A scam threatening to terminate water services is circulating in Hiawatha Kan. according to police.
The Hiawatha Police Department is warning residents of a local scam attempt. According to a post on Facebook over the weekend the department said a local business received a call advising them that they were given orders from the City of Hiawatha to terminate water service and they could avoid this termination if they went to the payment center at Wal-Mart.
“While following up on the above attempt we had a second area local business contacted attempting the same scam with them and this time they advised they could take a credit card. Neither attempt to scam money from them was successful,” police said.
The department reminds individuals never to give out personal information or to send in a money order to pay for a bill.
“No local government entity is going to call you in the middle of the weekend asking you to give out your personal information or to go send a money order to pay your bills,” police advised.
A Northwest Missouri State University Student charged with making terrorist threats appeared in court Tuesday.
Conner Stottlemyre, 19 of Blue Springs was granted bond in Nodaway County Court Tuesday morning. According to the prosecutor’s office Stottlemyre’s bond was set at $10,000. Conditions of the bond also included that Stottlemyre not be allowed on Northwest property or within Nodaway County unless in court or with his attorney. He will also be required to wear a GPS tracking device. The prosecutor’s office said if he were to cut off the device a separate felony for that would also be filed.
Stottlemyre is accused of making threats on Yik Yak that read, “I’m gonna shoot any black people tomorrow, so be ready.” He was arrested Wednesday in his dormitory. Yik Yak is the same social media application a Missouri S & T student is accused of using to make threats.
Stottlemyre’s next court date is set for Dec. 22nd.
680 KFEQ’s Barry Birr is closing the book on a full-time career in radio after more than 50 years, 31 of which in St. Joseph.
“When I first came here I brought a manual typewriter along that I had used at KMOX and I still used it once in awhile when we had a problem,” Birr said. “We had turntables here when I first started that played records, you know those flat vinyl things. Then we went from that to cassettes, then from cassettes to CDs. Now everything is digital and it’s on the computer.”
Birr is officially retiring as KFEQ’s News Director effective Dec. 31, 2015.
“Time to spend more time with my wife and be a little less tired because I won’t be getting up so early in the morning,” he said.
But he hopes to continue to host his morning talk show, The Hotline which he started on KFEQ in 1992.
“The program is really a news driven program. We talk about what’s going on in the news, wither it’s local or state or national. Everyone’s opinion is welcome. It’s a community forum. It’s an opportunity for people to call in voice their opinions, share their ideas and even if they don’t find others who really agree with them to have a say and not be ridiculed for it,” Birr said. “We’re looking at continuing with the Hotline and having me continue with the Hotline.”
He has covered many major events that have taken place in the community over the years and said the flood of 93′ is one that really sticks out in his mind.
“Coming a year after the start of the Hotline it was kind of the perfect test of the Hotline,” Birr said. “It gave people a chance to talk with each other about what was happening to them. It was such a big flood, such a big deal that it was on everybody’s minds even if they were not directly impacted by the flood.”
Birr was also there for the Ice Storm of 2007.
“We had people who didn’t have power in their homes for about five days afterwords and it knocked out all of the radio stations except for ours, KFEQ,” Birr said. “On the Hotline and elsewhere on our air we opened it up and took calls from people. We brought in power company officials and others to answer questions…What was really kind of neat was people would call in and say they knew where to get this or that, things people needed. They also gave us updates on ‘I got my power back, I got my power back,’ and we could almost plot it on a map. In some cases it was being restored house by house.”
He said as much as technology has changed how news is delivered, the basic concepts have stayed the same.
“Everything has changed but the real important things haven’t,” Birr said. “The important things are letting people know what’s going on, telling them the truth and leaving it at that so that they can make up their own minds about what to do.”
The St. Joseph School District Board of Education voted in executive session on Monday, November 16, 2015, to extend a two-year contract to interim superintendent Dr. Robert Newhart. The board also voted to delete the “interim” title as well, effective immediately. The vote was 6-1; Brad Haggard, Martin Rucker, Dennis Snethen, Eric Bruder, Kappy Hodges and Chris Danford voted yes; Lori Prussman voted no.
“Dr. Newhart has proven he can make tough decisions and has tackled extremely difficult projects since July,” stated board president Brad Haggard. “He continues to work through the 22- point board priority checklist, streamline the district finances, align the business office and human resources office with updated policies and procedures, all while getting to know our students and staff. It hasn’t been easy and we recognize our district needs his strong leadership at this critical time,” said Haggard.
Dr. Newhart’s current salary of $174,500 will remain the same through June 30, 2017. For the 2017-18 school year, the superintendent’s salary will be no less than $174,500 and no more than $181,480. The salary will be determined by the board based upon its evaluation of the
superintendent’s performance, which will be held no later than February 1, 2017.
Former Brown Transfer & Storage building partially collapses. Photo by Nadia Thacker
A building dating back to the early 1900s has partially collapsed just south of Downtown St. Joseph.
The vacant building, located in the 900 block of 6th St. was once used by the Brown Transfer & Storage Company.
“The rainstorm that came this morning there was sufficient pressure to knock out the front part of that parapet wall due to the roof sagging,” said Andre Messner, Chief Building Official with the City of St. Joseph. “The owner did tell me they had been doing some repairs in there, trying to repair the roof.”
Messner said the building was vacant at the time and that there was an alarm system in place to keep people from breaking in.
The city has closed off 6th St. in the 900 block near Olive St. due to the collapse.
“We’re blocking off the road because of the potential of more of that brick and wall falling and potentially hurting someone very seriously,” Messner said. “We’re working with the owner of the building to put together a plan to either secure it, partially demo it, or fully demo it.”
Building was vacant at the time of the collapse. Photo By Nadia Thacker
The St. Joseph Fire Department will be working with city officials to inspect the facility.
“As soon as the fire truck gets here, he’ll be taking me up to look at it much closer to get a better opinion on the path we should be taking,” Messner said.
Official anticipate the roadway will stay closed at that location through Monday.
“As of right now we can’t even clean up the bricks because of the potential for even more bricks to fall,” Messner said.
According to information in court documents, a man arrested near downtown St. Joseph Friday is wanted in Texas for shooting his wife.
Justlet Joseph, 29 of Amarillo, Texas was arrested Friday in the 1200 block of Powell St. on an out of state warrant. According to court documents, Joseph’s wife was shot on Oct. 31 with a handgun.
“Justlet Joseph shot 4 times with a 9MM handgun and struck striking the victim in the back leaving her with serious physical injuries,” said Det. A. King with the St. Joseph Police Department.
“Detectives with the SJPD Street Crimes Unit, FBI, ATF, and Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department, including myself Detective King located a possible address for Justlet Joseph,” said. Det. King. “We had been contacted by detectives from Amarillo, Texas in reference to Joseph shooting his wife.”
Friday, law enforcement officials responded to the 1200 block of Powell St. and shutdown the road for nearly two hours. Lt. Shawn Collie with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department told us Joseph came out of the residence without incident shortly after SRT called for him to come out.
Collie said Joseph will be extradited back to Texas.
“Justlet has been arrested for robbery, kidnapping, and assault in the past,” Det. King said.
Joseph is scheduled for an arraignment Tuesday in Buchanan County on a charge as a fugitive from out of state.
A 29-year-old man was taken into custody near downtown St. Joseph Friday on a warrant out of Texas.
Lt. Shawn Collie with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department said Justlet Joseph was arrested on a warrant out of Amarillo, Texas for Aggravated Assault with a deadly weapon, domestic violence related.
Law Enforcement Officers with the St. Joseph Police Department, Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department, Special Response Team, and several Federal Agencies responded to the 1300 block of Powell Street around noon. The road was blocked off in both directions at that location for nearly two hours.
“The Sheriff’s Department and Police Department have been assisting Amarillo Texas Police Department in locating a fugitive wanted out of Amarillo Texas on a shooting,” Collie said. “Through the investigation we were able to place the wanted fugitive here at this residence.”
Collie said Joseph came out of the residence without incident shortly after the Special Response Team called for him to come out. Collie said it’s still unclear why Joseph was in St. Joseph.
“There’s another female that was with the suspect and then a toddler maybe two or three years old unrelated to the case,” Collie said. “This is a place he’s been staying with maybe family members or associates.”
Collie said Justlet will be extradited back to Texas.
“We’ll go through a process of getting him charged as a fugitive from out of state here. Once he’s charged here then he’ll be shipped back to Texas where they’ll be able to complete their investigation,” Collie said.
The Maryville Public Safety Department has released surveillance photos taken during an armed robbery at a Maryville convenience store earlier this week with the hope of identifying the suspect.
Police said the City Star convenience store was robbed at gunpoint early Tuesday morning in Maryville.
MPS is asking for help identifying the suspect in the photos provided. The suspect is believed to be a black man in his late teens to early twenties.
The gun used in the robbery is described as a black semiautomatic. The suspect wore a tight white face cover and dark Nike pullover with light colored stripes.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Maryville Public Safety at 660-562-3209.
Court documents released in the case of a Northwest Missouri State University student charged with making terrorist threats show there were allegedly several statements made to harm others by shooting them.
Connor Stottlemyre, 19 of Blue Springs has been charged with both a felony and a misdemeanor for Making a Terrorist Threat. Stottlemyre was taken into custody by Northwest Missouri State University police Wednesday morning. According to court documents Stottlemyre has made several threatening statements on a social media site known as YIK YAK since Nov. 5.
A post was made on the site Nov. 5 at 9:35 p.m. from Maryville that read: “I love evil, I just want to shoot up H&P they’re all bullies especially in Hudson.”
Northwest has a residence hall on the southeast corner of campus called Hudson-Perrin.
Then on Wednesday at 1:14 a.m. another post read, “I’m gonna shoot any black ppl tomorrow so be ready.”
Two minutes later another post was made which said, “I love evil, I can’t wait for Northwest to make the news tomorrow.”
Sergeant David Merrill with the Northwest Missouri State University Police Department said in the documents that a search warrant was issued by the Circuit Court of Nodaway County to YIK YAK requesting all basic subscriber information, the IP address associated with the message, GPS location information and the type of cellphone used to access the application.
Police said the sending cell phone device for all three posts was from approximately the same location located in Perrin Hall on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University and the IP address for all three posts was found to be the same. Police were able to match the cell phone number to a student at Northwest.
“The Northwest Missouri State University, Banner telephone number data base was searched, which resulted in the identification of Connor Sottlemyre as the associated student to that cell phone number,” Sgt. Merrill said. “As a result of the posts the Northwest Missouri State University Police Department received calls from persons about the posts.”
“The University Police Department took measures to notify minority students who were concerned about their safety,” Sgt. Merrill said.
Police sent out a mass emails to make sure students were aware of the social media threat.
University Police arrested Stottlemyre around 11 a.m. Wednesday at his residence hall on campus.
“Stottlemyre confessed to making the post from his cell phone on the above listed dates and being responsible for the posting of the treats on YIK YAK,” Sgt. Merrill said.
He is scheduled to appear for an arraignment, Nov. 17.
Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Rice said in a press conference authorities did not believe Stottlemyre intended to carry out the threats.
“He claimed he was not going to seriously do it after an interview with police,” Rice said.
A scam threatening to terminate water services is circulating in Hiawatha Kan. according to police.
