Category: kmiz-local-news

Erika McGuire

BOONE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Construction on the new Boone County Fire Protection District Station 8 is complete.

Work on Station 8, located on Route K in southern Boone County, began late last year. It is expected to be fully operating by Nov. 1, according to Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp.

The new 13,000 square foot station replaces the current station, built in 1981, and sits directly next to the existing building. It offers several major upgrades to better serve both firefighters and the community.

The new building has a built-in training tower, a training room, workout space, a larger kitchen and six resident rooms.

Station 8 offers a total of four bays that are bigger compared to three bays at the current station.

“All of the bays at 60 feet wide or 60 feet deep, so they’ll all drive through bays, so when they come back from a call or when they go to a call, they’ll go out the front of the station, take a right or left on the truck but when they come back, they’ll drive all the way around,” Blomenkamp said. “They can actually just drive through here so we don’t have to back in and out of the station which makes it just safe and less room for error.”

Firefighter and EMT Ryan Renoe has been a firefighter with the fire protection district for over a year. He says the bigger bays are a great addition.

“We have to pull through the bays now that’s amazing,” Renoe said. “It’s pretty crammed in there right now, we know we’re all trained to know how to drive the trucks but it’ll be nice to not have to back them in just to go around and not have to worry about that,”

The training tower, is the first to be onsite at a Boone County fire station, Blomenkamp said. It is two-stories and allows firefighters to practice hose movements, standpipes and scape windows.

“We have a manhole so we can do tripod work, bringing people up through a manhole, simulate somebody going through a floor and trying to rescue them with a fire hose,” Blomenkamp said. “We can simulate it with smoke and we can actually use that for training.”

For Renoe, having the onsite training tower is the best way to improve skills.

“I think you can never train enough, especially in being a first responder, you’re always learning something, so just the ability to be able to say, ‘hey let’s do on the spot training, let’s prove our skills,’ it’s invaluable to have that ability and access to do that just to get better,” Renoe said.

The new resident rooms offer a hotel-like feel with more privacy compared to the current station. Firefighters who live at the station now live in a dorm style, with multiple people in one room.

Fire Station 8 currently offers a washer and dryer for firefighters to wash their gear but is located in the bays. The new station features a closed-off area to wash gear, as they can contain harmful chemicals that have been linked to cancer.

“So the way it’s set up, there’s a shower in there, we can clean out gear in one section. Keep that dirty gear over on that side of the bay,” Renoe said. “Then all our clean gear goes in that separate room and that’s keeping it compartmentalized and hopefully limiting you know of exposure that we as residents or other firefighters in the station have.”

The total cost of the project was approximately $4.7 million, staying under the $5 million budget approved through a 2023 bond issue. That includes about $500,000 in “soft costs” like appliances and furniture.

A decision has not yet been made regarding the future of the existing building, according to Blomenkamp.

Last year, Fire Station 8 responded to 579 calls of service.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The number of visitors to the 2025 Missouri State Fair was more than 15,000 fewer than the year before.

The fair announced Monday that more than 329,000 people attended this year’s fair in Sedalia. That’s compared to more than 345,000 in attendance last year.

The fair, which takes place in Sedalia each year, included more than 28,000 total entries this year, with more than 15,000 animals.

Fair Director Jason Moore noted in a news release that heat indexes topped 100 degrees for several days of the fair.

The 2026 fair is scheduled to run from Aug. 13 to 23.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Prosecutors charged a Rolla man Tuesday with driving drunk and getting in a deadly crash in Maries County.

Curtis A. Meyer is charged with DWI causing death, DWI with serious injury, driving on the wrong side of the road, driving without insurance and driving without a license plate, according to online court records.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Paul Volkmer wrote in a probable cause statement that he was called Monday evening to a crash on Highway 63 where a Dodge pickup had crossed the center line and hit a Ford F-150.

A passenger in the F-150 was declared dead at the scene, and one person was taken to a hospital for serious injuries. A Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report says a 65-year-old woman from Vichy was killed in the crash.

Authorities have not released the name of the woman who was killed.

Meyer, the driver of the white Dodge, was conscious and smelled like liquor, Volkmer wrote. Meyer admitted to drinking but refused a breath test, according to the statement.

Meyer was in the Maries County Jail on Tuesday morning. Information related to the conditions of the surviving victims was not available.

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Matthew Sanders

The Tigers are undefeated heading into Homecoming.

No. 20 Missouri is set to host UMass on Faurot Field for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz and players made themselves available for questions at noon Tuesday. Watch it in the media player.

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Olivia Hayes

MORGAN COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

An Eldon man was charged Tuesday with murder after a woman shot outside an office building in Morgan County was declared dead.

Robert J. Anselmo was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of Johnetta Yeager. Yeager was pronounced dead at University Hospital on Monday afternoon, according to a probable cause statement. She had been found shot that morning outside a USDA office building in Versailles.

Police found a small SUV in the parking lot with the driver’s door open and Yeager, positioned as if she was getting out of the vehicle when she was shot, according to the probable cause statement.

Robert J. Anselmo (Morgan County Sheriff’s Office)

On Monday, Versailles police said in a news release that they found an unconscious woman with a head wound when they responded to a shooting at about 7:30 a.m. in the 100 block of South Burke Street.

A witness said Yeager had been sitting in her vehicle with the door open when a gunshot rang out, the statement says. The suspect then ran south on Burke Street.

Investigators found surveillance footage that linked Anselmo’s vehicle to the scene, the statement says. Yeager had sought a protection order against Anselmo, her former romantic partner, and was in a civil suit against him, police say.

Prosecutor Dustin G. Dunklee stated in a release that the suspect was arrested in Miller County at about 6 p.m. on Monday.

Dunklee said his office and the Versailles Police Department will not release any further details.

Anselmo was in the Morgan County Jail on Tuesday afternoon. Dunklee recommended he remain jailed without bond.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations on Tuesday for the first time during his second presidential term.

Watch his remarks in the media player.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Governor Mike Kehoe will be awarding Missouri’s highest public safety honors Tuesday to a select few responders and people for their heroic acts made in 2024, including some first responders from Mid-Missouri.

According to a press release, the awards include:

15 Missouri Medals of Valor for exceptional courage and heroism in an attempt to protect or save human life.

13 Governor’s Medals for heroic acts performed by a team of first responders.

Four Red, White and Blue Heart Awards for first responders seriously or fatally injured in the line of duty (the Red, White and Blue Heart awards will be bestowed posthumously).

Six Public Safety Civilian Partnership Awards for civilians who provided valuable or courageous assistance to first responders or the public.

Kehoe will give a Red, White and Blue Heart Award to Assistant Chief Matt Tobben of the Boone County Fire Protection District. Tobben was killed when her was operating a boat while rescuing two people from a flash flood in Bear Creek in Columbia last July.

Two Callaway County deputies will be awarded the Medal of Valor. Sergeant Justin Bax and Corporal Gardner Pottorff were shot during a traffic stop last October. Both deputies exchanged gunfire with the suspects before the suspect was shot by the deputies.

Former Chief Lana Karhoff from the North Callaway Fire Protection District will also receive the Medal of Valor. Karhoff responded to an active shooting scene and personally transported a wounded deputy sheriff to immediate medical attention in order to save his life.

Governor Kehoe will be joined by Public Safety Director Mark James to award the medals at the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s law enforcement training academy gymnasium at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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Matthew Sanders

The buzz is starting to build around this year’s football Tigers.

Mizzou stayed undefeated after its SEC opener Saturday, downing South Carolina 29-20. The win also moved them up a couple of spots in the Top 25.

Quarterback Beau Pribula and running back Ahmad Hardy have already drawn a lot of attention from college football aficionados. But the toughest tests are yet to come — Mizzou has a bye week following the homecoming game against UMass, then SEC play resumes.

Do you think these Tigers can land a spot in the College Football Playoff? Let us know by voting in the poll.

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Nia Hinson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Downtown Columbia businesses are experiencing issues and are asking for the city’s help to solve them.

“It’s a very frustrating time for a lot of the businesses,” Executive Director of The District Nickie Davis said. “We have seemingly a rotation of of people in different stages of crisis sometimes coming into businesses or being out on the sidewalks, and our businesses not really knowing what to do with that and feeling like they’re on the front lines and nobody behind them.”

To help address that, a group of city leaders and downtown business owners gathered Monday afternoon at The Blue Note to discuss resources available in the city. Leaders from the Columbia Police Department, Columbia’s city manager, Office of Violence Prevention leader, Boone County’s prosecutor office and Burrell and local shelter leaders all attended the meeting.

Davis said most of the problems businesses are experiencing are feelings of discomfort. She said she hoped the meeting will help everyone in the city be on the same page.

“It seems like a lot of us are doing amazing things but not necessarily in the same circle, talking in the same circle so that we can build upon what each of us are doing,” Davis said.

The meeting consisted of a group of city leaders sitting at a table, discussing what resources they have available that could potentially help frustrated business owners. One of the sessions included during the two-hour discussion included a portion from CPD on how owners can work to deescalate situations, or what to do when they encounter someone who may turn violent.

Assistant Chief Mark Fitzgerald provided tips including:

Presenting options, not ultimatums;

Being mindful of your body language;

Create store policies;

Be consistent when enforcing policies.

Police Chief Jill Schlude also urged businesses to be mindful of the lighting around their businesses.

City Manager De’Carlon Seewood said the city works hard to ensure people feel safe, and viewed Monday’s meeting as a time to show people the things the city is doing to do so.

“We created the hot team (Homeless Outreach Team.) We created the divert program. We created programs to help address those issues so that we can be quick to respond to the needs of our residents,” Seewood said.

Some business owners, like Keisha Edwards who owns 50 Yard Line Sports Bar and Grill downtown said the meeting was a good first step, but said there’s still work to do to address what she called a “growth issue.”

“Most of the businesses that came here wanted to be heard. You cannot sit here for two hours and listen to what the city thinks the issues are,” Edwards said. “I think this is more of a growth issue. What the business owners in the downtown area see is overpopulation. We have way more student housing. We have way more of a homeless population and I think that because of this first meeting, it opened the eyes of the business owners in Columbia to be more vocal with the city about some solutions.”

Fitzgerald told ABC 17 News that he believes the biggest areas of concern for business owners currently is the homeless population and the amount of violent crime seen downtown during the past 18-24 months.

According to Fitzgerald, there have been 11 shootings downtown since March 2024. Eight of those shootings occurred between 1:30-4 a.m. The last reported shooting downtown happened on June 8.

“I think everybody’s kind of pretty aware that the Columbia Police Department is aggressively trying to enforce the misdemeanor crimes that are preceding some of those violent encounters and I think that we’ve put a giant lever on that over the last four or five months,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve put another lever on the conflicts between the business and the unhoused community. There’s still room to improve and a lot of that has to do with the capacity from the police department.

Fitzgerald said CPD is still understaffed, but is chipping away.

Sixteen people started the police academy on Sept. 2 and another eight or nine are in field training. According to Chief Jill Schlude, the department currently has five vacancies.

Fitzgerald said CPD is having discussions about bringing back its downtown unit.

Fitzgerald also mentioned to business owners the possibility of exploring the city of Lawrence, Kansas, to see what works for them. President of the University of Missouri Mun Choi pushed leaders to take a trip to the area.

“Let’s find out what they did so we can improve the situation in Columbia, a city that we all love,” Choi said.

That’s something Davis said she hopes the city continues.

“There’s a lot of other cities doing really cool, exciting things and it seems like they’re (The City of Columbia) starting to do that, going to look at other cities of what they’re doing, their policies, their ordinances so I hope they take a lot away from that,” Davis said.

According to Davis, the city still has grant money left for businesses that want outdoor cameras.

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Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

During a town hall in Harrisburg on Aug. 27, Troy Douglass went to the microphone to address Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO). 

Douglass — a lifelong farmer with farms in Boone, Howard and Randolph counties — was concerned about the future of his business. Missouri ranks seventh in the U.S in soybean production with more than 22,000 farms across the state, the sixth highest in the nation. 

On April 2, President Donald Trump levied a 34% tariff on all Chinese goods. Two days later, China responded with a retaliatory tariff on all US imports. 

The retaliatory tariffs have placed U.S soybean farmers at a 20% disadvantage compared to South American competitors. As a result, China has begun buying soybeans from Brazil, which shipped nearly 16 million tons of soybeans to China in March, its largest monthly volume ever. 

But with the U.S. harvest season approaching, China, once America’s top soybean customer, hasn’t placed a single order.

“This tariff deal really affects my world. I feel like you’re skirting the issue of China. They are the number one buyer of soybeans, number three buyer of corn,” Douglass said at the time. “Trump says two weeks ago he wants to triple China’s buying of soybeans. Well, zero times three is still zero.” 

But that wasn’t the only issue Douglass was concerned about. Tariffs from Trump’s “liberation day” have driven up the cost of fertilizer and farm materials. Douglass argued that most of the fertilizer he purchased comes from Canada, with some of it coming from Russia. However in the last year prices have doubled. 

Douglass pointed to the cost of anhydrous, which is used to help improve nutrients in soil. 

“Usually, you can buy your anhydrous in the fall for about $450 to $650 in the fall. It’s not even fall and it’s $650 today,” Douglass said at the time. “It takes about $850 to plant an acre of soybeans if you do it right. The tariff affects the farmer both ways. You can call it a revenue stream.  You can say that it is passed on or the companies eat it, I’m telling you, fertilizer, chemical, seed, all that stuff is manufactured and grown,  most of it overseas.”

Douglass later added that many tractor suppliers are struggling to buy parts.

Douglass is facing an issue that many farmers across the country are facing. On Aug. 19, Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association, sent a letter to Trump warning U.S soybean farmers were standing at a “trade and financial precipice.”

“Soybean farmers are under extreme financial stress. Prices continue to drop, and at the same time, our farmers are paying significantly more for inputs and equipment. U.S. soybean farmers cannot survive a prolonged trade dispute with our largest customer,” Ragland wrote. 

The issue isn’t new. During the 2018 U.S.–China trade war, American farmers lost an estimated $9.4 billion, according to the USDA.

In Missouri, the concerns come as soybean yield forecasts are projected to drop. A September report from the University of Missouri projects yields averaging 3-to-6 bushels per acre lower than the previous estimate.

According to MU Extension soybean agronomy specialist Andre Reis, this comes despite expecting higher yields than normal early in the growing season. 

“We were expecting to have higher yields than normal. But then in August, August was the second-driest year in Missouri since we started to record weather data,” Reis said. “During August and in early September,  this is the phase when soybeans are  using  the maximum  amount of water per day, the maximum demand and we didn’t have rains, so the drought affected  the soybean crop.” 

According to Reis, two components that decide what the soybean yield will be are the number of seeds per area and seed size. The size of the seeds is usually determined in August. Due to the lack of rains, Reis believes the yields will be lower this year than the historical average. 

“We can all agree that the price commodity is not great at this point. And part of it is because of the trade war with other countries,” Reis explained. “And then when we have the perspective of not having enough yield,   that really puts the farmers in a difficult situation to invest or prepare themselves for the next season. So it’s very hard to tell what’s going to be the impact for the next two seasons. At this point, there is no  clarity  if there will be any impact,  but  it’s going to be  a perfect storm brewing.”

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