A shooting in the area of Bon Ton and Union Streets Sunday night sent one person to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
According to the St. Joseph Police Department, the shooting occurred at 11:45 p.m. Sunday.
Police said they have information on a suspect they are currently investigating.
Voters will have to decide between two republican candidates in the race for the Eastern District Buchanan County Commissioner’s seat.
Scott Burnham and incumbent Dan Hausman are the choices on the republican ballot in Tuesday’s primary election.
Hausman, who is running for his fourth term, has recently faced mileage reimbursement issues in his campaign. He said he drives a lot due to being involved in many state organizations throughout Missouri.
“Last year, I drove about 18,000 miles,” Hausman said. “The county has a very vague policy on use of your personal car or county cars. I wasn’t even aware that I was driving that many miles but we got it all resolved.”
Hausman said some of the the challenges he sees facing the county in the next few years include economic development and repairing levees.
His challenger, Scott Burnham, said he decided to run as he has become increasingly frustrated in government.
“First of all I want to bring honesty and integrity and accountability back to the eastern district office,” Burnham said. “My business background, though, I really feel can help out with economic development. I owned and grew my own small business and then I went to work for a large publicly traded company. So I think I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum there and I feel like I’ve got a pretty good understanding of what businesses are looking for from their government.”
Tom Archdekin is running unopposed on the Democratic side. Primary winners will face each other in the Nov. 8 election.
Primary elections take place Tuesday with polls open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. For more information and to find a polling place, go to the Buchanan County Clerk’s website.
Police are investigating after a report of shots fired at Messanie and 29th Saturday night.
According to the St. Joseph Police Department, calls came in around 9:20 p.m. reporting several shots fired at Messanie and 29th Streets. Police said the incident started at Noyes and Messanie when one car honked at a pickup at a green light and the pickup driver pulled over and began shooting. Several shell casings were found at the scene and no one was injured.
Police are still investigating and anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.
A Savannah High School organization will hold its second triathlon in August with proceeds going toward the local Backpack Buddies program.
Camarie Slagle, a senior at Savannah High School this fall, is the coordinator of the “Tri to End Hunger” triathlon hosted by Savannah High School FCCLA.
Slagle said proceeds from the triathlon will help fund the Backpack Buddies program.
“The Backpack Buddies program of Andrew County compiles a backpack of non-perishable food items to give to kids who come from food insecure households from schools in the surrounding area,” Slagle said. “They had 226 children in the program for the 2015 and 16 school year.”
The triathlon has two races. The adult triathlon is for anyone age 12 and up and consists of a 150 meter swim, a nine mile bike and a 2.1 mile run. The 11 and under age group will complete a 50 meter swim, a one mile bike and a half mile run.
Slagle said there are two reasons people should get involved with the triathlon.
“Not only is it going to a beneficial cause that has a great need,” Slagle said. “But also you can be fit by training for the triathlon and it is definitely doable for anybody – the course is pretty much flat.”
Slagle said it costs $150 dollars per child per year to receive meals through the Backpack Buddies program. Last year they raised about $2,000 from the triathlon which helped to feed 13 children. This year she said the goal is to raise enough to feed at least 15 children.
The triathlon begins with the swimming portion at 7 a.m. on Saturday, August 13th, at the Savannah Pool in Messick Park. For more information or to register click here.
A campaign focusing on showing the dangers of texting and driving is debuting a simulator in St. Joseph Saturday.
Sgt. Larry Stobbs with the St. Joseph Police Department said the “It Only Takes One” campaign has a driving simulator where kids can try to drive distracted or it simulates being impaired.
“Primarily our focus today is to get the younger folks to understand it’s not safe to text and drive,” Stobbs said. “It’s just like driving a car, it’s got the TV screens and it puts them through different driving scenarios and they can see (what happens) without getting into a car crash.”
Getting the driving simulator out to its first event was an effort between many organizations including the police department, the Missouri Department of Transportation, the city of St. Joseph and the St. Joseph Youth Alliance. Stobbs said the “It Only Takes One” campaign is statewide.
“One text, one drink, one glance, that one distraction, it’s one fatal moment,” Stobbs said. “So that one text could cost you your life and we’re really trying to prevent people from being that statistic or losing their life over something as stupid as sending a text that probably doesn’t amount to anything and lose their life over it. So that’s kind of our focus.”
The driving simulator is in the parking lot at the North Shoppes from noon until 2 p.m. Saturday, July 23.
Election workers gathered for a public test of election equipment on Friday.
Chief Deputy Clerk Sandy Wood said the testing takes place ahead of every election.
“We have to test these machines,” Wood said. “We have to bring in a Democrat and a Republican to do the testing to make sure that they’re counting accurately. So we do it before the election and then after the election we do the same thing to make sure that they’re still counting correctly.”
Wood said she’s been working elections for 15 years and the machines mean nowadays there are not as many late nights.
“It used to be we didn’t even have these machines,” Wood said. “Everything was just counted and since we’ve been doing this since 2006 (with) these type of machines, I don’t even really remember what it was like. When they would bring the ballots in at night, we’d have stacks and stacks of ballots and we’d have this huge machine and it would just count – click-click-click-click -and then it would jam and you’d have a problem.”
According to Wood, the Friday testing was also a training session for workers so they will be ready for the November elections. Wood said they’re estimating a 25 percent voter turnout for the upcoming August election but hope to see more.
Primary elections take place on Tuesday, August 2nd. Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
Area youth can play a pick-up game of basketball and pick up safety knowledge from local police officers at an upcoming camp.
Commander Mike Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department is one of the officers helping organize the Cops Care Basketball Camp in August.
Wilson said it’s been a few years since they’ve hosted a basketball camp and they wanted to bring it back this year.
“This year we’re doing something a little bit different,” Wilson said. “Besides basketball we’re going to have some things on conflict resolution, internet safety and we’re going to have the fire department there on fire safety and we’ll have some bike safety. Just a few different classes during the morning and then the afternoon will be all basketball.”
Wilson said one of the days of camp will be a public safety day and firefighters, juvenile officers, ambulance personnel and state troopers will all be participating during the camp at some point.
He said the camp is a way to let kids ask questions, meet law enforcement officers and it’s another way to reach out to community.
“Today we see a lot of negative things about police,” Wilson said. “It’s good that the kids get to know us and see us. We’re there for them and to help people and things like that, so just building those relationships within the community.”
The free basketball camp for youth ages 9 to 12 takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., August 2-4 at the REC Center. Lunch is provided each day. For more information or to preregister, stop by the Police Department lobby between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or call Commander Mike Wilson at (816) 271-4881 or Sgt. Greg Gilpin at (816) 236-1473.
The theme of the second Howl-a-Palooza event hosted by St. Joseph Animal Control and Rescue is Carnival O’ Canines.
St. Joseph Animal Shelter Humane Educator Jenna Keyes said the first Howl-a-Palooza was held last year for the grand opening of the Corby Dog Park.
“It allows us to have some fun with the community,” Keyes said. “We have vendor booths come out and talk about local businesses and we’ll have on site adoptions for the animal shelter there as well. Not to mention we have several fun carnival games and activities, dog contests that you can enter with your pet and all kinds of prizes. It’s really just going to be a fun-filled event for the whole family.”
The carnival theme includes contests such as best clown costume, pet owner look-alike and awards for the best trick. According to Keyes, contests will begin around 11 a.m. and before that, at 10:30 a.m., there will be a shelter dog alumni group photo.
“If you adopted a dog from the shelter feel free to come by the Howl-a-Palooza event, we’re going to have a booth there just for you,” Keyes said. “We’re taking paw prints of the shelter adoptees that we can hang up here at the shelter and then we’re taking a group photo.”
Keyes said they’re still accepting volunteer help for the event and any vendors who would like a booth.
Howl-a-Palooza takes place from 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday at the Corby Dog Park in the parking lot.
For more information, go the Facebook event page or call (816) 271-5363.
St. Joseph Police are investigating a robbery of Pokémon Go players Sunday night.
According to Sgt. Roy Hoskins, around 9:30 p.m., two individuals were playing the Pokémon Go game on their phones and looking for the virtual creatures in the 1500 block of McArthur Drive near the Nature Center. Hoskins said two white males jumped from a tree, one brandished a silver glock-style pistol and demanded wallets and phones and then both ran off into the woods.
Hoskins said the suspects are described as white males, both in their 20s to early 30s, one approximately 5’7” to 5’9” weighing 150 lbs with his face covered with a bandanna. The other was approximately 5’7” weighing 150 to 170 lbs, with shaggy hair and a cloth or shirt over his face.
Hoskins said anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.
Hoskins said during the middle to late part of last week they began receiving more and more calls during the midnight shift hours regarding people trespassing who are playing the Pokemon Go game.
“Officers are now familiar with how (the game) works,” Hoskins said. “We’ve been trying to talk with people that make complaints and let them know what it is.”
Hoskins said he cautions property owners to report trespassers before using any force. He also cautions Pokémon Go game players to always be aware of their surroundings and to be careful of whose property they enter as they may be there illegally.
