U.S. Route 24 between Brunswick and De Witt, closed by floodwaters, reopened this afternoon.

The Missouri Department of Transportation says floodwaters receded enough to allow road crews to clear the highway and reopen it between Route 11 and Route 41.

Several roads remain closed due to flooding, including Route 41 to Miami, Route 10 east of Carrollton, and U.S. Route 65 from Carrollton to Waverly.

Click here for the special website maintained by MoDOT which updates roadways closed by floodwaters.

MoDOT reminds motorists not to drive through the water. You can call MoDOT’s 24-hour Customer Service line at 888 ASK MODOT (1-888-275-6636) to report it.

By SARAH THOMACK

St. Joseph Post

A club at Northwest Missouri State University is working to create more buzz about the importance of a tiny insect.

The Bee Club at Northwest was started this past school year by a student.

Northwest student Abigail Rosonke is the Bee Club President and said she became interested in bees through talking to a classmate who is a beekeeper. The two decided to look into starting a bee club at Northwest and eventually talked with Northwest Arboretum Director Patrick Ward about being an adviser for the club. Ward said it was exciting to help with a club started by an idea from students.

“I’m more of the tree man but I’ve kept bees for years… and there is a lot of interest right now in bees, in fact, we’re starting some pollinator plots on campus, for not only bees but other insects and other types of natives bees,” Ward said. “So when they came to me (about the club), I thought, ‘That’s pretty cool.’”

Rosonke said there were some hurdles and a process through the Student Senate, but eventually the club was approved and started due to her persistence.

“It was something I was so passionate about and even though I’d never done it before, I thought it was a great opportunity, not just for me, but there were a bunch of other people on campus who were just so interested,” Rosonke said.

Rosonke said one of the reasons she has become passionate about bees and educating others about them is because of their importance to our food, and not just honey.

“Fruits, flowers, you name it and people don’t realize, they’re like, oh ‘Save the bees,’ it seems like such a distant problem but it’s happening all around the world, we’re seeing a major drop off of bees,” Rosonke said.

Ward said they have four hives set up by the campus orchard and took a trip to Illinois to pick up their bees.

“When I bring back a package of bees, that is three pounds of bees, about 6,000 bees with a queen in a little bitty cage, because the queen and the bees are not from the same hive necessarily so it’s an introduction process, it takes a few days,” Ward said. “These bees are not attacking because they’re not protecting a hive. Bees protect things, they don’t come out looking for trouble so they’re really docile normally.”

For more information on the Bee Club, contact Patrick Ward at the Missouri Arboretum on the Northwest campus.

St. Joseph Transit ‘The Ride’ is joining with other public transportation systems nationwide to participate in the 14th annual Dump the Pump Day on Thursday, June 20th.

According to a press release from the City of St. Joseph, Dump the Pump Day is a day that encourages people to ride public transportation and save money, instead of driving a car. It is sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

Until 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 20, there will be free rides on all buses, excluding deviations which will still cost 50 cents.

For more information, call (816) 233-6700 or visit StJoeTransit.info.

MAYSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities are following up on leads after searching a wooded area and pond in northwest Missouri for a missing woman.

DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Kasey Keesaman said Wednesday that 23-year-old Leah Marie Dawson wasn’t found during Tuesday’s search of farmland in Maysville but evidence was. He provided no details on the evidence or who owned the property.

Keesaman says Dawson was last seen with her boyfriend about two weeks ago at a gas station. Keesaman says her boyfriend isn’t classified as a person of interest in her disappearance. But he has been jailed for the past week, initially in Clinton County on a drug charges and currently in neighboring DeKalb County for failing to register as a sex offender.

An endangered person advisory has been issued for Dawson.

By SARAH THOMACK

St. Joseph Post

A $200,000 grant awarded to Northwest Health Services will fund efforts to combat the opioid crisis in rural areas.

Northwest Health Services Director of Behavioral Health Terry Peterson said this is the second year the grant opportunity has been offered as part of the Rural Communities Opioid Response Grant Program.

“It’s kind of unique in that, the first year, all participants take part in what they call a planning phase where they will develop a strategic plan and then years two, three and four are what we call the actual implementation period,” Peterson said. “So, you’ve got a full year to work on a strategic plan to move forward with.”

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy awarded the planning grants to Northwest Health Services and five other organizations this year.  The funding is part of $24 million distributed to 40 states as part of the program.

Peterson is acting as the coordinator of the grant program for Northwest Health Services and said they are looking at creating a northwest Missouri rural health consortium.

“We’re planning on involving five different counties that we’ve kind of divided into four specific areas – the Atchison and Holt County areas and, of course, that would involve the Fairfax Community Hospital, the EMS system, county health departments, law enforcement and schools as well, that’s one of our planning areas,” Peterson said. “We’ve also got Nodaway County with Mosaic on board… then we also have Saint Luke’s joining in Grundy County and Livingston County, so it’s a pretty vast area that we’re going to cover here.”

Peterson said the program is designed to address substance abuse disorders and any type of medical and behavioral health needs in rural areas where people may have difficulty with transportation and access to healthcare resources. Peterson adds the grant will allow Northwest Health Services to expand their medication assisted treatment program into more rural clinics and potentially through telehealth.

“It’s kind of a three tiered process – prevention, treatment and recovery. We address the opioid use disorder and epidemic first, but it also ties into substance use. Alcohol, tobacco, methamphetamine use is still a rampant problem in the rural areas, as well as our area here,” Peterson said. “With the prevention piece, it’s going to enable us to go in and involve school districts as far as educational programs. There will be funding for additional training of law enforcement. Then, of course, also our medication assisted treatment offerings in the area and the therapy piece involving the recovery element.”

Peterson said there will be opportunities for community input as Northwest Health looks to identify community needs within the next year.