DEKALB COUNTY— One person was injured in an accident just after 8:30a.m. Wednesday in DeKalb County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Honda Pilot driven by Rita L. Jacobs, 80, Chula, was westbound on U.S. 36 two miles west of Stewartsville.
The vehicle struck the towed unit pulled by a 2006 Chevy Silverado driven by Ronald W. Nichols, 78, Jamesport.
After impact the Silverado jackknifed, traveled off the north side of the road, overturned and struck two traffic signs.
DeKalb-Clinton Ambulance transported Jacobs to Mosaic Life Care. Nichols was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.
Northwest Missouri State University campus. Photo by Sarah Thomack.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – For the sixth consecutive year, Arbor Day Foundation has named Northwest Missouri State University a Tree Campus USA for its commitment to effective urban forest management.
Tree Campus USA is a national program created in 2008 by the Arbor Day Foundation to honor colleges and universities for promoting healthy trees and engaging students and staff in conservation goals.
According to a press release from Northwest, the university achieved the title by meeting Tree Campus USA’s five core standards for effective campus forest management. Those standards include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning projects.
“It’s an honor to be designated a Tree Campus USA,” Pat Ward, the director of the Missouri Arboretum at Northwest, said. ”The importance of trees to the environment is becoming more and more evident as we have problems with air quality and high concentrations of carbon dioxide, which the trees sequester. We’ve got so many trees on campus, we are probably a carbon dioxide sink; we take in more carbon dioxide than we put out, which is good.”
The campus is home to more than 1,700 trees and more than 160 species cultivated from throughout the world.
According to Northwest, this spring, with the assistance of a Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance (TRIM) grant award of $23,860 from the Missouri Department of Conservation, actions were taken to improve the health and sustainability of the Missouri Arboretum while improving pedestrian safety.
Arborists removed two Ginkgo trees and three Cottonwood trees deemed hazardous, and they pruned 12 Oak trees and eight Crab Apple trees as part the University’s three-year pruning rotation. Northwest also took steps to preserve its 50-foot Northern Catalpa, a legacy tree on the campus, by adding limb support and lighting protection to the tree. Additionally, Northwest is enhancing the grounds near the Dean L. Hubbard Center for Innovation with new trees, pollinator plants and prairies grasses.
Flooding near Craig in March/Photo by Brent Martin
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves applauds passage of a $19.1 billion federal disaster aid package, which contains money to offset losses from this year’s floods.
“This is going to go a long way toward helping us in terms of damage control for levee systems, roads systems, public assistance, everything that goes along with that,” Graves tells St. Joseph Post. “One of the things we did in there too was, grain crops that are stored have never been covered before and this is something that we were able to change.”
Slightly more than $3 billion has been allocated to offset agricultural losses due to floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Money will be provided to compensate for the loss of stored grain, which Graves says was added specifically for northwest Missouri, which saw floodwaters surround grain bins, break them open, causing them to spill their contents. Graves says floodwaters along the Missouri River rose so fast farmers didn’t have enough time to move grain to higher ground.
A collapsed grain bin from floodwaters in Hamburg, Iowa/Photo by Brent Martin
The federal disaster relief package also includes $435 million to help states and local partners restore watersheds.
Nearly $2.5 billion has been allocated to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair damage to Corps projects. An additional $740 million has been given to the Corps to accelerate construction of projects to reduce the risk from future floods and hurricanes; $35 million has been set aside to study ways to reduce the risk of future floods and hurricanes. Also included in the package is $1.65 billion to reimburse states for the damage done by natural disasters to federal highways.
Graves says he’s satisfied with the amount appropriated to offset flood losses.
A farm field in northwest Missouri, near Cameron this past week/Photo by Melissa Gregory
“I am at this point. The problem is we don’t know what’s coming down the road. We don’t know how much worse it’s going to get,” Graves says. “The situation is if we don’t have those levee breaches fixed, then that leaves us vulnerable to the river coming up again and restarting this process all over again.”
Partisan bickering delayed passage of the disaster relief package. President Donald Trump and many Republicans in the House objected to the $1.4 billion allocated to aid Puerto Rico in its ongoing efforts to recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria. The president accused the U.S. territory of not efficiently using existing disaster relief funds. Democrats countered that the president downplayed the devastation left in Maria’s wake.
Some conservative Republicans in the House held out for money to extend the wall along the southern border of the country, but a provision in the bill effectively blocks any defense funding for being used for border wall construction.
Graves says a deal should have been reached earlier.
“It is a frustration, because you have people out there their lives and their livelihoods and their businesses and everything are hanging in the balance, but the good news is we were able to get it done.”
The bill has been sent to President Trump for his signature. He is expected to sign it.
Though storm coverage will be generally isolated across the area, strong wind gusts and large hail are possible where storms do develop this afternoon and evening. Heavy rainfall is likely within any storms, which may lead to localized flash flooding. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Sunny, with a high near 89. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the morning.
Tonight: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 67. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Thursday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1 p.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 85. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Thursday Night: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. Light east wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Friday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Friday Night: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 65. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Saturday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 81. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 80.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 58.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 77.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 57.
Preliminary autopsy results indicate a citizen of Mexico who fled authorities Friday in a rolling gun battle north on Interstate 35 near Cameron died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol identifies the suspect as 26-year-old Julian Santiago-Cruz of Guadalupe Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
Calls came into the state patrol’s Troop H at 7 o’clock Friday reporting shots fired on I-35. Santiago-Cruz is suspected of shooting at two vehicles, wounding two. A trooper saw the vehicle as described by motorists and pursued. The patrol says Santiago-Cruz shot at the trooper who returned fire. The chase ended when the suspect’s car left the right side of I-35 and overturned. He was found pinned underneath his car and pronounced dead at the scene by the Daviess County Coroner. Preliminary autopsy results indicate Santiago-Cruz shot himself.
A couple of the items the St. Joseph City Council discussed at Monday night’s meeting included kratom and sewer rates.
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, leaves from the tropical tree Kratom in Southeast Asia cause stimulant and sedative effects in different doses. Kratom can be taken as a pill, crushed and smoked or brewed as a tea. According to the FDA, there is still a lot of research being done on the effects of kratom.
St. Joseph Mayor Bill McMurray said the council voted 6 to 2 against banning kratom. After the vote, however, a bill was proposed that would prohibit the possession of kratom by or sale of kratom to anyone under the age of 21.
“The Opioid Task Force is very concerned about kratom and particularly its use among middle school and high school kids. On the other hand, there were people who talked about, ‘Kratom has helped me with anxiety or getting off opioids,’ or ‘I can use it instead of ibuprofen for arthritis pain or whatever,’” McMurray said. “I think the compromise that seems as though most people are willing to accept is that we just ban the sale for those who are under the age of 21, just as we do alcohol.”
Also at the meeting, McMurray said the council decided to have a work session regarding sewer rates.
“We don’t want to increase the sewer rates this year and there’s some confusion by staff. We’re going to have a work session and clear up the confusion,” McMurray said.
The St. Joseph City Council will meet next at 7 p.m. on June 17th.
CORRECTION-A previous version of this story stated there was a first reading of the bill to prohibit the possession of kratom by or sale of kratom to anyone under the age of 21, but according to the city clerk, due to council procedures at the last meeting, a first reading did not take place. The first reading will take place at the June 17th meeting.
Gavins Point Dam/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo
Water releases from Gavins Point Dam will remain at 75,000 cubic feet per second for some time, perhaps for the remainder of the year.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had ratcheted up releases from the dam upstream on the Missouri River, bringing them to 70,000, until Saturday, when the Corps raised releases to their present 75,000 cfs.
Missouri River Basin Water Management Chief John Remus with the Corps says the increase is needed to handle a huge influx of water.
“The runoff forecast is now, for 2019, is 50 million acre-feet, which if realized will be the second highest runoff on record, over 121 years; second only to 2011,” Remus tells a conference call held by the Corps.
That year, runoff totaled nearly 62 million acre-feet.
Gavins Point is the lowest of the six upstream Missouri River dams used by the Corps of Engineers to regulate flows into the Missouri River.
Heavy rains, plus increased mountain snowpack melt have filled the upstream Missouri River reservoirs.
Remus says the upper Missouri River Basin has seen 30 million acre-feet of runoff so far this year, with another 20 million expected soon.
“What that means, long-term, is that the 75,000 cfs is going to be maintained, probably, well into the fall of not all the way through till we start ratcheting down for the winter flows,” according to Remus.
If the forecast holds, it will be the second-highest water releases from Gavins Point, behind only 2011, when the Corps increase releases to 160,000 cubic feet per second during the height of the flood. A normal flow from Gavins Point this time of year is 30,000. In 1997, the Corps raised releases from Gavins Point to 70,000 cfs, previously second highest.
