Altec Industries has announced plans to expand its St. Joseph facilities and add 105 new jobs.

The company manufactures heavy mobile equipment and related parts primarily for the utility, telecommunications and tree care industries. The main manufacturing facility is located at 2106 South Riverside Road in St. Joseph.

According to a news release, Altec will invest a significant amount of capital in personal property improvements, manufacturing and nonmanufacturing machinery and equipment, as well as real property improvements. The project is expected to create a minimum of 105 new jobs over a three-year period.

According to the release from the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, to encourage the investment in St. Joseph, various local incentives were offered. Resolutions to authorize increased real property tax abatement under the Enhanced Enterprise Zone for the first five years of the project and personal property tax abatement under the State of Missouri Chapter 100 Program will go before the City Council for approval at its February 27 meeting. The chamber said the community will not only see the creation of new jobs, but also an increase in its tax base as a result of the new investment. The State of Missouri also provided incentives under the Missouri Works Program.

“Altec would like to thank the Chamber, the City of St. Joseph, Buchanan County and the State of Missouri for all of the efforts and help with our expansion plans. These are exciting times as we invest back into the community. Our goal is to be good stewards in all communities in which we live and work. It is this type of cooperation that allows us to keep growing our facility in St. Joseph”, said Colby Edwards, Director of Manufacturing, St. Joseph.

St. Joseph Mayor Bill Falkner gave a State of the City address at Friday morning’s St. Joe Rising event.

Mayor Falkner spoke at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast on the theme of “Building for Success.”

“You may have noticed the hard hats on your table. As I was thinking about this speech I started thinking about all the positive things that went on last year and are still going on right now,” Falkner said. “I believe everyone can agree there is a lot of building going on around town, not only in structures but also in the many different partnerships. I really feel that St. Joseph is building toward success.”

Mayor Falkner said not all the news from downtown last year was good news as historic buildings were lost to fires which impacted nearby businesses and residents.

“That’s why it’s so important we keep the momentum going to make the vacant buildings that we have a wanted commodity.”

Falkner listed recent highlights around St. Joseph including the sales tax for the levee project approved by voters in August. He also listed multiple renovations and new things going on downtown including the German American building and the parking garage and retail facility.

“There are so many positive things going on in our community,” Falkner said. “Do we have issues? Yeah, we have issues. But, as a city, we work through those issues together, we bring in the people that we need to bring in and we address those issues, we don’t back away. There have been some very difficult issues and it would have been real easy to just push it on down the road and not address it, but this group, this community, come together and we make it work.”

Also during his speech, Mayor Falkner announced his decision to seek re-election next year.

NEW YORK (AP and Post) — JCPenney said it will be closing anywhere from 130 to 140 stores as well as two distribution centers over the next several months as it aims to improve profitability in the era of online shopping.

The closures, announced Friday, represent about 13 percent to 14 percent of the company’s current store count, and less than 5 percent of total annual sales. The company did not identify if the St. Joseph location would be part of the closures. The company said it plans to release a full list of planned closures in mid-March pending notification of all affected personnel. Nearly all impacted stores are expected to close in May.

The news came as JCPenney posted a profit in the fourth-quarter compared to a loss a year ago.

The company posted quarterly sales of $3.96 billion, down 0.9 percent from $3.99 billion a year ago.

Revenue at stores opened at least a year was down 0.7 percent.

JCPenney is joining other department stores like Macy’s who are shrinking its footprint amid challenges in the industry.

A day after posting bond a St. Joseph woman has been charged with another felony.

Shannon Leigh Schremser, 21 was charged Thursday in Buchanan County with second-degree burglary.

According to court documents, Schremser on Thursday in the 4200 block of Paseo Dr. in Buchanan County was in possession of financial documents belonging to a man’s deceased wife that had been reported missing in a burglary that took place Feb. 17 at a home on S.E. Horn Rd.

Online court document show Schremser posted bond Wednesday in a separate charge for second-degree burglary in which she and a co-defendant are accused of breaking into a home in the 2300 block of Mansfield Rd.

Schremser is being held on $10,000 bail in the Buchanan County Jail on the latest charge and is scheduled for an arraignment in the case for Tuesday.

A St. Joseph man has been charged in connection with a home invasion last month in midtown.

Dominic Johnson, 31 of St. Joseph is charged in Buchanan County with a felony of stealing.

According to court documents, Johnson and another man allegedly forced their way into a home in the 1500 block of Jules St. Jan. 24 shortly before 3 a.m. and robbed the residents at gunpoint.

As we previously reported, a man and a woman were inside a home in the 1500 block of Jules when two suspects armed with handguns allegedly robbed them at gunpoint.

Johnson is being held on $7,500 (corrected) bail.  According to the Buchanan County Inmate Inquiry Johnson is due in court Tuesday in the case.  We have inquired about a second suspect in this case and are waiting to hear back.

The Fraternal Order of Police has released information after a man was killed in St. Joseph earlier this week in an ‘officer-involved’ shooting.

As we previously reported, Jason Fanning, 27 of St. Joseph was fatally wounded in the shooting incident that took place Monday at the intersection of 20th and Charles St. The Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday said it is working with the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate the incident.

The information provided by the FOP Northwest Missouri Regional Lodge 3 is as follows:

“In the early morning hours of February 20, 2017 an officer with the St. Joseph Police Department, who was on patrol with a female ride-along, attempted to make contact with a suspicious vehicle and its driver. The vehicle was registered to an individual with an active warrant connected to a domestic assault case. The officer positioned his car behind the suspect vehicle and approached it on foot. The driver, who was the sole occupant of the vehicle, suddenly put the vehicle in reverse and struck the patrol car. As the officer gave clear verbal commands, the driver then pulled forward a few car lengths before reversing his vehicle and accelerating backwards again, almost striking the officer. The driver continued in reverse at a high rate of speed directly towards the ride-along, who was standing near the passenger door of the patrol car. Fearing for the life of his ride-along, the officer was forced to fire his weapon. Even after the officer fired, the vehicle still continued towards the ride-along, narrowly missing her and the front of the patrol car. The vehicle ultimately slammed into a tree, which caused large tree branches to fall on the officer, the ride-along, and the patrol car. The driver of the vehicle had a warrant for a violation of probation connected to a guilty plea for domestic assault. According to the probable cause statement in the prior domestic assault case, it was alleged that he threatened to kill the mother of his child with a knife after trying to run her and her children off the road with a car several times.”

Neither the prosecutor’s office nor the Missouri State Highway Patrol has issued any additional information since Tuesday. On Tuesday, Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins said the preliminary autopsy report indicates Fanning was killed by a single, penetrating gunshot wound.  Also, Scroggins said there is a lot of additional work left to be done in the case.

“The Fraternal Order of Police understands and agrees the public has the right to know what has happened. We have also made requests of the agencies involved that this information be released,” the FOP said. “This situation is a tragedy for all involved. We understand and appreciate public concern each time an officer is faced with the incredibly difficult, split-second decision to defend themselves or others against a potentially dangerous suspect.”

Police previously told us the officer has been placed on administrative leave. Scroggins earlier this week said the investigation remains ongoing.

The Board of Governors at Missouri Western State University on Thursday approved a mid-year tuition increase of 0.79 percent for in-state, undergraduate students.

That’s an increase of $1.58 per credit hour.

School officials say Missouri Western does not plan to retroactively charge the increase to students for the spring 2017 semester. Approving the increase allowed by the 2007 legislation capping tuition increases will allow next year’s tuition change to be based on the new tuition rate.

The board typically sets tuition for the upcoming year in April.

Board members also approved a project to renovate an entryway to Popplewell Hall. The project is funded by Building Affordability, the 2015 legislation also known as House Bill 19 that appropriated $4.8 million to Missouri Western for capital improvements.

The Popplewell project includes a larger exterior entry, removing walls and cabinets to increase the amount of usable space, and new fixtures, flooring, ceiling tiles and paint. Four local contractors bid on the project. The board accepted the low bid of $110,456 from Lee Grover Construction Company.

Running shoes will help fund more running area for dogs at a small non-profit animal shelter outside of Hiawatha, Kansas.

Ruth Shaver is the Brown County Humane Society President. According to Shaver, they moved into their current building, a former veterinary clinic, in 2015. The shelter takes in stray and unwanted animals in the Brown County area and, as space allows, in Nemaha and Doniphan counties.

Shaver said they run entirely on donations. They use Facebook and Petfinder to post information about adoptable pets and have gotten pets adopted to homes in Colorado and Canada.  

The shelter is collecting any kind of gently worn used shoes for a shoe drive through a fundraising company. Shaver said they will earn a certain amount per pound through the company and the shoes eventually end up in the hands of micro entrepreneurs from other countries.

“Your average families, maybe some Haitian families, they buy the shoes and then they clean them up and they re-sell them and that is how they make a living for their family, how they feed their family,” Shaver said. “So it not only helps us raise some money for some projects at the shelter but it also helps people in those 25 countries support their families and put food on the table and it keeps the shoes out of the landfills as well.” 

Shaver said the shoe drive will help raise funds for three more large play areas for the dogs at the shelter so they can get out of their kennels more often. 

“They can run and play and socialize,” Shaver said. “With adding three more, pretty much, twice a day, all the dogs should be able to go in the play yard. I’m just so passionate about letting them be a normal dog for a couple hours a day.” 

The Humane Society is collecting shoes until May 1st. 

For more information, contact the Brown County Humane Society at (785) 742-1976 or visit their Facebook page.