Author: KMIZ

Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Amazon will spend about $10 billion to create a data center in Montgomery County, including millions for infrastructure and other local projects, according to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s office.

Kehoe was at a groundbreaking for the project in Montgomery City on Monday. In a news release after the event, Kehoe’s office stated the $10 billion includes more than $1 million for a “community gathering space” at the county fairgrounds, $3 million for community programs, a $150,000 grand fund for community projects and a previously reported $3 million for emergency dispatching services.

The campus will be built on about 1,000 acres north of Interstate 70 between New Florence and High Hill.

Amazon is in line for nearly $1 billion in property tax breaks.

Kehoe’s office says the project will create 400 direct jobs and thousands of construction jobs.

“Montgomery County estimates this investment will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new property tax revenue over the next 25 years,” the governor’s office stated in the news release.

Amazon is working with the company Arable Labs to implement new technology to help farmers with irrigation and reduce the amount of water wasted, the release states.

Water use is one complaint aired by local residents at public meetings on the project. Other complaints include the high power loads required by data centers and the use of productive farmland for the project.

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Jessica Hafner

The ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Team has issued a Weather Alert Day for the potential of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon into the evening.

A low-pressure system will track across the Upper Midwest or the Great Lakes between Tuesday and Wednesday, allowing winds to shift to the south across Mid-Missouri. Late Tuesday night, a complex of storms near the warm front could develop and track across northeast Missouri into central Illinois, bringing the potential of severe weather. This will likely miss Mid-Missouri.

Wednesday afternoon will be hot and humid ahead of the evening cold front, allowing the atmosphere to become increasingly unstable and provide energy for storms to sustain severe limits as they develop.

We’ll also have strong low-level winds increasing moisture across the region starting late Tuesday night. Wind shear will be sufficient at the low and mid-levels for storms to quickly become severe.

Storms are expected to fire along a trailing cold front between 3 and 5 p.m. These initial storms could be discrete supercells capable of producing large hail and tornadoes.

From here, we’ll have to watch to see if storms congeal into a line, or remain somewhat supercellular. It’s possible that some, if not all, congeal into a line along the front, but there is some uncertainty regarding this. Whether a line or individual cells, storms will generally move north to south, exiting and weakening after midnight.

All hazards will be possible with these storms, but the main concern going into the evening will be damaging winds and heavy rain. Moisture levels in the atmosphere will be high, meaning storms could have high rainfall rates, leaving another 1-2″+ through Thursday morning. Almost all of Mid-Missouri is in a level 3/5 severe risk from the Storm Prediction Center on Wednesday.

There remains uncertainty in timing and severity from morning to evening. While it looks likely that morning rain will miss the region, and allow for abundant storm energy for the cold front to use in the late afternoon and evening, one of the main questions remaining is exactly what mode these storms take on. There appears to be some potential for both line segments and/or individual cells. Differences in storm mode will mean differences in what severe threats we can expect. The main threat appears to be damaging wind, as we expect this with both individual supercells and line segments.

Individual supercells would favor a higher threat for tornadoes and larger hail. In either scenario, wind will likely be the most common impact, but this keeps the potential for strong tornadoes (up to EF-2) on the table for now. Stay tuned for details on how this forecast evolves.

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Alison Patton

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Some members of the Jefferson City planning and zoning commission are not on board with rezoning a building that the Jefferson City Room at the Inn would use to expand its homeless shelter and create a new day room.

The board voted 4-3 on Thursday not to recommend the zoning change to the city council.

“We have probably spent the whole weekend just kind of licking our wounds,” RATI Chair Sarah Hamilton said Sunday.

RATI leadership is considering buying a building on 107 Adam St. that would have a day center on the bottom floor for people experiencing homelessness to spend time and set goals to get back on their feet. It would also have laundry facilities and showers.

The second floor would be the overnight shelter with 30 beds, which is 10 more than RATI’s current space at the First Baptist Church, located at 301 E. Capitol Ave.

However, the building needs to be rezoned before RATI can purchase it for $500,000 and make about $500,000 in renovations, Hamilton said.

The city council will have the final decision on whether the building can be rezoned at the Aug. 3 council meeting.

Planning and zoning commissioner Bunnie Trickey Cotten, who voted in support of RATI, said the council isn’t required to follow the commission’s recommendation.

“The city council often does not take our recommendation and this is definitely one time I hope they do not take our recommendation,” Cotten said.

Hamilton said there was no explanation for why the commission voted the way it did, especially after over 53 people sent in letters of support, compared to 17 community members against the zoning change.

“Nobody wants a homeless shelter in their backyard and we understand that, but that doesn’t make the problem go away and that doesn’t help the folks who are in need of help,” Hamilton said.

People opposed to the shelter are worried that it will cause harm to the people who live on East Capitol Avenue and put time into revitalizing it, Hamilton said.

RATI hasn’t given up hope on the proposed building, and Hamilton said the nonprofit will look at other buildings to rezone if the council turns down the Adams Street proposal.

If it is approved, RATI can move forward with fundraising for a down payment. They already have $200,000 saved up.

Regardless of the council’s decision, the emergency shelter will stay at the First Baptist Church for the winter while renovations happen.

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Euphenie Andre

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A new report shows Columbia’s Flock Safety camera system alerted police thousands of times over the past year.

The Columbia Police Department says the system generated 5,521 total alerts in the first year of operation. Of those alerts, 2,877 were linked to outstanding warrants, 1,452 involved stolen license plates and 1,192 were connected to stolen vehicles.

The Flock system was approved by the Columbia city council in Oct. 2024. Since then, more than 100 license plate reader cameras have been installed across the city.

Two years ago, Police Chief Jill Schlude previously said the system is intended in part to deter crime.

“The idea is to set up a system where there is a fear that your numbers are going to get drawn or that your queries are going to get looked at, and that’s kind of a deterrent,” Schlude said.

The technology has drawn criticism from some community members who have raised concerns about privacy and government surveillance. Despite those concerns, police said the cameras have helped identify wanted individuals and recover stolen property.

According to the department’s annual report, the system has been linked to 217 criminal cases since its deployment. More than half of those cases either led to an arrest or provided investigators with useful leads, including 69 arrests and 52 investigative leads.

The report also details the cost of the system.

Columbia spent nearly $585,000 to install and launch the Flock Safety camera system in 2025.

City officials expect to spend about $515,000 in fiscal year 2026 to maintain the network, including $476,000 from police and general city funds and $39,000 from parks and recreation.

While the system costs more than half a million dollars per year, city officials believe the expense is justified when spread across the population and weighed against the public safety benefits they said the cameras provide.

The city’s current contract with Flock expires in March 2027, when officials will decide whether to renew the agreement.

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Cole County/Jefferson City Office of Emergency Management is working on a new storm damage portal to streamline the recovery process.

OEM Deputy Director Mackinley Kennedy said the portal isn’t open to the public yet, but once it is, residents will be able to upload photos of damage like flooding, damaged trees, debris, blocked roadway and others. The form also asks users to identify the cause of damage, some options include rain, snow or tornado, among others.

“They can submit those photos to us, and then it’s all rolled into a big repository where we can, as the Office of Emergency Management, we can comb through that information and hopefully provide a more efficient response,” Kennedy said.

The idea is for users to assess any damage to their property following the weather event, when it’s safe to do so.

OEM soft-launched an update to the county’s GIS map that allows staff to attach photos to road conditions.

“We do feel like it is important to be transparent with the public and the community,” Kennedy said. “So if they’re curious about where damage is occurring or what it looks like, they can do that safely from anywhere that they have internet access.”

Kennedy said the map was updated Monday, following heavy rainfall and flooding Sunday night.

It’s unclear when Cole County residents will be able to access the full portal.

“I’ll tell you that it is a priority for us, and it’s an active project. So we’re working diligently to get that ready to roll out to the community, but as of right now, I don’t have a definitive time to tell you that we’re going to roll it out,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy also said the portal won’t replace 911 when there is an immediate emergency.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia residents will be able to drop off glass and other recyclables Saturday during a city recycling drop-off event.

According to City of Columbia Solid Waste, acceptable materials in Saturday’s drop-off include:

1 or 2 plastic bottles and containers with screw-on lids

Aluminum and metal cans

Glass bottles and jars

Cardboard, newspaper and office paper

Since the city’s recycling center was destroyed by the April 2025 tornado, recycling facilities have been limited, with the city pausing drop-off centers indefinitely and no longer accepting certain recyclables like glass or plastic clamshell packaging.

“This is kind of a test project to see how well it works to give the residents another option,” City of Columbia Utilities Spokesman Jason West said. “Some people may be out of town on their collection day, so this is an opportunity for them to go ahead and get that out instead of having it sit around in their garage.”

Plastic and paper materials from Saturday’s event will be baled and sent to Jefferson City for processing. The glass will be collected and stored, with the city in the middle of looking into a glass processing contract with a Kansas City company.

West adds that the City is set to increase recycling pick-ups, from once every two weeks to once a week, starting Monday. Curbside recycling will follow the updated recycling guidelines, like no glass and certain plastics.

“We will be once a week, same as your trash collection, we’ll just do trash and recycling on the same day every week now,” West said.

The recycling center is operational, but doesn’t have a cover structure to protect absorbent materials and the machinery, so processing depends on weather conditions. In December 2025, the city approved construction for a new recycling site.

The city received bids from contractors for a new recycling center in the spring.

“Our finance department has those bids that we received on rebuilding the building,” West said. “They’re going through and being able to make summaries up of comparing the bids, then we’ll be able to take a look at those and see which is the best for the project.”

City officials add that they hope for a structure to be built by the beginning of 2028.

Saturday’s event will take place at the Grissum Building on Lakeview Street from 8 a.m. to noon. Residents are encouraged to enter from the east Lakeview Avenue entrance.

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Euphenie Andre

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A proposed apartment complex in south Columbia drew significant public attention at Thursday’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, where traffic concerns dominated the discussion and ultimately led to a stalled outcome.

The property, which is currently unaddressed, was located about 350 feet north of the end of Gray Oak Drive. Developers asked for 32.7-acre site to be developed into a 194-unit multifamily housing development.

After hearing concerns from residents about the proposed development along Rock Quarry Road, the commission’s vote was split 3-all, preventing it from going to the City Council.

Traffic was the central issue throughout the meeting, with residents and commissioners questioning how the 720-bed apartment complex would affect an already congested corridor.

According to the traffic study for the proposed ‘The Retreat at Columbia’ development, engineers examined five nearby intersections:

Rock Quarry Road and Riback Road

Grindstone Plaza Drive and Gray Oak Drive

Grindstone Plaza Drive and the Grindstone Plaza entrance

Grindstone Parkway and Grindstone Plaza Drive

Grindstone Parkway and Rock Quarry Road

The study concluded the project would not generate enough additional traffic to require major roadway improvements.

Engineers estimated the development would produce approximately 225-230 vehicle trips during its peak hours, including both inbound and outbound traffic. Of those trips, roughly 40-50 vehicles were projected to travel northbound on Rock Quarry Road during peak periods.

Developers did not analyze morning rush-hour traffic, instead focusing on midday and afternoon peak periods between 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.=5:15 p.m.

Brian Rensing, a traffic engineer involved in the study, said those timeframes represent the busiest periods for students and therefore provide what he described as a “worst-case scenario” for traffic impact analysis.

He also said during the meeting that morning volumes tend to be lower for student-oriented housing, claiming most students do not attend their morning classes.

Residents strongly pushed back on that reasoning, arguing students do attend morning classes and that Rock Quarry Road already experiences significant congestion during the morning commute. Several speakers said the study did not reflect real-world traffic conditions they experience daily.

The report also projected a roughly 15% increase in traffic along Grindstone Parkway. While engineers said the corridor would continue to operate within acceptable limits, residents argued that any additional traffic would further strain an already congested roadway without corresponding infrastructure improvements.

Safety concerns were also raised during the meeting.

According to crash data included in the study, there were 41 reported crashes along Rock Quarry Road between Stadium Boulevard and Grindstone Parkway from 2020-24, or roughly eight crashes a year.

The traffic study calculated a crash rate of approximately 181 crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled along that segment, which engineers noted is below Missouri Department of Transportation averages for similar major collector and two-lane roadways.

Still, residents expressed concern that additional traffic could worsen existing safety issues along the corridor.

Another major point of discussion was whether the development would primarily serve students or function as general multi-family housing. Developers said there is no requirement for tenants to be enrolled at the University of Missouri or any other institution, but noted the complex would include shuttle service to MU’s campus during the week.

The project was represented by Crockett Engineering, which also worked on a previously approved downtown student housing development.

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed a black bear sighting in Columbia after receiving reports on Sunday and again Thursday night.

Nate Bowersock, a department black bear expert, said a black bear was spotted Sunday night on Silvey Street, followed by a sighting near the Planet Fitness on East Nifong Boulevard on Thursday around 11 p.m.

Bowersock said there are about 1,200 bears in Missouri, mostly in the southern portion of the state. As the black bear population continues to grow, they’ll start moving around to find food.

“Those more northerly bears we’ve been seeing tend to be younger animals just looking for a place to set up shop. They have to compete with the bigger bears, and when you’re smaller, it’s harder to compete with other bears, and so we see those animals come farther north,” he said.

Jay Froeschner said he saw the bear on Thursday while working on his truck near The Deuce Pub and Pit near the gym, outside his home on Monterey Drive. At first, he said he thought he heard deer hooves on the ground, but turned around to find a bear.

“Seeing a bear in the middle of Columbia, right here, sprinting across, is wild. I would never have expected that,” Froeschner said.

Jacob Goff took the video of the bear near Planet Fitness. He said he’s never seen a bear a day in his life.

“It was pretty shocking,” he said. “I just felt very small in the universe kind of thing, like, you know, this thing could eat me.”

After analyzing videos and pictures that came in from people who saw the bear, Bowersock said the bear looks like an adult that weighs about 200 pounds. He couldn’t determine the gender.

Although bear sightings could become more frequent in the coming years, Bowersock said black bears are timid around humans.

“Bears most days don’t want much to do with people,” he said. “They’re really just looking for food.”

If you see a bear, Bowersock said it’s best to stay away from it and report it to the department. The reporting form is linked here.

The Columbia/Boone County Animal Control does not take bear sighting reports, supervisor Kevin Meyers told ABC 17 News over email. Animal control received a few emails and calls about the bear.

Meyers said black bears are omnivores that eat grasses, fruits and small rodents or frogs, and are “extremely shy of humans.”

“Our recommendation is the same as with all wildlife, to leave them alone and they will move on. Missouri does have a rapidly growing population of black bears since they were almost extirpated from Missouri in the 1930’s, thanks to conservation efforts across the Midwest,” Meyers wrote in an email.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Montgomery City man who pleaded guilty to murder in a toddler’s 2024 overdoes death was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday.

Bryan Danter, 37, pleaded guilty in April to felony murder, second-degree drug trafficking and illegal gun possession.

He was previously charged with felony murder, second-degree drug trafficking, two counts of drug possession, one count of endangering the welfare of a child, three counts of illegal gun possession and a count of misdemeanor having a defaced gun.

According to the probable cause statement in previous reporting, Danter found his 2-year-old son unresponsive on Sept. 3, 2024. Law enforcement saw the body of the child on the kitchen table near a plastic bag containing “a crystalline substance.”

Pill containers with white residue, capsules with white powder, two scales and another plastic bag containing white powder were found in the home, the statement says. The substances tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamine, court documents say.

Danter is currently being held at Jefferson City Correctional Center and is serving a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2025 to two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, one count of illegal gun possession, drug possession and unlawful use of a weapon.

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Nathalie Jones

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri history will be made this summer, as the state hosts its first World Cup matches.

It’s a moment that has been more than 30 years in the making, as Missouri originally tried to host World Cup games the first time the global event came to the United States in 1994. But, after being passed over all those years ago, the state of Missouri will not only host matches, but have the reigning World Cup champions in Kansas City.

Group stage action will kick off in Kansas City on Tuesday when Algeria faces Argentina, the reigning title holders. Ahead of that match, Gov. Mike Kehoe sat down with ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones to break down his hopes and expectations for this summer, from both a safety and economic standpoint.

You can find the transcript of their full interview below.

Nathalie Jones: “Just take me through the lead up [to the World Cup]. How much work was it when you talk about from getting the World Cup and getting the bid in and then all the lead up to just planning for these few weeks that are coming up? What’s it been like?”

Gov. Mike Kehoe: “Well, just putting the bid in happened several years ago, so that was an incredible application, over 700 pages, as I recall, just to try to get them to consider Kansas City. That happened several years ago. I will tell you, the Kansas City folks, their Convention and Visitors Bureau, their Sports Commission, they did a wonderful job of really thinking outside the box, saying we have a chance to land this, let’s go for it. With a lot of effort and a lot of help from a lot of people, we were fortunate.”

Jones: “I mean, now that it’s finally arriving, just on your end of all this work finally coming to a culmination, what was the excitement of it being here and getting to see it all play out?”

Kehoe: “Yeah, I was just in Kansas City last week and talking to some folks there and it’s like it’s finally here. We can’t hardly believe it, so we’re very excited. We think it’s going to be a great opportunity for the state of Missouri to literally show the world what a great place we live in, work in, and raise a family at.”

Jones: “I mean, Argentina arriving, obviously one of the biggest soccer teams in the world and having their base camp here and so many eyes on the state of Missouri, what do you hope people see about the state of Missouri over these next few weeks?”

Kehoe: “Well, I will tell you, the international community probably doesn’t know exactly where Missouri is. I mean, when I travel on economic trade missions, you get a lot of people say, ‘Where exactly is Missouri in the United States?’ This is our opportunity, like I said, to really show people what we’re all about and we certainly hope, as a state, that we’re able to use this as an economic development opportunity to let companies and businesses and individuals know from around the globe what a great place Missouri is to have a business.”

Jones: “I was just going to ask, the economic benefits of this. What do you expect them to be and how do you really gage that once you’re going through the World Cup?”

Kehoe: “Well, we can just look at what other host cities have done in the past, you know, they hold the World Cup every four years, so you try to kind of figure out and extrapolate what that’s going to mean. We estimate it will be somewhere between &900 million and a $1 billion of economic activity in just a 34 day period. So, that’s massive, and that’s just for the state of Missouri. So, we think that the economic impact on our state and our communities in the region will be significant and we hope the long-term relationships we gain from some of these visitors really comes back, as well.”

Jones: “From a transportation aspect, I mean, it’s such a huge influx of people coming into the state of Missouri. What’s kind of been the steps in making sure you know everyone in Kansas City and around is prepared for that kind of influx?”

Kehoe: “Well, the great community leaders, with help from around the state and really from help around the United States, have been working on how to move these 10s of 1000s of people in and out of different venues. Whether it’s the fan fest or whether it’s the actual match itself. So, I would tell you that the transportation piece has probably been worked on over two years, maybe up to three years on logistics and how that might all work. People from other parts of the world are very used to public transportation, much more than they are here in the United States, so us upping our game to prepare for those visitors has been a major challenge, but one we’re ready for.”

Jones: “I mean, from a public safety perspective, that’s obviously another topic of conversation. How do you make sure you’re prepared just when you have so many visitors and obviously a lot of passion coming to the United States and Missouri. You know, how do you make sure you’re prepared on that end?”

Kehoe: “You want people to have a good time, but you want them to be safe. That can really hurt the event if we don’t have a great public safety effort. Again, over two years of a combined efforts of various public safety organizations, we actually signed an executive order here in our office that allowed the collaboration of different public safety communities to come together with an operation center. They’re really going to have a lot of focus with National Guard, Missouri Highway Patrol, obviously local policing authorities, KCPD being the lead. They’ve done a great job. They have somebody within Kansas City Police Department that just been working on this for years. Other police departments from around the state literally are sending people to help with this effort. So, we’re gonna make sure people are safe.”

Jones: “Have you gotten to talk to maybe cities in different states that have hosted an event maybe of this kind of magnitude about, ‘hey, what are some things that we can do to make sure we’re doing this right?'”

Kehoe: “Well, here in the states, since we haven’t hosted a World Cup in decades, really what we’ve talked to is some other cities that have hosted Super Bowls, because the six games we’ll have, they say, it’s going to be like having six Super Bowls. So, major venues, whether it’s Super Bowl, World Series, et cetera, we’ve been talking to some of those communities about what to expect in this big fluctuation of folks that are going to come into the region.”

Jones: “Is there anything you feel like when you’re in this lead up that you need more of right now, whether it be busses or police? Is there anything you guys feel like you’re needing more of?”

Kehoe: “Well, we’re going to need patience, because there’s going to be a whole lot of people in the Kansas City area that are excited to be there. All of them know they can’t exactly all go to the game, but there’s so many other activities happening in the Kansas City area that’s going to be exciting to do and people are just going to be part of it. Even here in Central Missouri, we have two or three different venues who are going to be having watch parties along with each one of the six games, so you’re going to see a ripple effect across Missouri and the Midwest, for that matter, on what’s happening in Kansas City.”

Jones: “You just touched on it, but so much of the focus is on, obviously, the economic impact and just the impact of the eyes being on Kansas City, but how can this affect, you know, Mid-Missouri and the whole state as a whole?”

Kehoe: “If you have a soccer field anywhere in your community, this is going to affect you. We’re going to see that even kids, small kids groups, high school age groups, etc. They’re all kind of playing off of the World Cup being here with different events and different kind of things to celebrate FIFA. In Jefferson City, there’s a brand new soccer complex here and they’re just absolutely excited about it. Columbia has a different soccer complexes, they’re excited about it. So, we’re going to see soccer, or as the international community calls it football, like we’ve never seen it before.”

Jones: “10 years down the line, when you’re looking at this, how would you gage this World Cup was a success in Missouri? How would you gage that?”

Kehoe: “Number one, that people are safe and that they had a good time. Number two is that we get some sort of effect from it later from the international community, especially in the economic development world. I think, again, this is our chance to showcase who we are.”

Jones: “Is this kind of a thing that maybe could lead into other avenues for hosting other things down the line? Is that something that you guys hope?”

Kehoe: “Oh, we’re definitely bidding on other things. One of the things that really helped us with this…was when we had the NFL Draft in Kansas City. So, sometimes those events lead to other events. Certainly, we’re hoping that FIFA will, as well. With the Women’s World Cup is coming up, Rugby World Cup is coming up, multiple different events that different parts of the state, including Kansas City, can host. This is a great spot for us to be known for, that we’re able to host large world scale events and everybody have a safe and enjoyable time.”

Jones: “What’s for you the single most important outcome of a whole for this World Cup in Kansas City? Is it just the benefits down the line, or what’s the single most important outcome for you?”

Kehoe: “Single most important outcome is definitely that people understand that we are a great community to be in and we are a great state to be in. You can have a safe time and a fun time and really just showcase what Kansas City and the Missouri region is all about to the world. I think this is an opportunity you don’t get too often, and we want to make sure we swing and hit it.”

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