The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce is now the third largest Chamber in the state of Missouri.

According to a press release, the Chamber added 263 members in a special member event which wrapped up Thursday night. About 200 volunteers worked to recruit the new members into the Chamber.

“We are incredibly proud of our volunteers and how hard they worked this week to help grow the Chamber,” said Natalie Redmond, Vice President of Membership for the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber now has 1,390 members, which ranks just below the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, which has roughly 2,000 and 1,550 members respectively. St. Joseph has more members than the St. Louis Regional Chamber, Lee’s Summit, Joplin, Cape Girardeau, Columbia and others.

“Our volunteers really took to heart the mission of the Chamber, which is to better the community by growing businesses and employment while also furthering educational opportunities to prepare tomorrow’s workforce,” said R. Patt Lilly, President and CEO.

The goal of the membership event initially was to gain 150 members, but that goal was broadened to 200 as the three-day event progressed.

“Adding 263 members to our roster helps the new companies because they now have a wealth of resources to help them grow and it also helps the community as a whole because membership in the Chamber also supports the economic development of our city,” Lilly said.

Visitors to Mount Mora Cemetery next month will hear stories from former citizens including a thief, a lawyer and a chief.

This is the 15th year of “Voices of the Past,” an interpretive tour of the cemetery.

“We have so many interesting people buried at Mount Mora and the stories are above the sod,” said Suzanne Lehr with the St. Joseph Museums. “They were interesting people and a lot of times their stories almost got lost when they passed and we’ve tried to bring those back.” 

Lehr said the stories are told by reenactors or living history characters. 

“This year our theme is ‘Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief, Doctor, Lawyer, Merchant, Chief,’” Lehr said. “This year we have some really interesting twists on the characters. The stories are true, but people will be surprised at who is playing that role or what that role is.” 

The tour begins at the Wyeth Tootle Mansion. According to Kathy Reno with the Museums, anyone attending can choose a tour time of 6 or 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 19th, or 6, 7 or 8 p.m. on Friday, October 20th. 

“Some people want to go when it’s absolutely dark, some people want to go when it’s just sunset, so it kind of depends on what your preference is,” Reno said. “The later tours have their charm. When you see the mausoleum.. With the tiki torches and the smudge pots and it’s glowing at night, there’s something very special about that. But I also love the six o’clock one where I can kind of still see a little bit of the stained glass and the architecture.” 

Proceeds from “Voices of the Past” benefit the Mount Mora Restoration and Preservation Association and educational programming at the St. Joseph Museums.

Tickets must be purchased in advance and are available at the St. Joseph Museums at 3406 Frederick Avenue or by calling 800-530-8866.

The South Side Fall Festival kicks off at noon on Friday at Hyde Park in St. Joseph.

According to Festival Co-chair Gary Pettis, this year’s theme is “Happily Ever After.”

Pettis said the festival includes more than 30 food vendors, 30 craft vendors, children’s activities, rides, ponies, camels, two stages with music and entertainment and more.

Pettis said a lot of hard work goes into the festival each year.

“Seeing everybody enjoying what you’ve worked so hard to get set up,” Pettis said. “When you walk through the park and there’s thousands of people there and they’re all talking and having fun, that’s my favorite part is just seeing everybody enjoy themselves.”

Fireworks by Aerial FX will be at 9:15 p.m. Friday. The parade is at 10 a.m. on Saturday. 

The South Side Fall Festival runs through Sunday, click here for the full schedule.

The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is warning area residents of a phone scam where the caller is offering help with student loans. 

According to Sheriff Steve Cox, on Thursday, an area resident notified their office that scammers are trying to obtain personal information by offering to help parents or students with student loans. 

“The number that shows up on their caller IDs is a local cell phone number, which, is a legitimate number and the guy that has that is upset that somebody is using his number and doesn’t want to see anybody get ripped off,” Sheriff Cox said. “The guy was really concerned that somebody might be in a situation and need something with college time. We don’t want to see anybody get ripped off. The people that are actually calling are overseas and the typical scammer criminals that are trying to get your identities so they can rip you off.” 

Sheriff Cox reminds residents that if you receive a call you think is a scam, hang up and never give out personal information over the phone.

The City of St. Joseph has announced election dates for Mayor, City Council and Municipal Judge offices.

The Primary Election date is February 6, 2018, and the General Election will be held April 3rd, 2018.

According to a press release from the City of St. Joseph, candidates for mayor and members of the council must be qualified voters of the city and must have been a resident of the city for a least one year immediately prior to his or her election.

District councilmembers must be a resident of his or her district at least six months prior to his or her election. Members will be elected to serve four year terms.

The judge must be at least 25-years-old, licensed to practice law in the State of Missouri and must have been a resident of the city for at least one year immediately prior to the date of his or her election. He or she will hold office for a term of four years during which he or she must not practice law.

No person who is in arrears for any city taxes will be entitled to hold any office in the city government.

Anyone interested in running for one of these offices can pick up petitions beginning Sept. 18, at the City Clerk’s office, located in Room 303 of City Hall on 1100 Frederick Avenue. Petitions for candidates for all elective offices at-large must be signed by no less than 250 qualified voters of the city. Petitions for candidates for district councilmember must be signed by no less than 75 qualified voters of the district.

All petitions must be filed with the City Clerk between October 17th and November 21st.

The City Clerk’s office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call (816) 271-4730.

A grant through United Way will help fund a clinical therapist position at the Buchanan County Jail.

Tom Cates is the Captain of Corrections at the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department. Cates said they have been seeing a huge increase in the number of inmates coming in that have received mental health treatment or need mental health treatment and an increase in psychiatric and mental health medications given. 

“In 2015, our average was about eight percent of our population took psychiatric and mental health medication and now we’re up to about 21 percent of our population are on those type of medications,” Cates said. “And we’ve seen a lot of behavioral incidents with the inmates that we felt could be cut off at the past if we had some sort of ongoing mental health treatment, psychiatric services, therapeutic services available to them.”  

Cates said the Sheriff’s Department had been working with a Family Guidance Center employee who suggested putting together a proposal for a grant to get a full time clinical therapist assigned to the Buchanan County Jail. Cates said they ended up being assigned the grant money through United Way. 

“We’ll be able to get that position established and opened. We’ll actually be able to have a person in our facility, 40 hours a week, that is fully trained and we will have them at the ready for any type of mental health screenings that need to be done, suicide prevention therapies that need to be done, ongoing clinical therapy that needs to happen with any of our inmates,” Cates said. “They’ll just be able to provide much better service to the inmates that we’ve got in custody that are under our care and control. A lot of times we tend to think of it as control and not so much of the care end but we do have an obligation to make sure that people are fit and in a good place, mental health wise while they’re in our facility.. I think we can make a real positive impact on some of the inmate’s lives, hopefully for the duration of their life.” 

Cates said the department is currently in the process of putting together a job description for the position and his goal is to have the position in place by the beginning of 2018.