fall down you can easily address the moisture that’s on the floor with a high absorbent microfiber pad. It makes the game safer and keeps people from having to be on their hands and knees with towels.”

So, in between breaks Roth said to be on the lookout for a snapshot of a local business flooring it in the NCAA.

“Look really close during a timeout.  They’re very quick shots.  But if they players end up on the floor then the Surefoot will be brought out,” Roth said.

This isn’t Hillyard’s first involvement with basketball.  Roth said Hillyard actually has an extensive history with the game.

“Our founder N. S. Hillyard developed the first modern wood floor coating. In the 1910s and the 1920s they used just an oil dressing to keep the wood from rotting but that wasn’t a very good surface to play the game on,” Roth said. “His son had a love for the game and for the sport so he developed the first wood floor coating, sports floor coating. It did a lot to change the game, it sped the game up.  It made the floor much easier to play on.”

Roth said all of the mops used on the court in the NCAA are assembled in St. Joseph first.

 

One of three defendants convicted in the murder of a St. Joseph man is accused of trying to escape from the Western Reception, Diagnostics and Correctional Center.

Sean Liechti, 25 was charged last week in Buchanan County with a felony for attempted escape from custody while under arrest.  The charge stems from an incident that allegedly took place Dec. 30 2015 at the WRDCC located at 3401 Faraon St.

“Liechti was witnessed by video to forcibly exit his cell and fled through multiple unsecured doors until he reached the recreation yard on the exterior of the building without authorization,” Investigator Thomas Gratto with the Missouri Department of Corrections said in court documents. “The rec gate was secured where Liechti was subdued and escorted into the facility.”

In October, Liechti was sentenced to serve ten years in prison for second-degree murder for his involvement in the April 25th 2015 stabbing death of Richard Berry.  Kelli Hoard and Primalton Peterson have also been convicted for their part in Berry’s murder.

 

Buchanan County residents will soon be able to text 911 in the event of a crisis.

“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. “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.”

“I know of one incident we had, I think it was last year.  It was a domestic situation and the victim was hiding in the bathroom and she had dialed 911 but she was afraid to speak,” said Cmdr. Mike Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Dept. “This would give an option to let the officers know or let the first responders know that she was there and needed assistance.”

Hill said the overall benefit to the community mostly will be will be for the speech and hearing impaired members.

“Currently they have to go through a third party service to get emergency services,” Hill said. “This will provide that service to the part of our community with disabilities where they can access emergency services in a more timely manner.”

Cmdr. Wilson said the texting option is not available just yet.  He said currently staff is getting trained on it and working with the software but he hopes to have it up and running by early spring.

“When the text comes in to the 911 it will pop up on our screen and we can do our call taking through text just like we do a voice call,” Hill said.