The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office will be starting a new program in an effort to address the backlog of arrest warrants.

According to Sheriff Bill Puett, there has been relocation of staff and some realigned duties in an effort to get a warrant service program started.  

“We already have some folks working on felony warrants and those type of things,” Puett said. “However, we’re going to utilize some of our staff that works in Civil Process and transportation and some of those and pair them up and utilize them to start looking into executing arrest warrants on a lot of the stuff that we get, misdemeanors and things that just kind of languish there.”

Puett said part of the realigning of duties will include some staff members now making calls to people with outstanding warrants.

“Giving them information… you have a warrant, you need to get it taken care of, if not, we’re going to put you on the list to be sought after,” Puett said.

Puett said if anyone thinks they may have a misdemeanor warrant, to get in contact with the court.

“If you go and make arrangements with the court and all those things, you don’t have to be arrested, you don’t have to necessarily post that bond and do all those things,” Puett said. “Unfortunately, I know when people get tickets and some of these misdemeanor things, they kind of put them off, but we want to make sure we’re serving the community in every possible way that we can and so that means making people be held accountable for that.”

Puett said once the project is underway, it’s important to note that anyone calling from the Sheriff’s Office regarding a warrant, will never ask for money or credit card information.

“We will not ask anybody for credit card information, for money, for checks, nothing. We will not be in the money business,” Puett said. “All we’re going to be is (saying) here’s information, you have a warrant, you need to get that taken care of.”

According to Sheriff Puett, they plan to begin the warrant service program in the next couple of weeks.

Free lifeguard training will be offered to anyone wanting to be a lifeguard for the City of St. Joseph’s Aquatics Division this summer.

According to St. Joseph Parks Department Special Events and Communications Coordinator Julie Noel, there’s been a national decline in lifeguards the past few years and that the cost of training might be a factor.

“We thought that might be one possibility why we weren’t getting as many people trained to be lifeguards,” Noel said. “So we decided to take that barrier away and see if we couldn’t garner a little bit more interest and hopefully those who might not have gone ahead to be a lifeguard in the past because of the cost of the training, they would go ahead and try this year.”

The training course, which usually costs around $150 will be provided for free to all lifeguard candidates who join the city’s lifeguard team as an employee for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Anyone interested in being a lifeguard can contact the Aquatics Office at (816) 271-5519. Those interested must pass a pretest before registering for training. Courses will be offered beginning in February.  

Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Dwight K. Scroggins announced Wednesday that no criminal charges will be filed in the officer-involved shooting death of Samantha “Baby Girl” Hennard.

As previously reported, the shooting occurred on October 22, 2017, in the 2100 block of South 10th Street in St. Joseph. The St. Joseph Police Department officer involved in the shooting was identified as Branton G. Hutchison.

According to a news release from the Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the Missouri State Highway Patrol conducted the investigation at the request of the police department. The investigation disclosed that police responded to the are of 9th St. and Sycamore St. in reference to a disturbance involving allegations of a stolen vehicle being located. While enroute, officers were informed two suspects had fled the original call location on foot and both were armed. Officer Hutchison located one of the suspects, 25-year-old Samantha Hennard, in the 2100 block of South 10th St. Hutchison ordered her to stop. Hennard did not stop and as she fled, turned and fired two shots at the pursuing officer. Hutchison returned fire and Hennard was hit one time. Emergency services were called and Hennard was pronounced deceased at the scene.

According to the news release, “A law enforcement officer is allowed to use deadly force if that officer has a reasonable belief the use of such force is necessary to protect himself or another from serious physical injury or death. Once fired upon in this instance, the officer’s belief that deadly force was permissible was not unreasonable and as a result, will not be the basis for any criminal charge allegations.”

Community volunteers are needed for the United Way of Greater St. Joseph’s annual allocations process.

According to a news release, through the allocations process, United Way Partner Agencies are evaluated and allocation funding recommendations are made by groups of volunteers.  Volunteers examine agency operations, programs, and finances, and recommend how much money should be allocated to each agency the following year. Recommendations are then presented to the United Way Community Investment Council and United Way Board of Directors for review and final approval. The work of the volunteers ensures that donor dollars are used to achieve the greatest impact in the areas of education, health and financial stability, and that United Way of Greater St. Joseph is accountable to donors.

In 2017, more than 150 volunteers from a variety of backgrounds participated in the United Way Allocations Process.

The volunteers dedicate 10-15 hours of their time over a two month period from mid-March to mid-May reviewing the agencies, listening to presentations, and determining allocation recommendations.  

Anyone interested in volunteering in 2018 can contact Jodi Bloemker at United Way at (816) 364-2381 or [email protected].

For more information, visit stjosephunitedway.org.

The Red Cross is in need of blood donors to help address a winter blood donation shortage.

American Red Cross of Northwest Missouri Executive Director Angie Springs said there is typically a shortage during the winter months due to several factors including severe winter weather and donors being sick.

Springs said there will be several blood drives coming up in the area.

“There is a constant need for blood, blood isn’t something that can be created any other way than rolling up your sleeves and giving arm to arm,” Springs said. “So if you can, if you’re healthy, I encourage everyone to get out, donate blood, save a life, because you never know when you may be on the receiving end of that blood.”

Springs said Type O negative and B negative blood are the types most needed right now.

Upcoming blood drives will be held at the following locations:

Leavenworth, Kansas, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday at The Guidance Center, 500 Limit St.

Cameron, 12 p.m to 5 p.m. on Friday at Walmart, 2000 Walnut St.

Atchison, Kansas, 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on January 15, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 603 N. 8th St.

St. Joseph, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on January 23, at the Northwest Missouri Chapter of the American Red Cross, 401 N. 12th St.

For more information and other locations, go to redcross.org.

The Allied Arts Council and its member agencies will present a Candidates Forum on the Arts at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art later this month.

The forum is free and open to the public and will focus on the role of arts and culture in the community.

Candidates running for Mayor and City Council in St. Joseph will present their positions to the voters in a question and answer format moderated by 680 KFEQ’s Barry Birr. Birr said the forum offers a chance to learn more about your candidates for public office.

“Even if you’re not overly concerned about, say, funding for the arts, you’re still going to hear your candidates think and talk on stage, they’re going to be answering questions so that you’ll see them in action, you’ll hear how they think about things, so you’ll learn about whether this one or that one seems to speak more for you or not,” Birr said. “And if you are concerned about the arts, either directly or indirectly, you should get a lot of information about that at this forum.”

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the opportunity for question submissions.

“They will have an opportunity to write their questions down on 3×5 index cards,” Birr said. “People will collect those cards and they’ll bring the cards up to me and if they decide that these questions are pertinent and if I decide that the questions are pertinent, those will go into the mix.”

The forum starts at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23rd at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art. The Allied Arts Council will host an informal reception for the audience and the candidates following the forum.

For more information or to RSVP by January 19, call (816) 233-0231.