KCP&L has restored electric service to all but 3 customers in the Saint Joseph area after a widespread outage that struck Wednesday afternoon.  The utility says an equipment failure led to fire in a substation, and that caused the outage that cut power to more than 15,000 customers.  KCP&L had hoped to restore service to all by 3 Thursday morning, but the company’s coverage map showed that about 370 customers were still without power at 4.  By 5:30 most of those had service restored.

Missouri Western State University is holding an amateur photo contest in conjunction with the 2011 Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp presented by Heartland Health. The contest is sponsored by Family Investment Center of St. Joseph. Cash prizes totaling $1000 will be awarded.

The contest boasts four categories:
● Family Fun at Training Camp
● Kid Fun at Training Camp
● Autograph Fun at Training Camp
● General “Day at Training Camp”

Any amateur photographer age 18 or older may enter up to three photos, which will be judged by a panel of professional photographers. Twelve total prizes will be awarded, three in each category: $150 for first place; $75 for second; $25 for third.

All entries must be accompanied by an official Chiefs Camp Amateur Digital Photo Contest Entry Form, which is available at www.missouriwestern.edu/kcchiefs/ under “Training Camp Photo Contest.” Photos must be taken from public access areas of the camp
only, with no manipulation of photo images. The deadline for entries is Thursday, Aug. 18.

Photographs submitted become the property of Missouri Western State University. Roger Swafford, Western’s director of public relations
and marketing, is coordinating the contest. He can be reached at 816-271-5649.

A building damaged by fire in Maryville early Wednesday will be demolished.

The fire started from what officials call a careless smoker.  It left about 15 people without a home.

Firefighters spent much of Wednesday putting out hot spots in the building, Fire Chief Phil Rickabuagh said.

“We’ve been dealing with them for probably the last eight hours, just some really tough spots to get into.  We got that taken care of,” Rickabuagh said.  “The next step is the building owner is getting some bids from demolition contractors to take the building down.”

Main Street in front of Maryville will be closed until the building is demolished.  It housed nine apartments and two businesses.

 

An 18-year-old St Joseph woman is in jail facing felony assault charges after an altercation with another woman at the Oakridge Apartments Tuesday.

St Joseph Police Commander Jim Connors says Destinee Williams is charged with Class B Felony Assault.  Officers found 18-year-old Lauren Drake suffering from lacerations and abrasions to other areas of her body. Drakew as treated and released from Heartland.  She says Williams attacked her after accusing her of bad-mouthing a friend.

Ms. Drake said she was hit several time in the head with an item she described as a bat.   Surveillance video shows it was an umbrella. The video cameras caught the entire fight.

Williams is currently being held without bond in the Buchanan County Jail.  Formal arraignment is scheduled Friday.

Firefighters were called to the scene sometime after midnight when a fire, started by a cigar, started to spread through apartments in a building along the towns square.

A salon was housed underneath the apartments. Several residents, many of them Northwest students, were displaced.

The university is working to help find housing for the students. The building will likely be destroyed. No injuries were reported.  

 

Back to School Sales Tax Holiday August 5 – 7, 2011

 What’s covered and what’s not

 The sales tax exemption is limited to:

• Clothing – any article having a taxable value of $100 or less
• School supplies – not to exceed $50 per purchase
• Computer software – taxable value of $350 or less
• Personal computers – not to exceed $3,500
• Computer peripheral devices – not to exceed $3,500

“Clothing” – any article of wearing apparel, including footwear, intended to be worn on or about the human body. The term shall include but not be limited to cloth and other material used to make school uniforms or other school clothing. Items normally sold in pairs shall not be separated to qualify for the exemption. The term shall not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands, or belt buckles.
“School supplies”– any item normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes, including but not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, chalk, maps, and globes. The term shall not include watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture, or fixtures. School supplies shall also include computer software having a taxable value of three hundred fifty dollars or less.
“Personal computers” – a laptop, desktop, or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor, and a keyboard and devices designed for use in conjunction with a personal computer, such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disk drive, daughterboard, digitalizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, soundcard, or video card.

 

 

The search continues for missing Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper Fred Guthrie. The officer and his K9 were on flood duty near Big Lake when they apparently were swept away by the Missouri River Monday. Searchers yesterday found the body of the dog, named Reed, about 100 yards from where Guthrie’s patrol truck and boat were located. The Patrol says the incident is under investigation.

Buchanan County voters overwhelmingly turned down extension of the quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax.  The margin was a landslide 60 percent to 40 percent.  3680 Voters said NO, 2446 said YES.  The tax has been in effect for 24 years and has been renewed three times.  But this time the county removed the sunset clause, and opponents quickly labelled it a “Forever Tax.”  The tax raises about $2.8-million a year for economic development and capital improvements in the county.

Transportation officials are denying a rumor that’s had significant traction over the last couple of days.  We spoke with Mary Joe Oie of the Nebraska Department of Roads.

Yes, a railroad contractor did ignore specific instructions and cross the Rulo, Nebraska bridge Thursday with a heavy construction crane.  No, the bridge was NOT damaged…

Over the weekend officials with the Nebraska Department of Roads checked out the bridge.  A contractor working on some railroad repair work had crossed the bridge Thursday night with some very heavy cranes.  NDOR engineers along with the consulting engineering firm HDR in Omaha, Nebraska inspected the bridge and found no damage.

Mary Joe Oie of NDOR says they’ve discussed the matter with the contractor, who has promised not to use the bridge for heavy equipment.  Oie says the company was specifically told not to use the bridge, but crossed it on Thursday night.

The bridge has been closed for several weeks because the highway leading to it is under water.  Missouri River flooding has slowed down, but not stopped construction of a new Rulo bridge, which is still slated for completion in 2013.

 Saint Joseph police are investigating the death of a three year old boy in the hot tub at the Ramada Inn pool. Commander Jim Connors says Parker James Wilson of Rosendale was pulled from the bottom of the hot tub by his grandfather, Kavin Dew of Maryville. After life-saving efforts at poolside the child was taken to Heartland where he was later pronounced dead. Connors says Dew brought Parker and three other grandchildren to the pool Monday afternoon. Parker and another three year old played in the hot tub while a ten year old and six year old played on the slide. Connors says Dew was watching the children on the slide when Parker went to the bottom of the hot tub. An autopsy is being performed today and the incident remains under investigation.