SSM Health St. Francis Hospital held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for a new daycare and early learning facility in Maryville.

According to a news release, Frank Grispino, vice president of the SSM Health operations, spoke on the history of the hospital and the background of the child care center along with the need for a new facility. In Maryville alone, he said there are 562 children under the age of 5 for only 187 openings available for early childhood education at licensed facilities. Of the 187 slots, 150 are allocated for children ages 3 to 5, leaving only 37 for children ages birth to 3 years.

The new 14,200 square foot SSM Health Preschool and Child Care Center will double the capacity of the current building and could serve up to 136 children. The space includes 11 classrooms along with a gross motor activity room that will give children the opportunity for movement and play when the weather does not allow the kids to go outside.

The $2.7 million project is nearly 70% funded through grants, donations and fundraising projects.

Rita Miller, Community Relations & Development Manager with SSM Health said after the official groundbreaking by leadership and dignitaries, the ones who will be benefiting from the new facility got to do, a ‘little groundbreaking’ of their own.

Early Head Start through Community Services, Inc. will open an early learning program for children birth to age 3 in the center.

Construction is set to begin September 11.

Hurricane Harvey is causing gas prices to increase across the nation.  Drivers in St. Joseph are also seeing that trend at the pump.

AAA on Monday said about one quarter of oil refining capacity in the Gulf Coast have been taken offline. The agency said Harvey also caused eight refineries in Texas to shutdown.

According to AAA, Thursday’s National Average was up .10 cents from a week ago at $2.44 for a gallon of regular unleaded. Missouri jumped up .10 cents in a day to an average of $2.29. In St. Joseph, Thursday’s average was $2.21 an increase of .08 cents in a day.

“No doubt, Harvey has impacted operations and access to refineries in the Gulf Coast. However a clear understanding of overall damage at the refineries is unknown,” said Jeanette Casselano, AAA spokesperson. “Despite the country’s overall oil and gasoline inventories being at or above 5-year highs, until there is clear picture of damage and an idea when refineries can return to full operational status, gas prices will continue to increase.”

(News release) – The Northwest Missouri State University community is assisting victims of Hurricane Harvey by collecting donations on the campus and at activities throughout the next week.

The “Bearcats for Texas” effort will begin with the Bearcat football team’s season opener at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bearcat Stadium. All fans entering the stadium are invited to make a monetary donation of any kind at donation tables located inside the Ideker, Bank Midwest and Crawford entrances. Donations will be collected through halftime of the football game.

All donations will be distributed through the Northwest Missouri Chapter of the American Red Cross to support hurricane relief.

Northwest will continue accepting donations through Friday, Sept. 8, at the B.D. Owens Library and in the Student Engagement Center, located on the second floor of the J.W. Jones Student Union.

Donation tables also will be stationed at the Bearcat cross country team’s home meet at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1, at Donaldson Westside Park; a faculty trumpet recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building; the student organizational fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Memorial Bell Tower; and the Bearcat soccer game at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Bearcat Pitch.

Interested individuals also may donate $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief by texting REDCROSS to 90999.

A St. Joseph non-profit organization plans to present at an upcoming city council work session on the importance of implementing a city seat belt ordinance.

St. Joseph Youth Alliance Executive Director Robin Hammond said Missouri does not have a primary seat belt law. 

“Basically, it’s a secondary. What that means is that officers can’t pull you over just for the fact that you’re not wearing a seat belt. They have to pull you over for something else and then if they determine you were not wearing a seat belt, then that would be a secondary ticket that you would be issued,” Hammond said. “What we really are interested in is making sure that our young people are buckled up in their vehicles. We know from statistics that seat belts save lives. We want to encourage all youth to make sure every time they get in the car, that they put their seat belt on and if they choose not to, then that could be something that they could get a ticket for.”

Hammond said their hope is to create a primary seat belt ordinance for the city and mirror what the county already has set up. 

“We really want to educate our city council members on the importance of having a primary seat belt ordinance. We want them to realize how not wearing your seat belt costs all of us, how it costs us with our insurance rates, but most importantly, how it costs us with people’s lives,” Hammond said. “We’re not talking about whether it’s legal or not legal to wear a seat belt, that’s already been decided. We want them to know that this is going to make a difference in our community, it is going to help save lives and hopefully during the work session, they will come out of there feeling a little bit more educated and prepared about why we believe it’s important.” 

The Youth Alliance will present at a St. Joseph City Council work session at 4:15 p.m. on Sept. 20, at the Kit Bond Science and Technology Incubator.

For more information, contact the St. Joseph Youth Alliance at (816) 232-0050.

MARYVILLE, Mo. – Maryville, the home to Northwest Missouri State University, is one of the “Safest College Towns in America” for the third consecutive year, according to a recent report released by SafeWise, an online resource for home security and safety information.

Maryville rose to No. 22 on this year’s list, up from 28 last year and 32 before that. Also for the third consecutive year, it is the only Missouri college town to appear on the list.

In highlighting Maryville, Safewise praises the city for its innovative approach toward keeping crime rates low, noting the city reported fewer than 30 violent crimes in 2015.

SafeWise combined data from recent FBI statistics and identified safety-related programs and initiatives in college cities across the country to compose its list. Click here to view the entire list.

The St. Joseph Police Department is investigating after a man was stabbed early Tuesday morning.

According to Sgt. Brett Kelley with the police department, a man went to a home in the 2800 block of Patee Street at 1:49 a.m. Kelley said a disturbance between the man, another man and a woman ensued.

The man was stabbed and transported to Mosaic Life Care for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Kelley said the man was previously in a relationship with the woman who lived at the residence where the disturbance took place.

Kelley said the incident is still under investigation and one person is in custody.