Category: kmiz-local-news

Erika McGuire

CAMDEN COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Firefighters with the Northwest Fire Protection District responded to a natural cover fire that spread to a home Thursday.

At 11:32 a.m., firefighters were dispatched to Pine Cove Road in Edwards, Missouri, for a small natural cover fire in the backyard of a home.

Within 13 minutes of the initial call, firefighters arrived to find the home engulfed in flames.

Additional units were called to the scene to help battle the house fire and the surrounding natural cover fire.

Firefighters faced challenges due to the difficult terrain and the home’s location, making it harder to establish a water supply.

According to the Northwest Fire Protection District, the home was considered a total loss.

No injuries were reported.

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Steven Lambson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The city of Sedalia and the Missouri Ethics Commission agreed on a letter of concern related to Facebook posts made earlier in 2026, according to a filing on the MEC’s website.

According to the filing, the commission investigating a complaint about posts on the city’s official Facebook account which “contained language relative to the merits of mayoral candidates in the April 2026 municipal election.”

A city employee made the posts without approval, and the posts were not meant to be official statements from the city, according to the commission’s filing. It further said the city “promptly dealt with the situation and has since taken measures to strengthen the oversight of official communications.”

The commission filing cited state statutes that public funds are not to be used to support or advocate for or against any candidate for public office.

It finds that the city did violate state statutes, and as a result the letter of concern will remain as an open record and public document.

It was signed by Sedalia mayor Traves Williams, MEC executive director Stacey Heislen, and attorneys for each party.

Sedalia Letter of ConcernDownload

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

It has been a little more than two weeks since the Missouri Office of Administration launched the Show Me Your Age verification tool, and a Missouri-based dispensary is still considering different verification programs.

Users can access Show Me Your Age through the MOA’s website without creating an account. The site will prompt users to allow camera access to scan the barcode on the back of a driver’s license. Users can also input a person’s birthday to calculate someone’s age.

The state plans for the program to be used by retailers of adult products like alcohol and cannabis to reduce the number of illegal and underage purchases. They add that the program does not save ID data to the user’s phone or back to the state.

Missouri Petroleum & Convenience Association Executive Director Ron Leone told ABC 17 News that, because of the recent rollout, he’s unsure whether many retailers have adopted the technology.

Cannabis dispensary Shangri La is reviewing Show Me Your Age along with other verification software. The company currently uses the VeriScan platform, which also features facial scan technology.

“It’s identifying the visual to make sure you’re not borrowing my ID or vice versa, that it’s an actual person in the ID that’s checking in,” Shangri La Regional Manager Alec Orr said.

Orr added that accuracy is an important trait of verification software.

“If there’s any scanning issues, they get eliminated quickly, that’ll be something that’ll be impactful for us to change over if we take that route,” Orr said. “Consistency is a big thing that can work good for our customers as they walk into the door and have a good interaction.”

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ABC 17 News Team

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Week 10 of the Missouri high school football season kicked off on Friday night.

You can find scores from all of your Mid-Missouri teams below, as well as highlights in the video player above.

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Stephi Smith

MOBERLY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Some residents at Sherwood Glen Apartments are facing eviction after losing access to a federal rental assistance program.

Tenants at Sherwood Glen Apartments, located at 1000 S. William St. in Moberly, previously received rental assistance through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program designed to help lower-income households in rural communities afford housing.

The apartments were previously managed by Maco Management Co. Property manager Ivan Thomas said the complex was sold June 15, and the new owners hired HomeWise Properties, a Moberly-based rental property management company, to manage the apartments.

Thomas said the original USDA program was only available to the property’s original owners, meaning the new owners could not continue participating in it.

Thomas said USDA initially told HomeWise that residents would be able to receive replacement vouchers through a separate assistance program within 60 to 90 days.

But after about 90 days, Thomas said the USDA told the property owners that it had run out of funding and residents would have to wait for additional federal funding to become available.

ABC 17 reached out to the USDA for comment and has not yet received a response.

Thomas said HomeWise has encouraged residents to apply for a separate USDA voucher program. He said the property owners are also accepting reduced rent payments from residents who previously received assistance while they wait for their applications to be approved.

Thomas said management has accepted, on average, approximately one-third or less of the full rent from those tenants.

“Say the previous program was paying $900 and the tenant had to pay $76. Well, if they don’t pay $76, then we’re going to evict because you’re not even doing what … you were doing before,” Thomas said. “… The property owner is losing, you know, tens of thousands of dollars in an effort to give the USDA time to hopefully be funded.”

Thomas estimated the property owners are losing about $10,000 a month because of the reduced rent payments. He said the owners do not want to evict residents simply because the federal assistance program ended.

“We’ve opted to generally only evict those who have not contributed towards their rent amount the same as they were prior to the sale because the vouchers and the program only pay part of the rent,” Thomas said. 

HomeWise has filed 15 petitions for recovery of possession for nonpayment of rent this year, according to records on Case.net. The filings show amounts claimed ranging from approximately $1,000 to $5,000.

One resident said nearly all of their rent was previously covered through the USDA program. The resident said their monthly housing costs could increase to approximately $1,000 without the assistance.

This resident said they have concerns about eviction after receiving a court summons last month. 

Thomas said residents facing eviction generally have not paid their previous portion of the rent or have not completed applications for the replacement USDA voucher program. He said management has given residents nearly five months to complete the applications.

Also, Thomas said not all of those 15 petitions were related to the USDA funding. He said 

Thomas said one resident who had applied for the replacement voucher program and continued paying their portion of the rent is also facing eviction, but for a separate lease violation.

Two Sherwood Glen residents spoke with ABC 17 under the condition of anonymity, citing concerns about possible retaliation.

Thomas also confirmed that rents increased by approximately $20 following the sale of the property.

He said USDA assessed the property’s rental rates before the sale and determined that two-bedroom apartments could be rented for $998 a month and one-bedroom apartments for $898 a month.

Previously, two-bedroom apartments rented for $976 a month, while one-bedroom apartments rented for $876.

Thomas said the previous owners waited until after the sale to implement the increases. He said the new owners chose to keep rents at the amounts USDA had previously approved rather than raise them further.

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Demetra Alarcon

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Douglass Park basketball courts are now open after being under renovation since February 2025.

The court’s new design has each court highlighting an important part of the park’s history. Both courts are painted blue and gray; the west court includes “Douglass Bulldogs” on each baseline, while the east court includes “Moonlight Hoops – Est. 1989.”

Anthony Johnson, a Columbia resident who was vocal throughout the discussions about ensuring the park’s history was preserved through the new design, said it is empowering to have your voice heard.

“When the community feels so strong about something, and it’s sort of a unifying theme, it’s really empowering just to get everybody in the room on the same record,” Johnson said.

He added that he was grateful to have city staff who were open to feedback and willing to make adjustments.

The city had discussed changing the basketball courts since 2023. It was announced in 2023 that the courts would honor Willie Cox, a former assistant coach of the University of Missouri women’s basketball team who died in 2019.

Residents had voiced concerns about the design and name of the court. After holding community feedback meetings, a year later, the Columbia City Council approved the current design.

Johnson said the court holds symbolism for the community.

“A lot of times we don’t feel heard or felt. So if we come together and collaborate, we can be heard; you know, we do have power, we do have choices,” Johnson said.

He said that when he saw the original design, with the University of Missouri logo, it felt like a slap in the face.

“That’s not like an anti-Mizzou thing; it’s just the fact that there’s so much history here and then just, you know, branded as something completely,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he will continue to fight for improvements at Douglass Park.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A developer plans to build 300 new apartment units along with retail space on the property where the Katy Station currently sits in downtown Columbia.

DLR Group has submitted a letter and plans to City of Columbia staff for new zoning for two new apartment buildings that will hold the housing units with “ground floor amenity” and retail space. The letter states DLR, which is working on behalf of a company called Core Spaces, is in discussions with the Save Katy Station group, which hopes to move the current building.

Shiloh restaurant and bar occupies Katy Station.

Plans include 371 parking stalls, with building heights of about 70 feet.

LTR-20261028_Concept Review Meeting Request Letter_v1Download

City Development Services Manager Pat Zenner told ABC 17 News that a city staff concept review is planned for Nov. 10, and that the city government will have no comment until then.

Concept for new apartmentsDownload

A group of volunteers has formed to save the Katy Station building, which was once a railroad passenger depot for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The group has proposed two new locations for the building: Flat Branch Park or in front of the gateway to downtown.

Group leaders say it will cost more than $400,000 to move the building.

“The coalition is actively evaluating alternative locations along the Flat Branch corridor. Campaign leaders have conducted on-site feasibility walks with experienced building relocation specialists to assess potential sites and the logistics of moving the historic depot,” James Roark-Gruender with Save Katy Station wrote in a news release.

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Melissa Houston

KINGDOM CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Demolition on a pair of now-unused bridges at the Highway 54 exit on Interstate 70 will begin Friday night and last through the weekend.

The Highway 54 roundabout will be closed from 7 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday for demolition of the unused bridges that sit in the middle of the roundabout.

Missouri Department of Transportation Improve I-70 statewide director Eric Kopinski said the work will affect Interstate 70 traffic in both directions.

“We’ve tried to work around the major events for the lake season and Mizzou football and some of the other big trip generators,” Kopinski said. “But there’s never a good weekend to do that.”

The eastbound and westbound lanes of I-70 will be closed, and drivers will have to exit onto the access roads during the closure to go around the demolition.

“We expect the I-70, especially Saturday and Sunday during the day, the traffic delays and in extra travel time could be up to an hour,” Kopinski said.

Drivers who use the Highway 54 roundabout will have to find alternate ways to their destination. Kopinski said there are detours available for drivers, but the construction will still cause potential “adverse travel” for local traffic.

“This will be one of our more major impacts for the fall and for the rest of the year,” Kopinski said. “There are detours in place to get around, but it will take additional travel time throughout the weekend.”

The MoDOT website has available detour routes:

Eastbound 54 traffic will be detoured to eastbound I-70 to Callaway County Routes A/Z (Exit 155) to westbound I-70. Westbound 54 traffic will be detoured to westbound I-70 to Callaway County Route M (Exit 144) to eastbound I-70. All ramps at Route M/Hatton will be open for the duration of the demolition.

Kompinski said roughly 30 workers will be on site day and night. Because of the old bridges’ location, he said crews will have to work carefully and quickly to avoid damaging the new bridges.

“There’s a significant amount of work to do, and we do have two bridges that we’re demolishing really close to the existing bridge,” Kopinski said. “It’s a very careful, methodical process in order to remove these bridges that were originally built in the 1960s.”

When the initial I-70 project was started, Kopinski said MoDOT was unsure if the Highway 54 roundabout would get new bridges. The old bridges are at the end of their useful life, and the new bridges will serve Kingdom City for the next 70 years.

“We need to remove them in order to clean up the interchange and just complete the work in this area. But again, there’s never a perfect time to do this work,” Kopinski said.

Tom Crawford, the president and CEO of the Missouri Truckers Association, said that construction comes as a barrier to truckers, but the end result makes the hassle worth it

“Construction is kind of one of those necessary evils, you know, you’re looking forward to the the benefits of the construction,” Crawford said. “The the challenges is to get there, the temporary closures, the reroutes, all of those are definitely challenges for truckers who are trying to get what you’re ordering to your to your destination.”

The main concern with construction for truckers is the difficulty of stopping when having to shift from high speeds on interstates to immediate slowdowns on back roads.

“Trucks can’t stop on a dime, they can’t stop like cars at four wheelers and pickup trucks can,” Crawford said. “It’s very challenging in the environment we see, where folks are driving distracted that can really cause concerns.”

Crawford said that the business tries to hire professionals behind the wheel who are promoting safety, but he hopes that the rest of the motoring public is paying attention as well.

Each construction route is different, and for truckers and other motorists, being alert is an important step in keeping themselves and others safe.

“You’re being asked to drive a lower level, you know, a lower speed limit because the routes are aren’t the same, they aren’t the same with they’ve always been, they’re going to be tighter, they’re going to be narrower, they’re going to be curvier and perhaps bumpier,” Crawford said. “You have to be prepared for anything in this time of construction.”

Kopinski recommends that drivers stay alert through the construction and plan extra travel time.

“The big push for here in Kingdom City is the impacts during the day will be unexpected that we normally don’t see,” Kopinski said. “Our message to viewers is: please allow for that additional travel time, and please slow down in the area as crews try to safely do their job and get the work completed simply.”

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Camryn Payne

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Two men were injured, one seriously, after a crash Friday morning in Phelps County.

According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report, a 25-year-old Lebanon, Missouri, man drove a Ford Focus on Interstate 44 near mile marker 187.

The car was traveling eastbound in a westbound lane when it hit a semi-truck.

The man had serious injuries and was flown to University Hospital in Columbia. A 55-year-old Bristol, Wisconsin, man was driving the semi-truck and had minor injuries. He was taken to Phelps Health by ambulance.

The report says both men were wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

MSHP reports do not name those involved in crashes.

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