Monday marked Dr. Doug Van Zyl’s first official day as St. Joseph School District Superintendent.

He met with local media Monday afternoon before taking a tour of Hillyard Technical Center.

“It’s been a great first day so far,” Van Zyl said. “A little overwhelming anytime, I think, that you transition into a new job, but my impression is we’ve got a lot of great folks that I’ve dealt with so far in the short time that I’ve been here and people that really want to do what’s right for the community and for our kids and that’s really what our focus needs to be.”

Dr. Van Zyl comes to St. Joseph from Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he was superintendent for eight years of the school district there of approximately 4,000 students. Van Zyl said it will take some time to get to know the St. Joseph School District and set priorities.

“We started out having a meeting with the board a couple weeks ago and had some conversations about what they, as a board, see as the priorities,” Van Zyl said. “But the number one priority is always going to be taking care of kids and doing what’s best for them. We’re going to have to continue to take a look at finances, of course, there’s some challenges that have been there in the past and will continue to be a challenge. We’ll probably have to put a workshop in place in the next couple months to talk about what finances look like so that we can do some planning for what happens with the revenue… so it’ll take us a little bit of time to dig through it.”

Van Zyl said another priority is communication.

“I think the best thing you can do is communicate, just be open and transparent about what’s going on and what’s there on the plate and then be able to communicate in detail about what the plans are and then follow through on it,” Van Zyl said. “Most people really want… a well established plan and then for us as school district leaders to follow through on it because they don’t want to be told one thing and then find out, oops, it changed or we didn’t tell them what we wanted upfront. So just to be transparent and up front with everything that we’re going to do… is the best approach.”

Van Zyl, along with his family, made the move to St. Joseph last week. Van Zyl and his wife have a son and a daughter who are both in college and another daughter getting ready to attend college in the fall.

“(St. Joseph is a) great community, it’s a little bit bigger than where I was the last eight years but… seems like it’s a community that’s got a lot of positive things going,” Van Zyl said.

For more information about Dr. Doug Van Zyl, click here.

Police investigated a bomb threat at a St. Joseph business Sunday night.

According to police, a Kmart employee notified police around 8:30 p.m. that the store had received a call saying there was a bomb in the building.

Police responded to the business at 2901 North Belt and evacuated the building. According to police, no devices were located and they did not find anything suspicious.

Business resumed as normal shortly after 9:30 p.m.

Starting next week, people can not only shop their favorite stores at the East Hills Mall in St. Joseph, but also see a traveling historical exhibit.

The traveling exhibit, “Over There: Missouri and the Great War” will be in St. Joseph July 3rd through September 2nd. St. Joseph Museums Public Relations Officer Kathy Reno said the exhibit is produced by the Missouri Humanities Council along with the Friends of the Springfield-Greene County Library District and others.

“It’s a digital collection of historical documents, photographs, artifacts, oral histories and all kinds of original material from museums across the state and private collections,” Reno said. “It talks about the crucial role of Missouri mules, what was their role in the war, the work of Missouri nurses and female volunteers and the military service of Missouri soldiers. So there will be documents, keyword searches, 360-degree panning feature for the artifacts, historical articles, photos from the battlefield and the home front. The exhibit talks about what’s going on in Missouri at this point with 156,000 people ‘over there.’”

Reno said the exhibit also ties in to an exhibit currently at the St. Joseph Museums.

“We thought maybe people would go to the mall and see that and they’d be inspired to come see our exhibit, which is called, ‘WWI Saint Joseph:  Reflections on Community and Conflict,’” Reno said. “We talk about what’s going on in St. Joseph because there was a wage gap going on because of the war so the Tootle Lemon Bank in St. Joseph announced it would cover the wage gap for any of its employees who enlisted. So that’s one of the ways that St. Joseph helped during the war.”

The exhibit at the East Hills Mall will open on July 3rd and will be available to view for free during regular mall hours until September 2nd.

The exhibit at the museum is available for viewing during regular museum hours which are from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information, visit stjosephmuseum.org/events.

St. Joseph Police are investigating an overnight armed robbery.

According to Sgt. Brett Kelley, at 12:24 a.m. Tuesday at the U.S. Oil at 22nd and Messanie, a night employee was walking to their vehicle when they were approached by the suspect who pointed a gun at the employee and demanded the night deposit. The suspect then left with the night deposit in what was described as an orange truck or SUV. The male suspect was wearing a mask.

There were no injuries. Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.

A day encouraging people to ride their local public transit system is going on around the country Thursday.

According to the City of St. Joseph, City Transit is participating in Dump the Pump Day on June 21st.

Deviations still cost 50 cents, but regular bus fairs are waived for the day.

For more information, call the Transit Office at (816) 233-6700.

Kids can get a bike checkup, learn about bike safety and ride around Krug Park this weekend at the Kids Tour Missouri Bike Rides event.

Julie Noel with the St. Joseph Parks Recreation, and Civic Facilities said registration starts at 9 a.m. and the rides start at 10 a.m. Saturday at the upper parking lot of Krug Park.

“Each child who participates in a ride gets a medal… we will have some food available for the kids who participate and there will be music and it’s just a fun time,” Noel said. “We try to have one or two… cyclists that have gone through special training about bicycle safety… on hand every time we do an event to help kids learn about how to properly put on their helmet and how to check out their bicycles.”

There are three different lengths of rides to choose from including a short ride for beginners, a medium ride for more experienced riders and a long ride for those who are practiced riders.

The event for kids ages 3 to 14 is free and participants just need to bring their own bike and helmet. If a child has grown out of their helmet or lost one, there will be a few helmets given away at this event by the St. Joseph Safety Council.