Category: kmiz-local-news

Olivia Hayes

ROLLA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Six months after an EF-2 tornado swept through the city of Rolla, signs of the destruction remain.

Three Rolla Public Schools buildings, along with other RPS properties like the softball complex, were damaged in the storm.

“We took four days off right after the tornado, and then that second week was our scheduled spring break. We took those two weeks to move students around and find temporary classrooms so we could get back to in-seat learning,” said Gina Zervos, spokesperson for Rolla Public Schools.

The cafeteria of Mark Twain Elementary School was destroyed in the March tornado, along with windows in some classrooms. Those broken windows remain boarded up, but Zervos said that has not affected the district’s operations for the 2025-26 school year.

“We closed out the last eight weeks of the school year last year, and then returned with everyone in August in their home buildings, in their home classrooms,” Zervos said.

Even with a long journey still ahead, Zervos said rebuilding is going according to plan.

“Everything else is basically done. Wyman Elementary had a lot of roof work and some playground equipment that had to be replaced. The playground equipment has been ordered. It just needs to be installed,” Zervos said. “The middle school, which is across the street here, basically complete. We had to order 17 new HVAC units for the rooftop. The HVAC units, I’m told, are here and will be installed when it stops raining.”

Mark Twain Elementary still doesn’t have a fully operating cafeteria, but Zervos said they’ve adapted for now through a district-wide effort as that project gets underway. Food staff in other buildings prepare and bring meals to Mark Twain daily.

Zervos said the school will get a new kitchen and cafeteria in the rebuild.

Zervos said bid packets will go out this week.

“Long-range plans are classroom spaces,” Zervos said. “Once we learn a little bit more about pricing for that project, then we’ll be able to determine if we can build space, build something back here right now, or if that’s a project for down the road.”

A separate bid opportunity will also open this week for rebuilding the softball complex, according to Zervos.

Zervos said the district is estimating $10 million to $14 million in damages once rebuilding is finished. Insurance will reimburse the costs.

Immediately following the tornado, Zervos said the community rallied together, from providing trucks and chainsaws to food and monetary donations. She said the overwhelming support has continued through the last six months.

“Even over the summer when we were moving back into our permanent spaces, we had people show up willing to help and ready to offer their own personal and business equipment to make that move happen and make it work flawlessly,” Zervos said.

Zervos said the district hopes to have the finishing touches on Wyman Elementary and Rolla Middle School done in the next six weeks. The work at Mark Twain Elementary is estimated to take about 18 months. Zervos said the district is shooting for a December 2027 completion date.

Through it all, she says, school staff have remained resilient despite many ups and downs.

“Everyone has worked together so beautifully to make a safe, educational space for kids to be able to make sure that we stay in seat and that everyone has everything they need,” Zervos said.

Several neighborhoods in the community were also left with significant damage.

Brayden Monterroza, owner of Roza FSP LLC, said he is working on homes in need of repair from the tornado damage. He was working Wednesday on Frost Drive.

“It had been hit by a couple of trees that fell, and then the wind from the tornado ripped pieces off. I mean, it damaged the trim on the windows and different pieces of the siding all throughout the house,” Monterroza said of the house he was working on.

Monterroza detailed his experience working on one home that had its roof ripped off in the tornado.

“When it rained, it flooded a lot of the interior. So that house was gutted and we completely had redone the roofing, the siding, the whole interior,” Monterroza said.

Monterroza expects work from the tornado damage to continue for at least another year. He said the repairs could cost individuals thousands of dollars, depending on the damage.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Phelps Health will be hosting a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the start of construction for its emergency department expansion project.

The $60 million expansion will be 38,000 square feet, nearly doubling the size of the facility from 17,000 square feet. The goal of the expansion is to improve services for patients and their families.

The expanded Emergency Department will have new layouts featuring:

Additional exam rooms

Specialized areas for imaging, trauma and behavioral health

Larger waiting area

The facility will also feature upper floors that will serve as a flexible space for future growth, according to a press release from Phelps Health.

Attendees will hear from Phelps Health leaders and have the opportunity to review renderings of the new additions.

The groundbreaking will be held from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday at the East Entrance of the Phelps Health campus, located at 1000 West 14th Street in Rolla. Guests are asked to park in the Orange Lot.

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Matthew Sanders

Jimmy Kimmel was back on ABC on Tuesday night after missing just a few shows.

The network suspended Kimmel’s show last Wednesday after an uproar over comments he made about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Then on Monday, ABC said it was bringing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” back to air after conversations with Kimmel. In the meantime, much of the country was engaged in a debate over whether pressure from FCC Chair Brendan Carr led to the decision to suspend Kimmel and the implications that could have for free speech.

Do you think ABC made the right decision in the end? Let us know by voting in the poll.

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Nia Hinson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia City Council members support the idea of the city taking a trip to the west.

Columbia Police Department Asst. Chief Mark Fitzgerald told business owners during a meeting on Monday that CPD has been looking into the Lawrence, Kansas police department.

“They seem to be several years down the road on where we’re at, where there’s a college town…they’ve definitely been rich in resources,” Fitzgerald said.

Discussions come as the City of Columbia works to crack down on crime in the downtown area, after receiving complaints from business owners about violent crime and the homeless population. The last shooting that occurred downtown was on June 8. Since then, CPD has taken steps toward ramping up its enforcement of misdemeanors to help curb violence.

CPD is still looking to improve safety, and thinks Lawrence, Kansas, could be the answer.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Lawrence, Kansas’ population was 94,934 people in 2024. That’s slightly less than Columbia’s population, which sat at 130,900.

Police Chief Jill Schlude told ABC 17 News via email Tuesday afternoon that the discussions and possibility of visiting Lawrence came after she attended the Benchmark Cities meeting in May 2025 and spoke with a member of Lawrence PD’s Command Staff.

Schlude said that the conversation included what the city had been experiencing and how police were dealing with it.

Lawrence, Kansas, is also home to the University of Kansas. University of Missouri President Mun Choi urged city and university leaders, police and business leaders to take a trip to the city, emphasizing the importance of keeping the downtown area safe.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but let’s find out what they did so we can improve the situation in Columbia, a city that we all love,” Choi said.

Ward 3 Councilwoman Jacque Sample told ABC 17 News on Tuesday that she hadn’t heard about the idea of the city taking a trip to Lawrence, but supports any research and information the city can get.

“I think it’s a good investment to collaborate with what other cities have found successful and also what they have found to not work, which is equally important,” Sample said.

Ward 5 Councilman Don Waterman had also not heard of the proposed trip.

Waterman has attended one trip during his roughly two years on the council. He said a trip he took to North Carolina made him realize how beneficial trips can be for the city.

“There’s nothing wrong with gathering ideas and then seeing, okay, how can we either implement those or adapt those to Columbia,” Waterman said.

But it wasn’t just that trip that made Waterman see the trips’ benefits. He said a trip city leaders took to Madison, Wisconsin, two years ago for a leadership conference had positive effects. The city spent about $20,000 on the trip.

City leaders also spent more than double what they spent in 2023 during a two-day retreat to Camdenton in May of this year, according to previous reporting. The total cost of the trip to Camdenton was $42,606.85, according to records obtained by ABC 17 News.

Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe told ABC 17 News previously that the city had cut back on some of its travel budgets for the upcoming year. It isn’t clear how the city would pay for the trip if city leaders ultimately decide to go.

ABC 17 News reached out to Schlude for more information about the potential trip.

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Haley Swaino

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Neighborhood Opportunity and Community Accountability Proconsul will discuss bringing a community center to east Columbia at its monthly meeting Tuesday night, according to Office of Violence Prevention Administrator D’Markus Thomas-Brown.

He said real progress is happening through NOCAP.

“We’re not capping,” Thomas-Brown said. “Whereas [there have] been times in the past, things have been said, things were not carried out. This is not what we’re doing.”

The group was formed in May 2025 by the Office of Violence Prevention Advisory Board to bring needed resources to NOCAP-identified areas. The hope is that the resources and new opportunities in the community will help address the root causes of, and ultimately minimize, violence.

After tracking 911 call patterns and using an overlay with stressor mapping to look at factors like income and access to fresh fruits and vegetables, east Columbia was identified as a NOCAP area.

Thomas-Brown said the “near east” is vast.

“We have residents from the Indian Hills area. We have residents from the Lake of the Woods roundabout areas. We have residents from the Merritt area. We have residents from El Chaparral area. So really it’s that near east corridor, if you will.” Thomas-Brown said. “We have residents from Hanover Village who are there and apart. And so hence we are able to use the Hanover Village.”

To help those in the community heal from past violence and break from cycles of violence, Thomas-Brown said it’s important that people who actually live in the community are a part of NOCAP’s conversations.

“Those who are closest to the problems are closest to the solutions, but lack the resources and the recognition,” Thomas-Brown said. “There are things going on that are unsafe, that are there [east Columbia] and inequitable, that are driving to root causes that would cause violence or anything else, for that matter, that limit flourishing and wellness. As neighbors, as residents that live there, they have the ability to hold those things accountable.”

He said NOCAP meetings don’t necessarily have an agenda; rather, they are more of a guided conversation for those living there.

“It’s their neighborhood, right? It’s their comfort zone. It’s their comfort level. It’s what they desire,” Thomas-Brown said. “I will bring resources in and those that I work with. From a city perspective and from a resource perspective, they can come and amplify your voices, but I’m not going to be the one drawing people to the meeting.”

About a dozen residents regularly attend the monthly meetings, alongside city leaders and local nonprofits like the Powerhouse Community Development Corporation. Two Columbia Public Schools students attend to help bring a youth perspective, something Thomas-Brown said is highly encouraged.

“We have moms who have kids who have lost kids to cycles of violence,” Thomas-Brown said. “And I mean not just gun violence. Cycles of violence could be substance use disorder. We have an overdose, right? That’s violence.”

Bringing a community center to the neighborhood is something adult attendees have been pushing for. Thomas-Brown said east of Highway 63 and north of Interstate 70, youth don’t have anything like that.

“They dream of what it would look like. And there’s a lot of green space, just healing gardens and stuff like that,” Thomas-Brown said. “Resources, access, design. What would it be planned for? What would be in the community center? So all those discussions are going on in real time.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, NOCAP will also discuss when it plans to hold its mental health training sessions. The Columbia City Council approved a $21,000 contract for it last week.

To get involved with NOCAP, people can contact Thomas-Brown. His information is available on the city’s website.

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Nia Hinson

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been corrected to say Casa Maria’s license was suspended and fix the date of a hearing.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Nearly two dozen Missouri businesses have had their liquor licenses revoked over the past five years, with more than a fifth of those located in Boone County.

The latest was Spring Creek Liquor.

The Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control revoked Spring Creek Liquor and Convenience Store’s license in August, accusing the southwest Columbia store of violations including providing false answers on its application.

According to records from the agency, several businesses across Missouri have had their state license revoked or have at least been given a warning over the last five years.

Records show 23 businesses have had their liquor license revoked over the last five years. Five of those were businesses in Boone County.

“Some of these cases originated in 2019, but because of appeals, the actual disciplinary actions for those were not finalized until 2020 and 2022,” Missouri Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O’Connell wrote in an email.

Revocations in Columbia include Dash Convenience Store and Spring Creek Liquor. Records also show a nightclub located on Business Loop 70, Plush Lounge, had its license revoked in April 2024. The state alleged the business was open on a Sunday, failed to cooperate with law enforcement and Alcohol and Tobacco Control during an investigation and failed to report a change of fact.

The business was demolished in April 2024 after a fire broke out the month prior, destroying it.

Casa Maria’s– a restaurant located on the south side of Columbia– had its license suspended in May 2024 for 52 days. Alcohol and Tobacco Control claimed a name was forged on the liquor license application and that a felony charge involving its owner was not disclosed.

A Jefferson City business lost its state license in September 2020. The Kraken Bar and Grill — owned by Dane Investments LLC — was accused of improper acts and immoral character.

Dugout Bar and Grill in Mexico also lost its license in November 2021, following claims of immoral character from the state, records show.

ABC 17 News looks at what records revealed about why Spring Creek’s license was revoked on Wednesday at 10 on KMIZ.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Mizzou Greek Alliance set a goal to educate the public on the recently enacted “Danny’s Law” during this school year.

In a press release Tuesday, MGA presented its goals for the year. The goals include gaining 501©(3) status to offer tax deductions for donors, promoting Greek housing in the Columbia area and continuing their practice of providing training and education programs on hazing and Danny’s Law to University of Missouri campus fraternity officers.

Under the law, students who are the first to call 911 in a hazing-related emergency can be granted immunity from prosecution. The same immunity also applies to those who provide aid at the scene, including administering CPR or other forms of assistance.

“We’ve learned over the years from the data that’s available, is that many people who are harmed in hazing incidents could have been saved if someone had gotten help for them sooner,” MGA President Bob Selsor said. “We’re hoping that we’ve changed that dynamic.”

The law is named after Danny Santulli, a former MU student who suffered life-altering injuries during a fraternity hazing event in 2021. Supporters of the legislation say it fills the gap in existing hazing legislation, focusing on action in the moment instead of prevention or victim support after an incident.

“It’s widely believed that had people had called for help when it was clear that he was in big trouble, if they had called 911, when they should have placed that call, Danny would probably be fine today,” David Bianchi, an attorney representing the Santulli family, said.

Selsor said that along with general hazing information, seminars will also be held to inform students of how Danny’s Law works. The MGA press release also states that hundreds of informational posters on Danny’s Law have been handed out to Greek Houses across campus. MGA also plans to bring a consultant to campus to help train fraternity officers on the dangers of hazing.

“When a new crop of officers were elected among the fraternities at the university, we spent a great deal of time trying to educate them about the risks that are associated with the beginning of school,” Selsor said.

Selsor adds that this education also includes preparing members on how to address upperclassmen who may be hazing new members.

“There are risks associated with the beginning of school,” Selsor said. “The bars in Columbia just routinely allow underage students with fake IDs to get in, and some of these kids who are new to campus are simply not prepared for that.”

In a statement from MU spokesperson Christopher Ave, the university has had a focus on hazing prevention, publishing hazing reports since 2018 and recently releasing a “Prevent Hazing” school page where students can find resources to learn about hazing and a form to report hazing.

Ave adds that since 2022, students have been asked to take an online course on identifying and preventing hazing.

Ave also said that Mizzou’s Healthy Community Coalition prioritizes hazing prevention, with the group recently hosting a program for Mizzou Housing staff and leaders in Fraternity and Sorority Life that addresses bystander behavior.

Bianchi agrees that the more information, the better; however, current prevention strategies only go so far.

“I’ve been in a room of hundreds and hundreds of fraternity and sorority members, they’re there because they’ve been ordered to be there,” Bianchi said. “You just have to force-feed it to them and you have to scare them straight and the universities have to be tough, and historically, they have not been tough enough.”

Bianchi adds that some solutions include universities cracking down harder on perpetrators of hazing by having a more zero-tolerance approach.

The universities need to act swiftly, they need to expel everybody involved with no second chances and no excuses,” Bianchi said. “The frat guys know it, so therefore, they’re not that scared by all of this, it’s time to scare them.”

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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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