By SARAH THOMACK

St. Joseph Post

The St. Joseph Animal Shelter is one step closer to moving into a new building. 

The Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter on Tuesday signed the loan to purchase the 5909 Corporate Drive building which will become the new animal shelter.

“This is a big deal for two reasons,” said Friends of the Shelter President Whitney Zoghby. “We’re a non-profit group, so the fact that we’re doing the fundraising for it is a really big deal and the community has come around to support us and pushed behind this effort for the animals in our community. Number two, it’s a big deal because, as anyone that has been down to the current shelter knows, it’s in pretty poor condition. The animals and the staff and the volunteers deserve better conditions down there, so a new shelter is really needed.”

Zoghby said the next step is renovation, which includes plans for more space for visitors, better housing for animals and more space for educational programming. The Friends of the Shelter are working to finalize floor plans with a local architect firm as well as an architect from Colorado that specializes in animal shelters.

“We wanted to bring that expertise in to make sure that we had everything covered from the biosecurity standpoint and, a lot of people think, animal shelter – the bigger the better – and that’s not really the case,” Zoghby said. “You don’t want to house more animals… You want to create an environment where more people come in to adopt so you don’t have to house as many animals and that the length of stay is shorter than currently. So that’s what she’s focusing on is what’s your current length of stay for animals (and) how can we create a design that improves that.”

The anticipated move in date to the new shelter is sometime in 2022. 

To donate to the new animal shelter or to learn about volunteer opportunities during the renovation process, visit the Friends of the Animal Shelter of St. Joseph on Facebook or go to petforu.com.

(UPDATE 9:22 a.m. Monday) – An arrest was made in reference to the shooting Saturday that injured a three-year-old girl.

According to Capt. Jeff Wilson, 22-year-old Riandten C. Brant was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Bond is denied.

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A three-year-old girl is in stable condition after being shot over the weekend in St. Joseph.

According to Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department, the shooting occurred around 11 a.m. on Saturday in the 1600 block of Beattie St.

The incident is still under investigation.

A new program the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department is starting could help first responders and law enforcement know more about a situation as they arrive on scene.

Sheriff Bill Puett said he heard about an awareness sticker program from other law enforcement agencies in the state that have used it.

The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department purchased the stickers that can be placed on the front door to a house. The stickers will let first responders know any special information about residents in the house such as if a person is hard of hearing, diabetic or is autistic.  

“(First responders) don’t know anything and all of a sudden, there’s resistance of maybe someone is not complying with your directives and you think that they’re purposely not complying and later on you find out they’re deaf or somebody’s a diabetic and has gone into some type of event and you may need to get in there,” Puett said. “Anything that they can do to enhance the knowledge that they have and the ability to deliver services is an important thing. Approaching a door and seeing a big purple sticker – visual recognition – that takes less than a second to add valuable information to your decision making process.”

Puett said the free stickers are available at the Sheriff’s Office at 501 Faraon Street in St. Joseph or call (816) 236-8800 for more information.

By SARAH THOMACK

St. Joseph Post

A $200,000 grant awarded to Northwest Health Services will fund efforts to combat the opioid crisis in rural areas.

Northwest Health Services Director of Behavioral Health Terry Peterson said this is the second year the grant opportunity has been offered as part of the Rural Communities Opioid Response Grant Program.

“It’s kind of unique in that, the first year, all participants take part in what they call a planning phase where they will develop a strategic plan and then years two, three and four are what we call the actual implementation period,” Peterson said. “So, you’ve got a full year to work on a strategic plan to move forward with.”

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy awarded the planning grants to Northwest Health Services and five other organizations this year.  The funding is part of $24 million distributed to 40 states as part of the program.

Peterson is acting as the coordinator of the grant program for Northwest Health Services and said they are looking at creating a northwest Missouri rural health consortium.

“We’re planning on involving five different counties that we’ve kind of divided into four specific areas – the Atchison and Holt County areas and, of course, that would involve the Fairfax Community Hospital, the EMS system, county health departments, law enforcement and schools as well, that’s one of our planning areas,” Peterson said. “We’ve also got Nodaway County with Mosaic on board… then we also have Saint Luke’s joining in Grundy County and Livingston County, so it’s a pretty vast area that we’re going to cover here.”

Peterson said the program is designed to address substance abuse disorders and any type of medical and behavioral health needs in rural areas where people may have difficulty with transportation and access to healthcare resources. Peterson adds the grant will allow Northwest Health Services to expand their medication assisted treatment program into more rural clinics and potentially through telehealth.

“It’s kind of a three tiered process – prevention, treatment and recovery. We address the opioid use disorder and epidemic first, but it also ties into substance use. Alcohol, tobacco, methamphetamine use is still a rampant problem in the rural areas, as well as our area here,” Peterson said. “With the prevention piece, it’s going to enable us to go in and involve school districts as far as educational programs. There will be funding for additional training of law enforcement. Then, of course, also our medication assisted treatment offerings in the area and the therapy piece involving the recovery element.”

Peterson said there will be opportunities for community input as Northwest Health looks to identify community needs within the next year. 

The St. Joseph City Council heard public comments during Monday night’s meeting regarding potential city hike and bike trail improvements.

The improvements would be funded only if the city is awarded funds through the Transportation Alternatives Funds Program. The council approved the grant application Monday night. 

St. Joseph Mayor Bill McMurray said the city is submitting the application with a tentative plan for a trail to run from Cook Road to Blackwell Road.

McMurray said during the public comment on the hike and bike trails, one St. Joseph resident was opposed to the possibility of the trail running through his property.

“Trying to balance all the competing interests is what we’re going to be doing down the road, no pun intended, but right now it’s, if we can be awarded this grant going from Cook Road to Blackwell Road, point A to point B, then we’ll have to figure out the details of how we get there.” 

McMurray said the grant is for $200,000, with the city contributing matching funds of almost $86,000. He adds the CIP money will help fund it, which was approved by voters.

Also at Monday night’s meeting, the council passed the $178 million budget for Fiscal Year 2020. The vote was 7 to 2. According to McMurray, one council member voiced concern during the meeting about seven public works employees being removed and McMurray said he wants to point out it was seven overall positions removed.

“We just took two off the Parks crew, two off the Streets crew and half a position out of Water Protection and half a position out of HR and we removed one accountant and we removed one Capital Projects coordinator,” McMurray said. “Several of these positions were vacant, so we didn’t have anyone losing employment as a result of that, we just didn’t fill these positions in the new budget.”

The budget goes into effect July 1st.

To view the entire meeting, click here.

A Second Harvest Community Food Bank program helps feed area students over the summer.

No Hunger Summer kicked off this week. The free summer feeding program serves students ages 18 and under.

Blake Haynes with Second Harvest says the Backpack Buddies program for elementary school-aged children serves over 3,500 per week during the school year.

“Now, we come to summer break where it’s a time for a kid to be a kid – they’re out playing baseball, softball, they’re at the swimming pool, you know, things you can remember from your childhood,” Haynes said. “That’s the reality for, maybe some of us, but not all of us. Some of us are wondering, ‘After my baseball game that I have tonight… what am I going to eat?’ That’s a reality for nearly 15,000 kids within our service territory, so this is one of those ways that they’re getting a meal throughout that day.”

For more information about the program and to find a list of times and locations, click here or call (816) 364-FOOD.

An 18-year-old woman was hospitalized Friday afternoon due to a stab wound.

According to the St. Joseph Police Department, it was reported at 3:38 p.m. that a woman had come to the hospital with a stab wound.

The woman was able to communicate with officers, but did not offer much information regarding the stabbing. Detectives learned the stabbing occurred in the 2200 block of Walnut and collected evidence at the scene.

According to Capt. Jeff Wilson with the police department, as of Monday morning, no charges had been filed and the woman’s condition is unknown.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.