A goal of an upcoming winter reading program for adults is to get people reading new genres.

The Rolling Hills Library in St. Joseph and Savannah will begin the “Color Your Winter Re(a)d” program in January. The program runs through February and people have two months to read five books to score a “literary bingo.”

Rolling Hills Library Public Relations Specialist Alan Stolfus said their annual adult winter reading program has been going on for almost ten years.

“Winter is the perfect time for reading. It’s cold, people want to stay inside, snuggle up with a good book to read,” Stolfus said. “We see a lot of readers in the winter that will come in and check out multiple books and this is a fun way to get them involved, recognize their reading habits and also to try to get them to read outside of their normal genres. Some people like to read just mysteries or just romance and the goal that we’ve always had with the adult winter reading program is to kind of broaden their reading.”

Participants can complete a literary bingo by reading five books from a color-themed reading log/bingo card. Participants can read five topics in a row or choose any five subjects to score a bingo. Topics include “Silver Screen – Books to Movies,” “Red Hot Romance” and “Cure the Winter Blues – Humorous Stories.”

People can pick up a log any time during January or February at the Belt Branch at 1904 North Belt, the Savannah Branch at 514 West Main or the Bookmobile. Prizes are awarded to participants who score a bingo and they can also attend a program party and be entered into a drawing for more prizes. 

For more information, go to rhcl.org or call (816) 232-5479.

As of Christmas Eve, all 710 families that applied for assistance were helped through the Adopt-a-Family Christmas program.

According to AFL-CIO Executive Director Penny Adams, an additional 25 families that did not apply were also helped.

Each year, the program matches up needy families with donors, who supply Christmas gifts in a number of ways.

Adams said the agency will be closed to the public until January 3rd but their phones will be answered at (816) 364-1131.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The following is a listing of general highway maintenance and construction work in the Northwest Missouri region planned for the week of Dec. 25 – 31 from the Missouri Department of Transportation. In addition to the work listed below, there may be pothole patching, shoulder work, bridge maintenance, brush cutting, guardrail repairs and other road work conducted throughout the region. Many of these will be moving operations and could include lane closures with delays. All scheduled maintenance and construction projects are subject to change.

MoDOT will halt temporary lane closures throughout the state to accommodate an increase in traffic due to the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. Most temporary lane closures will be removed by noon on Friday, Dec. 22, and will resume Tuesday morning, Dec. 26. For the New Year’s Day holiday lane closures will be removed by noon on Friday, Dec. 29 and will resume Tuesday morning, Jan. 2.   Some long-term lane and road closures may remain in place.

MoDOT reminds the public to stay alert, watch for road work, buckle up, slow down, and drive with extreme caution through work zones and in changing weather conditions.

For more information about a project, please contact MoDOT at 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (888-275-6636) or visit modot.org/northwest. You can also follow MoDOT’s Northwest Missouri District on Twitter @ModotNorthwest and on Facebook.

Atchison County

• Route M – Shoulder and drainage work, Dec. 26
• Route T – Shoulder work, Dec. 26 – 29

Buchanan County

• Route JJ – Sealing, Dec. 26 – 29

Carroll County

• Route K – CLOSED for a culvert replacement from Route D to County Road 21, Dec. 27, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Chariton County

• Route E – Drainage work from the city limits of Rothville to Route JJ/F, Dec. 26 – 27
• Route PP – Bridge maintenance at the Chariton River Overflow Bridge, Dec. 26 – 29

Daviess County

• Route KK – CLOSED for a culvert replacement from 110^th Street to 125^thStreet, Dec. 26 – 29, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Harrison County

• U.S. Route 69 – Shoulder work from the city limits of Bethany to the Iowa state line, Dec. 26 – 29

Linn County

• Route 5 – Pothole patching from the city limits of Linneus to the city limits of Browning, Dec. 26 – 27
• Route TT – Pothole patching from U.S. Route 36 to the Chariton County line, Dec. 28 – 29

Livingston County

• U.S. Route 65 – Sealing, Dec. 26 – 29
• Route 190 – Shoulder work, Dec. 26 – 29

Mercer County

• U.S. Route 136 − CLOSED for a bridge replacement project at the Muddy Creek Bridge. The road will be closed through February 2018.

The Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter have been working to find a new location for the animal shelter and have a promising option under consideration.

St. Joseph City Manager Bruce Woody said a few years ago, it was brought up that a larger and better located new facility is needed. Woody said the Friends have spent a lot of time planning a new shelter and looking at locations to move from the current Stockyards Expressway location.

Woody said after a lot of looking, a location in Mitchell Woods Business Park is under consideration.

“Bayer owned a series of individual lots as well as larger properties, it was previously under operation including two buildings that they were using for production facilities,” Woody said. “They have since sold that property, so they put all of that property up for redevelopment as well as two existing buildings up for sale. They’ve priced it very attractively but it’s layout and format actually is very conducive to what we would need for an animal shelter.”

Woody said a resolution will go before the council asking if they support the location at 5909 Corporate Drive as the goal for the relocation of the animal shelter.

“If we get a majority support of council… it will make a pronouncement to the general public that the council supports that and that’s important for two reasons,” Woody said. “The Friends of the Animal Shelter is going to be doing some fundraising because they’re coming up with about a million and a half worth of the total project budget and to fundraise they need to be sure and show potential donors that they have the city’s support and city match money as well. On the city side, we’re proposing that the city’s match money be funded through the next Capital Improvements Program, the half cent sales tax.”

The resolution will go before the council on January 2nd.

Maryville, Mo. – High school students who enjoy solving complex problems are invited to test their knowledge for the chance to win prizes during “The Most Awesome Northwest-Kansas City Programming Contest.”

Northwest Missouri State University’s School of Computer Science and Information Systems is offering the contest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 9, at Northwest-Kansas City, 6889 North Oak Trafficway in Gladstone, Missouri.

Standard International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) rules will apply as teams of three people will be allowed to use one computer and any printed resources. Languages will include C, C++, Java, and Python. The contest will last three hours during the afternoon after a morning practice session and lunch.

The contest is free and open to all high school students in the Kansas City region.

Coaches must register their teams by Friday, March 2, 2018, by clicking here.

For more info, contact Dr. Michael Rogers, associate professor of computer science and information systems, at [email protected] or (660) 562.1551 or Jeanne Crawford, secretary for the School of Computer Science and Information Systems, at [email protected] or (660) 562.1600.

(Missourinet) – The price of gas has inched up since a week ago when Missouri had the lowest price at the pump in the country, but Show Me State residents are still projected to hit the road in droves over the holidays.

AAA is predicting record travel, both in Missouri and nationwide, for the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s.

Gail Weinholzer with AAA says more than 107-million Americans will be traveling at least 50 miles from home between December 23rd and January 1st.

“There’s going to be a lot of people traveling and there’s been a lot people traveling all year,” Weinholzer says. “We’ve seen year-over-year increases for every major holiday this year, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and now Christmas/New Year’s. Clearly, Americans are traveling in robust numbers and we expect that to continue into 2018.”

This will be the highest year-end travel volume on record and 2017 marks the ninth consecutive year of rising year-end travel. Missouri’s interstates and highways will be busy, so Weinholzer says to plan accordingly.

“Actually, we are seeing increases across the board, personal automobiles, planes, trains, buses, everything,” Weinholzer says. “We’re seeing a significant increase and overall, the increase is 3.1% over last year.”

The season of Winter is officially underway, having officially started Thursday, and Missouri has been spared from any major weather events so far. Still, Weinholzer says most Missourians don’t let a little ice or snow get in the way of their vacation plans.

“When it comes to something like the Christmas/New Year’s holiday, weather does tend to have a little bit of an impact as far as causing people to leave perhaps a day earlier or a day later, but it rarely cancels travel plans,” Weinholzer says. “People are pretty committed to visiting family and friends.”

Higher gasoline prices won’t keep people home either. The average price for a gallon of gas in Missouri is $2.17, about a penny below the national average and 24-cents higher than a year ago. St. Louis has the state’s most expensive gas at $2.29 a gallon while Joplin is the cheapest at $2.07.

Although the mid-Missouri cities of Columbia and Jefferson City are separated less than 30 miles, the price at the pump is notably higher in the capital city. As of Friday, the average fuel cost in Jefferson City was $2.22 versus $2.18 in Columbia.

There are just a few more families needing to be adopted through the Adopt-A-Family Christmas program.

According to AFL-CIO Executive Director Penny Adams, as of 2:30 Friday afternoon, there were 10 families with teenagers not yet adopted. 

The program matches up needy families with donors, who supply Christmas gifts in a number of ways.

Adams said there’s still time to adopt or make a monetary donation by contacting their office at (816) 364-1131, visiting them at 1203 North 6th Street or going to helpmenow.org.

Their offices will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, if needed.

(Missourinet) – You’ll see extra Missouri state troopers on the road again Friday, as more travelers head to their Christmas destinations.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says five people were killed and another 314 were injured in Missouri during the 2016 Christmas holiday.

Highway Patrol Captain John Hotz urges you to slow down and to wear your seat belt.

“So we want to encourage everybody to again pay attention,” Hotz says. “Inattention continues to be such a huge factor in the number of crashes that we see.”

The 2017 Christmas holiday fatality counting period begins Friday night at 6 and ends at 11:59 on Christmas night, which is Monday.

The Patrol says there were 885 traffic crashes during the 2016 Christmas holiday counting period.

Captain Hotz says one person was killed or injured every 14 minutes in Missouri during the 2016 holiday.

“That’s obviously way too high of a number and we would love to see this Christmas holiday period go through without having anybody killed over this timeframe,” says Hotz.

Hotz is also reminding motorists to follow Missouri’s “Move Over Law”, which involves stationary emergency vehicles.

“And that can be a trooper, it can a sheriff’s deputy, a police officer, towing company, Missouri Department of Transportation, you know, fire, EMS, any of those vehicles,” Hotz says.

Hotz tells Missourinet the law requires you to move over one lane, if you see a stationary emergency vehicle on the shoulder.

If you can’t move over, Hotz says you must reduce your speed and use caution.

Hotz also encourages you to check your vehicle and the weather forecast, before you travel.

A Buchanan County judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the St. Joseph School District that was filed less than a week before the November 2017 election.

The lawsuit, filed by Eldon C. Green, claimed the district illegally used public funds to advocate for and support the passage of Proposition 1.

According to a news release from the district, Judge Patrick Robb granted a motion to dismiss. He ruled that the statute in question (115.646) does not apply to school districts or their personnel, and that it would be “judicial activism” to adopt Green’s position since the Legislature did not intend for the statute to apply to school districts.

“This is an important ruling for the St. Joseph School District and other districts in the state,” said Dr. Robert Newhart, St. Joseph School District Superintendent. “We relied on the community to provide financial support for the campaign, but those who work in the school district are in the best position to provide timely and accurate information about the district’s needs. Judge Robb’s decision reflects this common-sense approach.”