Month: May 2025

Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Counties across Mid-Missouri are continuing to take steps to ensure their warning systems work reliably during severe weather.

In Boone County, officials are rolling out a new system that aims to make siren use more precise and reduce what they call “siren fatigue” — the overuse of sirens in areas not directly impacted by storms.

“We knew that the system that we have currently in place where we have the zones, sometimes we are sounding sirens that may be kind of outside that catchment area for a possible tornado,” Boone County Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick said. “And we know that every time we sound sirens where it could be more of a blue sky situation for that zone, it creates a possibility for siren fatigue.”

Discussions around the upgrade began during the county’s fiscal year 2025 budget planning, according to Kendrick. Boone County Emergency Management Director Chris Kelley and Joint Communications Director Christie Davis first brought the proposal forward.

The county is now using CommanderOne, a Federal Signal software platform that activates sirens only in areas specifically under a National Weather Service tornado warning or a severe thunderstorm warning with a destructive tag, which includes wind speeds of 80 miles per hour or hail 2.75 inches in diameter or greater.

The system allows sirens to be triggered based on the exact warning polygon issued by the NWS, rather than broader countywide zones. Officials said the upgrade was funded through Boone County’s 911 sales tax.

“Just like any emergency management protocol, we have redundancies built into that,” Kendrick said. “So if CommanderOne, for whatever reason, doesn’t automatically trigger those sirens, then we will have backup joint communications team ready to manually sound those alarms. And should they be caught up in calls and unable to, then our emergency management director, as well as communications director, can log into the system and sound the sirens, too.”

The commission earlier this month also approved implementing three new sirens.  A programming issue led to a siren not sounding in June 2024.

Meanwhile, in Cooper County, officials have been upgrading their siren infrastructure over the last few years. The county replaced a siren in Pilot Grove on Tuesday that had failed during a tornado warning due to a power outage.

“The Pilot Grove tornado, that siren did not have battery backup and the electricity went off. About the same time we were receiving the tornado warning from the National Weather Service,” said Larry Oerly, who is the director of the Cooper County Emergency Management Agency. “So, in other words, the wind or the tornado had knocked out the electricity to the siren prior to us setting it off.”

The new sirens installed in Cooper County all feature battery backups and are triggered via radio signal from the county’s 911 center.

“Our policy in Cooper County is that we set all these sirens in the polygon that we get from the National Weather Service,” Oerly said. “They will show the affected areas.”

The county began upgrading sirens in 2022 using grant funding. Since then, new sirens have been installed in Boonville, the Brady Showgrounds and the Fox Hollow subdivision, which had been outside the range of previous sirens. 

The City of Otterville also had it’s siren replaced last year due to “intermittent problems.” Orely says that the Otterville siren also ran on electricity, which presented issues during severe weather. 

“Our policy in Cooper County, they have to be manually triggered from our 911 center. They are all  triggered over radio frequency,” Orely said. “Our policy in Cooper County is that we set all these sirens in the polygon that we get from the National Weather Service when they issue a tornado warning, will have a polygon that will show the affected areas.” 

Officials in both counties stress that sirens are intended to warn people who are outdoors and should not be relied upon as the sole method of receiving severe weather alerts.

“This is one of many ways to receive a warning. Sirens are a mechanical piece of machinery. They can break, they can fail. Always, always have multiple ways of getting weather warnings,” Oerly said. 

Residents are encouraged to use weather radios, mobile apps, and emergency alert systems to stay informed during dangerous weather.

Boone and Cooper County’s efforts reflect a broader push among emergency managers to modernize tornado warning systems and ensure communities are better prepared when seconds count.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A more than $2.1 million collaborative study between the Columbia City Council, The Loop CID and Great Rivers Engineering to revamp Business Loop 70 is on its way to the US Department of Transportation for approval.

This comes after the Columbia City Council approved several million-dollar infrastructure projects Monday.

The total study cannot exceed $2,623,500, with $500,000 coming from capital improvement program sales tax funds, with the rest being covered by federal funding.

A press release from The Loop says the council approved a $2.13 million contract with Great River Engineering on Monday. The city was initially approved for $2.13 million in federal grant money last year, but funds were frozen on March 10.  

Previous reporting indicates that Business Loop 70 will be studied between Stadium Boulevard and Eastland Circle to find ways to improve safety for motorized and non-motorized users, improving accessible multi-modal operations, providing aesthetics along the corridor and improving economic vitality along the roadway.

Business Loop 70 is maintained by Missouri Department of Transportation.

Great River Engineering will survey the street, collect public input and create engineering plans. Problem areas that will be focused on is stormwater management, bike lanes and adding crosswalks and sidewalks.

“Most exits off of I-70, hit the business loop, and we really want to put our best foot forward there,” Carrie Gartner, of the Business Loop CID, said. “The second thing is, we want to make sure people on the street can get to lunch, or can walk over and get a cup of coffee or can cross the street safely.”

Gartner adds that when the Loop conducted a separate survey of residents, many residents voiced similar concerns.

“As an outside-of-downtown bar, I think a lot of other bars struggle with getting people to just like come in as it’s not a walkable bar, so you can’t be downtown and just go here and there,” Dive Bar front of house manager Jakely Mange said. “I think it’s a great idea, I was like, ‘the loop has been around for so long and the better it can get, why not?'”

Mange added having more accessible transportation options would make the loop more accommodating.

When asked about if adding more sidewalks will increase panhandling from unhoused individuals, Gartner argues that easy and safe walking outweighs potential issues.

“If we’re really looking at people who are homeless, the solution isn’t to remove sidewalks,” Gartner said. “We don’t want to hold back the street because we’re afraid of something happening, we want an attractive and welcoming and easy-to-travel street.”

Once approved by the US Department of Transportation, the Loop CID will host public forums throughout the year and invite residents to come forward with any comments.

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Erika McGuire

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia is working to restore power to damaged equipment at its recycling facility after an EF-1 tornado destroyed the building.

Utilities spokesperson Jason West said demolition is underway and debris removal is going well.

“I believe the process is moving forward at a quicker pace than expected,” West said in an email Wednesday afternoon.

The city hopes to at least get a portion of the recycling program restarted, but West said it depends how much damaged equipment is salvageable.

“The goal is to divert as much material away from the landfill as possible depending on how much of the machinery is usable,” West said.

Once demolition is complete and the city sees how much equipment is saved there may be an opportunity to build a temporary covering for the machinery to help protect it from elements.

On April 20, an EF-1 tornado destroyed the facility off Peabody Road. The destruction caused the city to suspend the collection of curbside recycling materials and drop-off centers. Curbside pickup then resumed at the end of last month, however it is being taken to the landfill.

West said the city made the decision so residents would “maintain the habit” of curbside recycling. Last year the city collected about 11,000 thousands of recycling material, West said.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Jefferson City woman was charged on Wednesday after she was accused of raping a youth.

Estelle Kerns, 35, was charged with first-degree statutory rape of someone younger than 14 years old. She is being held at the Boone County Jail without bond. A hearing was set for Wednesday.

The probable cause statement says that a friend of the victim told the victim’s mother about the assaults. The victim allegedly told law enforcement that they repeatedly told Kerns to stop.

Kerns allegedly admitted to the victim’s mother that the assaults took place over multiple weeks and then blamed the victim, court documents say.

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