Author: KMIZ

Lucas Geisler

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

On Monday, Mayor Barbara Buffaloe will preside over her first Columbia City Council meeting of her second term.

Buffaloe won April 8’s municipal election with more than 14,000 votes in an expensive race for mayor over Blair Murphy and Tanya Heath. Buffaloe won handily, taking precincts around the city.

ABC 17 News anchor Lucas Geisler spoke with Buffaloe before she was sworn in on Friday to a second three-year term.

“I don’t think I learned anything new, I would say, but I think some of the issues that we know are important to Columbia residents, it just helped emphasize,” Buffaloe said. “So, the city needs to do better about communicating what’s going on. How are we doing about staffing levels? Where does funding go? Just what’s going on in the world, the importance of that.”

Buffaloe said she thought City Manager De’Carlon Seewood was making strides in keeping the council and community informed. The city recently launched a program of “community connectors” to inform residents of different projects and meetings. She said in the coming term, she’d like to see Seewood talk more around town about the work the city is doing.

“One of the things that I’m always pushing him on is that he needs to talk more,” Buffaloe said. “He needs to be out more in front. I think he can kind of rely on a lot of times, I’m always happy to talk, go and talk to a group as an extrovert. As an introvert, he’s not as interested in doing it as much. So I’m trying to encourage, and he has been, stepping up and going out more, conversations in public and at council meetings, because he’s very smart and he has the trust of his staff. So I think he needs to help show that more and show what progress has been done rather than waiting for other people to go up and make the conversation happen.”

Seewood recently hired D’Markus Thomas-Brown to lead the new Office of Violence Prevention, a program Buffaloe proposed in 2023 following a homicide. With a leader and budget in place, Buffaloe said she’s hopeful that Thomas-Brown will use his connections across the city and city staff to work on crime prevention.

“Some of the things that I hope he focuses on is working with our law enforcement on where do we see the trends and the data happening, building on those relationships that he has with the community and growing them to do more intervention opportunities within Columbia Public Schools and within the neighborhoods,” Buffaloe said. “And just being that trusted voice so that when we do have rumors of something’s that going to happen, he might be able to kind of connect with those involved, and let’s have some preventative nature so that it won’t actually happen and it will reduce our calls for service with our police department.”

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Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia City Manager De’Carlon Seewood has signed an emergency declaration for the impacts of severe weather that hit the city on Sunday, according to a Monday press release from the city.

“In addition, operation of the bioreactor landfill shall be temporarily suspended along with operation of the Bioenergy Plant until such time as repairs to such facilities occur to ensure efficient and safe operation of the plant,” the declaration reads. “Emergency clean-up operations shall commence at Cosmo Park and utility services restored in areas damaged by the severe weather event with the use of mutual aid as deemed necessary by the applicable department head.”

City facilities and infrastructure were damaged, causing power outages and service disruptions, the release says. The city’s recycling program is indefinitely suspended, the city said on Sunday, after its recycling facility was severely destroyed in the storm.

The National Weather Service determined the storm created an EF-1 tornado.

“It is pretty rare,” Seewood said when asked about signing the emergency declaration. “We saw significant damage.  Our material recovery facility, which is our recycling facility, was completely destroyed.”

The City Council reviewed the declaration and voted on an ordinance that would support the measure during Monday night’s meeting.

During the meeting, Mayor Barbara Buffalo reminded residents that Tuesday was Earth Day and the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” has recycle at the end for a reason, emphasizing the need to cut down on waste as the city figures out how to get its recycling services up and running.  

Rebuilding the facility could take more than a year, so the city could try to hire an outside service to handle recycling. 

“We have to do really do an analysis, see exactly what is possible,” Seewood said. “We really need to take time to really figure out exactly what the plan is, how to move forward.” 

The city is also temporarily closing its eight recycling drop-off centers, as are nearby towns that use Columbia’s recycling facility, such as Hallsville. However, there are some concerns that residents who ignore the closures could cause overflow, creating potential health and sanitation risks. The city is urging patience during this process. 

“We’re going to develop a plan and develop a process. But as we’re developing this process, I’ll just ask people to be patient,” Seewood said. 

An evaluation done in 2023 found that the city’s recycling plant was becoming outdated, and left the city missing out on money due to inefficiency. 

Columbia’s Material Recovery Facility was built in 2002, which is one of the things that prompted the city to launch the study.

“It’s nearing the end of its useful life, a lot of the machinery is aging rapidly,” Columbia Utilities spokesman Matt Nestor told ABC 17 News last April. 

The city was planning on building a new facility, but Seewood said the storm could expedite the process. 

“We talked about doing a replacement of the Material Recovery Facility, and that was planned out for, I think 2027, 2028. And so that may speed that up,” Seewood said. 

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Two $1 million+ items pass the council

A $1.5 million project to pave the Columbia Regional Airport parking lot across the from the terminal was passed by the council on Monday night.

The City Council also approved a $1.7 million agreement for a beautification project at the Highway 63 connector bridge and St. Charles Road Bridge. That dollar amount will be split with the city, county, University of Missouri and other sources.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF-2 tornado touched down in southern Callaway County on Sunday.

Severe storms caused damage and power outages throughout Mid-Missouri on Sunday, with many areas still feeling the effects on Monday.

The NWS wrote that the tornado developed northwest of New Bloomfield and moved northeast past Guthrie from 1:31-1:36 p.m. Sunday. The length went 2.7 miles with a width of 100 yards.

Emergency Management in Callaway County stated on Sunday that some outdoor warning sirens in Fulton were not operational because of technical malfunctions.

The sirens are now operational as of Monday afternoon and issues rose from a low battery, according to Callaway County Office of Emergency Management Director Michelle Kidwell.

“The vendor advised that even though it was showing low battery leading us to believe they may not work during the second storm, they likely would have continued to work.  They did work for the first round of storms (thankfully) it was the second round we were concerned and wanted to let the public know,” an email from Kidwell states.

Haley Swaino

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Local Catholics began a nine-day mourning period Monday after the death of Pope Francis.

Francis died Easter Monday at the age of 88, the Vatican announced.

His death comes one day after blessing Catholics who gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday. In his last speech, the pope called for an end to the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan.

Catholics in the Diocese of Jefferson City began Novendiale on Monday, a nine-day mourning period that follows the death of a pope. This time of mourning is an ancient tradition of the Catholic Church.

The Diocese of Jefferson City serves 75,000 Catholics in 38 counties and is home to more than 90 Catholic parishes.

Bells will ring out 88 times Monday at all churches in the diocese, according to a news release. Each toll will represent one year of Pope Francis’ life.

Tuesday, a Rosary will be prayed for the pope at all diocesan Catholic schools, the release says. Schools are closed on Monday in observance of Easter.

Friday, a memorial mass will be held for Pope Francis at noon at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City. The release says that additional memorial masses will be held at other locations around the diocese. In the meantime, special accommodations will be made for people wanting to pray at churches.

Catholics will be invited to watch the funeral of Pope Francis together. More details and the location will be announced when available, the release states.

The Rev. Shawn McKnight, recently appointed archbishop-designate of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, said in a statement Monday that mourning should be used as a time for reflection.

“As we mourn, let us reflect on this remarkable chapter in the life of our Church — one embodied by a Pope who lived the Christian virtues of humility, authenticity, openness, and hope,” McKnight said in a statement.

After being appointed by Pope Francis, McKnight was ordained the fourth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City on Feb. 6, 2018. He said the pope modeled a life of compassion with an open heart and mind.

“He helped us see the universal nature of our Church, reminding us that we are one body in Christ, regardless of nationality or status,” McKnight said in a statement. “And at a time in history marked by growing division, Pope Francis showed us how we can seek to sow unity — by simply speaking with one another and listening with an open heart.”

John Frymire — an associate professor of history at the University of Missouri — said Pope Francis will be remembered for his morals.

“When he attempted to do diplomacy, he did it on the basis of his moral authority,” Frymire said. “So for example, he went to Africa in the midst of a civil war, risked death. It was a combat zone. He brought in Zelensky from Ukraine. He attempted to bring peace.”

Frymire worked at the Vatican from 1997-99. He said Francis’s pontification marked many firsts.

“The first thing that you should distinguish with Francis was the guy comes from South America, No. 1. No. 2, he’s a Jesuit. No. 3, he’s a missionary,” Frymire said. “He doesn’t look inward to Europe or the United States or the places we think most Catholics would be. He looks outward. He looks to Africa. He looks to South America, where the church’s population is growing. And his mission was always to speak to those people.”

Frymire said Jesuit popes are rare, as many are Franciscans or Dominicans.

“He was exactly the kind of pope we needed at this time,” Frymire said. “I would also say he’s exactly the kind of pope that certain people in power will ignore or acknowledge, depending on their perspective.”

Pope Francis met with Vice President JD Vance on Sunday, making Vance one of the last leaders to meet with him.

“The current political climate in the United States made him very uncomfortable,” Frymire said. “So the key moving forward will be to see what the College of Cardinals does. Are we going to get another Francis or somebody much more on the other side. Because the Catholic Church has both sides.”

Frymire added that Pope Francis was utterly humble and at the same time brilliant.

“One of his more famous statements is, ‘Who am I to judge,'” Frymire said. “The reference was to the question of homosexuality.”

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