By Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post

The opioid task force and others in St. Joseph will be taking part in a day next week to bring awareness to the impact of drug addiction and overdose.

This will be the fourth year that Black Balloon Day will be observed nationally and the first year in St. Joseph. Black Balloon Day is Wednesday, March 6th.

St. Joseph Health Dept. Health Educator Nancy King said the day is observed by people placing a black balloon outside of their home or business to bring awareness of everyone who has been lost to addictions.

“When we had our International Overdose Awareness Day event in August, we had a mother that drove up from Platte City to attend our event. She was actually from Scott County, Indiana, and she had a beautiful daughter that she lost to heroin overdose earlier that year and she was the one who told us about Black Balloon Day,” King said. “We’ve started the Opioid Task Force, we’re trying to raise awareness in our community, we thought this is a simple way that we can bring people together, show solidarity, whether you’ve been personally impacted by drug addiction or you just have a concern about our community, about the direction that it’s going with the drug epidemic that’s running rampant across the country.”

Balloons with the Black Balloon Day message printed on them will be available to pick up at the St. Joseph Health Department and at the St. Joseph Youth Alliance.

For more information, contact Nancy King at the health department at (816) 236-1491.

A Lafayette High School student was hit by a vehicle that slid on icy roads Wednesday morning.

According to the St. Joseph Police Department, at 7:35 a.m., an 18-year-old Lafayette student was walking on the edge of the road on 5th Street when he was hit by a vehicle driven by another Lafayette student. Police say the vehicle slid on the roads due to ice.

The pedestrian was transported to the hospital with a minor head injury.

By Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post

A prescription drug drop box was installed at the Law Enforcement Center in St. Joseph this week.

The box is in the LEC lobby and another drop box will be put in at the Drug Strike Force building this spring.

Anyone can drop off unused or expired prescriptions, pet medications, over-the-counter medications and more. Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett said the lobby is always open, so prescription drugs can be dropped off anytime. The Sheriff’s Office is working with the Drug Enforcement Administration to properly dispose of the items.

“We kind of felt like anytime we can get unneeded, unused prescriptions off the street, it’s a tremendous help for our community,” Puett said. “So that was the focus of it and, of course, being able to address some of the issues with the opioid crisis, it’s just another rung in the ladder of trying to address that.”

Mosaic Life Care donated the funds for the two boxes which cost over $5,000.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is preparing for another winter weather event expected to begin Tuesday afternoon.

Tonya Lohman is the Maintenance and Traffic Engineer for MoDOT’s Northwest District. Lohman said, when preparing for a winter event, on the district and state levels, they are a part of conference calls with their National Weather Service partners to find out what kind of weather is on the way.

On Tuesday, the snow event is anticipated to begin around 4 p.m. with anywhere from three to six inches of snow expected. Lohman said the snow is expected to come in at a high intensity at the beginning.

The area will be under a Winter Weather Advisory from 6 p.m. Tuesday until 9 a.m. Wednesday.

For information on road conditions click here or call 888-ASK-MODOT.

St. Joseph Mayor Bill McMurray gave his first State of the City address Friday morning at the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs Coffee event.

The Mayor started out by saying the State of the City is worthwhile.

“The city worthwhile, is worth your while and here’s what I’d like you to do to make it worth your while. Borrowing some phrases from Imagine St. Joseph, I’d like you to invest in people, create a better place and I’d like you to grow prosperity,” McMurray said. “That’s what we’re going to be about in the next 20 years and I think the council, the staff, the city and the community, we’ve all started already on these things.”

The mayor went on to expand on the three ideas, saying one of the things the city council did to invest in people was to raise public safety salaries. He said the economy in St. Joseph is doing well, which is a way of investing in people, as the unemployment rate in St. Joseph is 2.5 percent and St. Joseph has the third highest average wage in the state.

In speaking on creating a better place, McMurray commended the St. Joseph Police Department for being one of about eight police departments in the state that is a state certified department. He said crime in several areas, including Part One crimes and motor vehicle theft, was down in 2018 compared to 2017.

“Crime prevention is not just a police problem, crime prevention is a community problem and our community has started, has always actually, but has started to do even more in that area,” McMurray said.

He mentioned the Blue Ribbon Crime Commission bringing law enforcement and community members together and the growth of the police department’s community policing initiatives in neighborhoods.

The mayor mentioned community appearance as part of creating a better place. He said the council approved $100,000 more for vacant structure stabilization and there has been discussion about a rental inspection program and plans for developing the riverfront.

On the topic of growing prosperity, McMurray mentioned the construction of Corporate Drive connecting to the Highway 36 interchange that will spur economic development. He also commended the 139th Airlift Wing and its plans for expansion over the next ten years.

Mayor McMurray ended the State of the City address by reiterating the three points and challenging St. Joseph to be bold in plans for the future.