Thousands of people will turn-out in Atchison, Kan. as the Amelia Earhart Festival continues.

Festivities kicked off Friday at Warnock Lake with Lakefest. Jacque Pregont with the Atchison Chamber said activities will continue all day Saturday with something for everyone.

“We won’t be done until dark with the fireworks show,” Pregont said. “We have a craft fair downtown which is sold out this year so that means there’s lots of crafts if you’re interested in hand-made items. We have a stage of entertainment in the middle of that craft show, we also have a whole block of things that we do just for kids.”

The agenda for Saturday includes a 2K/8K Fun Run-Walk starting at 7:30 a.m. There’s also a Fly-In at Amelia Earhart Airport from 8 a.m. to noon which includes a pancake breakfast, or if you’d prefer at 9 a.m. Breakfast with the Books is being held at the Atchison Public Library where participants can hear authors discuss Amelia and her impact. The Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 223 North Terrace. Adults $5, Kids 12 and under $1 for admission.

Pregont said an awards luncheon will be held at 12:30 p.m. at Benedictine College to honor a woman for her Pioneering Achievement.

“We say it’s kind of the heart of the festival it’s kind of what makes us a little bit different,” she said. “We give an award every year to a woman who we think exemplifies the spirit of Amelia Earhart.”

This year’s award winner is Sophia Danenberg. She is the first African American and the first black woman from anywhere to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. She reached the top of the world on May 19, 2006. The chamber said she’s one of only 2,500 who have made that climb since 1953.

Tickets to the Achievement Award Luncheon are $15.

At 1 p.m. the Atchison County Raceway will start its Powder Puff Mini Van Derby followed by the annual Trailer Smash event.

Pregont said because of the extremely hot conditions in the forecast she thinks turnout during the day in downtown Atchison will be less than in years past.

“We expect anywhere between, 5 or 6,000 people during the day,” she said. “It all depends on the weather.”

Music on the Riverfront will kick off at 4:30 and run until 11:30 p.m.  An evening aerobatic performance is st to take place at 7:55 p.m. with Michael Vaknin in her Extra 300 and Susan Dacy in her Big Red Stearman.

Any finally to wrap the day up the “Concert in the Sky” fireworks show will draw crowds to the banks of the Missouri River.

“We have had helicopters tell us there’s probably 30,000 people on the riverfront to watch the fireworks,” Pregont said. “The music is simulcast over speakers up and down the river.  So it truly is a concert in the sky.”

To see the full schedule of events CLICK HERE.

A St. Joseph man has been charged in connection with a Thursday afternoon shooting that sent another St. Joseph man to the hospital with serious injuries.

24-year-old Michael Dennis is charged with first-degree Assault.

According to the probable cause statement signed by St. Joseph Police Officer Chris Davis Dennis shot the other man twice.

“According to eye witness statements, and a statement from the defendant, on 7-16-2015 the defendant committed Assault by firing a pistol striking the victim AGJ twice causing serious physical injury, requiring hospitalization,” Davis said.

As we previously reported, police responded to the 100 block of S. 19th St. around 4 p.m. Thursday to find a man in his 20s with gunshot wounds.

Commander Eric Protzman said about an hour later a person of interest was taken into custody by the Missouri State Highway Patrol at La Petite Academy.

Dennis has a prior criminal record for drug possession, failure to appear, disorderly conduct, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

An arraignment is set for Tuesday.

A Kansas man has been sentenced to spend 15 years behind bars in the beating death of William Howard Paige in 2014.

Timothy D. Osborne, 50, of Atchison was sentenced Friday to serve 15 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for a Class B. Felony of Voluntary Manslaughter in connection with the death of Paige. That’s the maximum penalty.

Paige was reported missing by family members which led to the St. Joseph Police Department to investigate and discover his partially decomposed body on May 15, 2014 in the wooded area surrounding Wyeth Hill in St. Joseph.

According to court documents witnesses reported that on or around the evening of April 18th, 2014 Osborne and Paige got into an argument and Osborne allegedly struck Paige multiple times.

It wasn’t until March of this year that a charge was filed against Osborne and an arrest was made.  In May, he pleaded guilty to the charge.

The city of St. Joseph will receive a grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation to trim up parts of town.

On Monday the MDC will present the check for a tree grant during the City Council Meeting.  It’s the seventh time the city has been awarded the Tree Resource Improvement & Maintenance grant AKA, T.R.I.M.

The city said the grant amount of $7,985.79 will be used to inventory street trees in the area of the city bordered by County Line Road on the north, Highland Avenue on the south, I-29 on the east and I-229 on the west.

Atchison Kansas could see its population triple overnight as people flock to take part in the 19th annual Amelia Earhart Festival.

Activities will kick-off Friday night with LakeFest.  Jacque Pregont with the Atchison Chamber of Commerce said the concert is held in the natural amphitheater on the shores of Warnock Lake. Gates open at 4 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. with the national anthem and the opening act.

“I would anticipate that we’ll be about where we were last year with probably 8 or 9,000 people down at the lake,” Pregont said.

The Eli Young Band, Easton Corbin,  Cassadee Pope, and Atchison County native Erik Dylan will take the stage.

Tickets are $25 until Friday when they go up to $30 the day of the concert.  CLICK HERE for tickets.

Then Saturday afternoon Pregont said the festival will draw around 5 to 7,000 people into downtown.

“We have things going on all day long.  We start at 9 o’clock in the morning and we won’t be done until dark with the fireworks show,” she said.

Everything from a 2K/8K run-walk to a craft show and Aerobatic Performances.  CLICK HERE to view the brochure.

But Saturday night the town with a 2010 Census of only 11,021 could see 30-thousand people line the riverfront to view the city’s firework display.

“When people ask me how many people are on the riverfront I always tell them however many can fit,” Pergont said. “The music is simulcast over speakers up and down the river.  So it truly is a concert in the sky.”