St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity held a ceremony Monday to honor their volunteers.

Presidential Volunteer Service Award hours are based on time volunteered within a year. Volunteers who contributed 100 to 249 hours were recognized as bronze achievement level recipients, those contributing 250 to 499 hours were recognized as silver achievement recipients and those with 500 or more hours were recognized at the gold level.

The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award is for those who volunteer more than 4,000 hours of service in their lifetime.

One of those Lifetime Award recipients, Hilton Sander, has been volunteering with Habitat for over seven years building houses and working in the ReStore.

“Building a home for someone that’s never had one, I can’t think of anything better to give someone than to give them a home,” Sander said. “I just love doing it, I guess it’s what God intended me to do is help other people.”

Other Lifetime Award recipients honored Monday were Don Mahaffy, John Ford, Claude “Jake” Jacobs and Ivan Nicholson.

St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Cate Manley said volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization.

“As a non-profit organization, the only way that we’re able to accomplish as much as we have is through the work of volunteers and sponsorships and groups that come in, they don’t all come in 150 hours a year… but every little bit helps,” Manley said. “We have 66 homes existing right here in St. Joe now and we anticipate nine homes in the next 12 months to be built and blessed and that’s only through faith and the volunteers.”

For more information on St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity or to find out how to become a volunteer, go to stjoehabitat.org or call (816) 279-2552.

The United Way is searching for volunteers to help students maintain their reading skills throughout the summer.

United Way of Greater St. Joseph Director of Community Investment Jodi Bloemker said they are recruiting volunteers to read with small groups of school-age children in summer child care programs.

“We have a brief training just kind of (to) go over some reading tips to help prepare (volunteers). Then they would sit with a group of, typically, four or five children… and you just go around in a circle and you read together. The volunteer would take a page, the next child would take a page… and you just help them with their words, you go through the book,” Bloemker said. “The importance is keeping kids reading over the summer, because when they are out of school, a lot of kids don’t read. By bringing in these volunteers, we keep them reading over the summer to help them maintain their reading skills.”

Some sessions have started, but more volunteers are still needed as sessions run through July. Bloemker said volunteering for the United Way Reading Adventure is an easy way to volunteer.

“It’s also a great way to get youth volunteering, so we will have middle school and high school students who come and read with students, so if you’re needing to get volunteer hours as a youth, this is a great way to do it,” Bloemker said. “It’s also very easy because we’re so flexible, you sign up for whenever you are able to volunteer and you’re not committing to a long term effort.”

The Reading Adventure is a program of the United Way Profit In Education, one of the United Way’s seven initiatives. The program will be held at YMCA, Lindbergh, Hyde, Edison, Parkway, KinderCare, City REC Center, Bartlett Center, and Cathedral. 

For more information on volunteering for the United Way Reading Adventure, visit stjosephunitedway.org.

Fingerprinting, the K-9 Unit and more will be part of the St. Joseph Police Department’s Junior Police Academy.

This will be the first year of the program. Devin Kallauner is a police officer and school resource officer. Kallauner said the Junior Police Academy is similar to the Citizen’s Academy held in the spring, but is geared toward students ages 12 to 14 who may be interested in law enforcement.

“This is going to be a little bit of education, but there’s a lot of hands-on,” Kallauner said. “You’re going to be taking fingerprints, learning how to lift a fingerprint… we’re going to have the K-9 unit come in, they’re going to talk to all the kids, explain to them why they would use the K-9… the same way with the bicycle unit, the traffic unit, the SRT Team. There’s a lot of personalization, there’s a lot of talking, a lot of stories, there’s going to be a lot of questions, we’re excited for those.”

Kallauner said there will be no tasing or handling of weapons or ammunition during the Junior Police Academy.

“I’ve had a lot of questions… the students are not going to be maced, they’re not going to be tased, we’re not going to handcuff them, that’s not the kind of academy it’s going to be. It’s going to be more (of) learning about our job, trying to get them interested and if there is a spark, then great,” Kallauner said. “This is not all about the St. Joseph Police Department, if kids get interested in this, there are hundreds of other things they can do… and that’s kind of what we’re wanting to show them is just the other aspects of police work.”

The Junior Police Academy takes place from 8 a.m. to noon July 16-20, 2018.

The deadline for registration for the Junior Police Academy is June 1st. Applications are available online and should be dropped off at the St. Joseph Police Station at 501 Faraon Street.

The opening of the newly renovated Bartlett Park playground has been pushed back due to damage to the playground surface.

Renovations on the playground started in December thanks to a Land, Water and Conservation Fund matching grant for $250,000.

According to Julie Noel with the City of St. Joseph Parks Department, they found out Wednesday morning that someone had entered the playground area after the underlayment for the surfacing had just been put in for the park.

“This underlayment is like an asphalt material with glue and other materials, (it) can be kind of caustic to your skin, you have to be really careful about getting it on you,” Noel said. “People had actually gotten into the playground to play, even though it was taped off, and because they got in there before it was dried and set, it left a lot of holes in that underlayment.”

Noel said the plan was for the playground to open this weekend, but repairing the holes and placing the surfacing material will push back the opening date until sometime next week, weather permitting.

“We would really appreciate it if everyone would just respect the area and not enter into the fenced off area… not only because we want to protect the new playground, but also because we want to protect our residents and visitors. This stuff that they’re putting down, while it’s still wet, it will really irritate your skin if it gets on it or if you rub it in your eyes,” Noel said. “Please don’t play in that area until it’s safe to do so and you’ll know that it’s safe when we take down all of the fencing around it.”

Noel said the playground should open next week and they will hold a grand opening when the new bathrooms at the park are completed.

(UPDATE) All roads have been cleared after a tractor-trailer overturned on U.S. 36 in Cameron Thursday morning and hogs were out on the road.

According to Cameron police, the roads were cleared and open to traffic around 10:30 a.m. and the driver of the tractor-trailer and a passenger were transported to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

====

A tractor-trailer overturned in Cameron and traffic is being diverted due to hogs being in the road.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, U.S. 36 westbound at U.S 69 in Cameron is blocked due to the tractor-trailer overturning around 6:15 a.m. Thursday.

Traffic is being diverted to Bob F Griffin Road and westbound access to I-35 is not affected.

Several fishing and nature programs will be offered at Krug Park this summer to help residents “Discover Nature.”

The free Discover Nature programs are offered through a partnership between the Missouri Department of Conservation and the City of St. Joseph.

The nature program part of the series starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday with an MDC agent presenting about his job and what he does to preserve natural resources.

MDC Angler Education Assistant Tori McNutt will be leading monthly programs on fishing starting June 7th. McNutt said the June program begins at 7 p.m. and will feature an introduction to summer fishing clinics.

“People can come out, we’ll have fishing poles and bait and they can just spend an hour fishing at Krug Park,” McNutt said. “Come July, this is a pretty big event, last year we had, I think, 75 people show up (for) our Kids Fishing Derby.”

Check-in for the Kids Fishing Derby begins at 5:30 p.m. on July 5th. In August, McNutt said they will host a fish cleaning demonstration and in September there will be a session on fly fishing.

McNutt said the fishing program is designed to engage St. Joseph residents.

“I’ve put on some other fishing events and they just don’t quite get the numbers that Krug Park does,” McNutt said. “Krug Park is a local commodity that people love to go there and, especially since we stocked it, we have much more public engagement. My job is to help people learn, people enjoy fishing, reconnect the older generations who perhaps have stopped fishing. So basically through this agreement with the city, we just want to engage the public and hopefully create future fisherpeople.”

Monthly nature programs offered June through September will feature topics such as mountain lions in Missouri, insects and bat watching.

Registration is required for all of the fishing events except for the fishing clinic in June. For more information or to register visit MDC’s website or call the MDC Northwest Regional Office at (816) 271-3100.

All events will be held at the parks amphitheater and Krug Park Lagoon at 3500 St. Joseph Avenue.

Charges have been filed after a driver ran a stop sign and hit another vehicle, sending three occupants to the hospital.

As previously reported, St. Joseph Police said Sunday night, 38-year-old Phillip S. Johnson of St. Joseph ran a stop sign at 12th and Pacific Streets and hit another car.

According to charging documents, Johnson was observed driving a Ford Focus north on 12th St. well above the posted speed limit where he drove through a stop sign and hit the passenger side of a Grand Marquis with three occupants. After the crash, Johnson remained in the vehicle while waiting for officer’s arrival. Johnson admitted to drinking alcohol and later, at the emergency room, Johnson provided a preliminary breath sample of .173% BrAC (Breath Alcohol Concentration).

Everyone involved in the crash was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries. The passenger in the front seat was in critical condition.

Johnson was treated and released. He has been charged with felony Driving While Intoxicated – Serious Physical Injury.

An arraignment is scheduled for Friday. Bond is denied.

Missouri Care made a donation Monday to help students at Truman Middle School and Bode Middle School.

Missouri Care’s donation of two washer and dryer sets to the St. Joseph School District will meet the simple need of helping students have clean clothes, which can then help boost attendance and student’s self-esteem.

The washer and dryer program offers at-risk students the opportunity to bring dirty clothes with them to school to be cleaned while they attend their classes.

School Social Worker Kelly Bristol said the biggest impact of having a washer and dryer available at the school is decreasing barriers for students.

“There are a lot of students, who, quite possibly, utilities are shut off or maybe they don’t have the ability to get to a laundry mat to be able to wash their clothes frequently enough and so they’re coming to school in clothes that are dingy or dirty or that smell sometimes,” Bristol said. “When we had our Knock and Talk officers first start going out for attendance for kids that weren’t showing up, one of the themes that came up in that was students either didn’t have clothes or didn’t have clean clothes to be able to get to school because they didn’t want to be ridiculed.”

Bristol said she got in touch with a regional contact for Missouri Care about their need and put together a proposal.

“We’ve been washing clothes for some kiddos, but obviously with the used appliances it’s a little less opportunity than what we have with brand new ones,” Bristol said. “So we’ve had the need, we just haven’t been able to fulfill it as much as we wanted to and so, when this opportunity came about, we just realized we could be making such a bigger impact.”

Monetary funds were provided for the washer and dryer and Bristol said the extra funds will be used to provide bags for students and purchase laundry detergent and dryer sheets. The washer and dryer also are used for Life Skills students to learn practical skills.