The St. Joseph City Council on Monday gave the green light to another study of moving the casino downtown, but the city won’t be paying for it.

“We need to let them do their study, and thank them,” said Council Member Kent O’Dell. “For once we’re not paying for it.”

In a close vote, the council authorized a memorandum of understanding with Inner Circle Investments, LLC, the company wanting to build a new facility near the Radisson Hotel, and then convince St. Jo Frontier Casino to move into it. The plan also includes study of a possible new events center in the area where St. Joseph Civic Arena now stands.

The MOU calls for Inner Circle to pay for a preliminary design, to be completed in 45 days, and for a preliminary capital plan 15 days after that.

Officials say the MOU will give the developer some confidence that the city is interested in seeing redevelopment occur in the area immediately, but he says it is not legally binding. It gives Inner Circle six months to refine a proposal to bring back before the council.

The resolution did draw some opposition Monday, including a local pastor and some council members who complained about bringing gambling downtown and the impact that would have on the community.

Council members Pat Jones, PJ Kovac, Barbara LaBass and Joyce Starr voted against the resolution authorizing the MOU, but it passed 5-4.

Shoppers can no longer collect tickets for the Shop St. Joseph program as the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce prepares for Tuesday’s drawing.

According to the Chamber, Sunday was the last day to pick up tickets. Monday volunteers began collecting unused ticket rolls from merchants to prepare for Tuesday’s drawing. A winning ticket number for the $10,000 grand prize will be announced at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 20. Once the winning ticket has been claimed and verified, second chance prize numbers will be announced.

We’ll post the winning numbers after they are announced.

Winter weather hit a little earlier than many officials expected Friday in St. Joseph which caused many problems with transporting students home.

Shawn Woods, Operations Manager with Apple Bus said the last students in the St. Joseph School District made it home around 10:15 Friday evening.  He said no one was injured even though bus drivers got into several difficult situations with the slick roads.

“The out pour of compassion Friday evening was outstanding.  We had many stories of drivers who were stranded with students on their bus.  Neighbors brought bottles of water, hot chocolate, various snacks and cookies to the drivers and their students,” Woods said. “Given the conditions and the icy roadways the skill that our drivers across the board showed was exemplary.”

Dr. Solon Haynes, Dir. of Student Services for the St. Joseph School District said it takes about an hour to implement an early out.

“It would have been after 2 before we could even have gotten the buses to school and our first school lets out at 2:50 so about 2:30 the buses are already leaving the bus lot to get to school,” Haynes said. “We monitored the weather all morning and watching radar that didn’t even really show up on the radar.  There wasn’t a real high chance of precipitation with that freezing rain. By the time it hit it just seemed like it hit just really quickly and the intensity of it that put the ice glaze all over the roads.  The only thing we could have done differently is probably we would have had to let out early that morning, well it wasn’t doing anything early that morning.”

Woods said the weather moved in earlier than anticipated.

“The forecast showed the weather moving in at 5 o’clock when we would have been done on a normal day,” Woods said. “It caught us right at the time when we were going out on our afternoon routes. So it was really crunch time.  It was the perfect storm of situations and I think all-in-all our driver’s handled it like the professionals that they are.”

Haynes said around eight Apple buses were reviewed for damage after Friday, also three special education buses for the district were in crashes and were also damaged.

“They had about eight buses that were in accidents that they either needed to repair or check before they would safely be able to be on the road.  That means probably that they have some mirrors or lights that were damaged or windows that were broken out,” Haynes said. “We didn’t have any injuries and all the students made it home safely.”

Getting buses to the schools to pick up students was a challenge from the beginning.  Three out of around 63 buses didn’t even make it to pick up kids.

“Overall I’m proud of the way our drivers handled the situation,” Woods said. “I’d like to thank the school district.  The principals, the staff, at each of the 23 schools in St. Joe.  They did an outstanding job of looking out for the students. Many of them stayed late into the night as well.  We had one school had five teachers that road around with the bus route and they didn’t get back until after 10.  The street department for St. Joe, First Responders, Fire Department, Police Department all assisted us in different ways.”

“Our staff in our schools, especially our elementaries really went above and beyond.  They made sure the kids had food. while they were waiting for the buses or their parents they were either playing games or watching movies,” Haynes said. “They really went above and beyond to make sure our kids were safe and taken care of and got home.”

Woods is asking community members to thank a bus driver if they see them for their efforts in getting kids home safely.

Due to road conditions and the condition of buses the St. Joseph School District canceled classes for Monday and Tuesday.  Solon said Monday the district is reviewing the situation to see if there’s anything that could have been done better.

“We’re doing a debrief,” Haynes said. “With the bus company and everybody involved so we can go through and see what we can do better.  What can we learn to make any incident like we had on Friday maybe make it less of an impact on students and the families in the district.”

 

A Maryville, Mo., man who is a registered sex offender was sentenced in federal court Monday on charges related to child pornography.

Edward Grimes, 58, of Maryville, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to 19 years in federal prison without parole. Grimes, a registered sex offender, has prior felony convictions in New York for sexual abuse of a child and for a criminal sexual act against a child under the age of 14 – for which he is subject to lifetime sex offender registration – and for endangering the welfare of a child (related to a sexual act against a 4-year-old victim).

On July 6, 2015, Grimes pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet, one count of attempting to receive child pornography over the Internet and one count of possessing child pornography. Grimes admitted that he attempted to distribute child pornography over the Internet on March 29, 2013; that he attempted to receive child pornography over the Internet on Dec. 31, 2013; and that he possessed child pornography on Feb. 12, 2014. Grimes must forfeit to the government two desktop computers, a laptop computer, four hard drives and a thumb drive that were used to commit the offenses.

Court documents cite a pattern of activity by Grimes involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor. According to court documents, Grimes created a photo album on a file-sharing website on March 29, 2013. He posted 65 images depicting clothed, semi-nude to full nude images of both adult females and young girls ranging in age from 8 to 25 years of age. Among the images were three pornographic photographs depicting girls approximately 12 to 13 years of age.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Grimes’s residence on Feb. 12, 2014. A firearm was recovered and Grimes was arrested on state charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Investigators also seized electronic media that contained child pornography movie files depicting nude girls approximately 3 to 6 years of age. Two hard drives and one thumb drive had a total of 132 child pornography images. Almost all of the images were of prepubescent children.

Investigators also found four movie files, recorded by Grimes, of an approximately 10-year-old girl. Law enforcement believes it is possible Grimes was grooming the child for sexual activity.

All classes for the St. Joseph School District have been cancelled for Monday, December 19 and Tuesday, December 20.

Bridget Blevins with the district said several factors led to the decision including the temperature, the condition of the streets, the condition of parking lots and sidewalks on school property and the status of the buses following Friday’s weather.

The St. Joseph Public Library plans to host daily crafts and activities for kids over Christmas break.

Staff at the East Hills Library located at 502 N. Woodbine Rd. will offer a different craft or activity every day at 2 p.m. beginning on Wednesday, Dec. 21.  The sessions will run through Friday, Dec. 30.  Kids in first through sixth grade can attend the sessions at no cost.

The library touted the programs as a way to keep kids and parents from possibly getting a little “stir crazy” during the school breaks.

The library said there is no need to register for the program, just stop by or call (816) 236-2136 with questions.

Winter weather accelerated across St. Joseph and much of northern Missouri Saturday.  Spotters and law enforcement warned of visibility down to less than a quarter mile because of windblown snow.

Salt laid down after Friday’s storm appears to have melted the ice on area roads somewhat, but they then froze over again.

With snow falling on top of that, St. Joseph police say the roads here are “not very good.” Streets Department crews were expecting a long night Saturday night. Phase One of the city’s Snow Emergency Plan is in effect, meaning only vehicles with snow tires or chains are allowed in traffic.

Police responded to numerous traffic accidents in St. Joseph, including at least two rollover accidents, one near Cook and Riverside roads, and another 10 miles east of town on U.S. Highway 36.  From 7am to about 4pm Saturday, St. Joseph police had responded to 19 accidents.

The area was under a Winter Weather Advisory until 9pm Saturday, and a Wind Chill Advisory until noon Sunday.  Forecasters expect periods of moderate snow to come to an end some time Saturday evening, but wind chill values were expected to fall to 15 to 25 below zero late Friday night through Sunday morning.

At least an inch and a half of snow fell on St. Joseph Saturday. Snow totals were much higher to the south and east.

(Unofficial snow total reports)
Chillicothe had about four inches. 3.5″ fell in Cameron. Faucett had four inches of snow on the ground by Saturday night. Kingston had 3-4 inches.
North Kansas City had 2.5 inches by 6:30.
Liberty had 3.0 inches.
Bethany had approximately 2″ of snow by 8pm.
Trenton reported 4.3 inches shortly after 7:30pm.

The St. Joseph Symphony was forced to reschedule its concert planned Saturday night out of concern for patrons’ safety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A special enforcement operation continues through the weekend in Troop H to try to prevent drunk driving injuries and fatalities.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol began C.A.R.E. Lifesaver weekend Friday.  The special enforcement will continue through Monday, Dec. 19.  Capt. James D. McDonald, commanding officer of Troop H, St. Joseph, said during that time frame, enforcement will be increased in an effort to stop motorists from driving impaired this holiday season and to reduce injury and deaths caused by impaired drivers.

“The holiday season is a time to celebrate with friends and family,” said Captain McDonald. “If those celebrations include alcohol be sure to have a sober designated driver. No one should have to endure losing a loved one during the holiday season.”