Category: kmiz-local-news

Olivia Hayes

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Jefferson City man filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday against a local senior care facility.

James Callison’s mother Mary Carter was admitted to Heisinger Bluffs Senior Living Community on Aug. 6, 2024, after being hospitalized from a fall while facing other medical diagnoses, like dementia, the petition says. She died May 2025.

Callison has accused Heisinger Bluffs Senior Rehab and Health Care Center, along with Green Tree Healthcare Management MO and HB Operations Holdco, of medical negligence, such as improper wound care, not ensuring employees were properly trained and not properly monitoring her food and water intake. It also makes allegations of violating the Missouri Omnibus Nursing Home Act.

Court filings say Carter was documented as “at-risk” and “high-risk” on the Braden Scale. The Braden Scale is the standard health are scale for predicting an individual’s risk for pressure injuries, like bed sores.

The lawsuit claims Heisinger Bluffs failed to develop or implement an effective pressure injury prevention care plan for Carter and did not monitor or document her skin integrity in a timely manner. The claims go onto say staff was not consistently turning or repositioning Carter in appropriately.

On Feb. 18, 2025, the petition says Callison first documented a Stage III pressure injury to Carter’s sacrum. Court documents note sometime around late April 2025, Carter’s pressure injury progressed from Stage III to Stage IV. Carter died not long after on May 10, 2025, at Heisinger Bluffs while under hospice care, with the Stage IV pressure injury still present.

The petition calls Carter’s pressure wound “avoidable” and said it caused her severe pain, anxiety, mental distress and put her at risk of an infection. Callisons claims the lack of proper care and neglect caused or contributed to her death.

Concerns were also raised around the training of Heisinger Bluffs’ staff. The lawsuit says the facility did not provide proper oversight and failed to properly discipline employees. Competency of the caregivers was also questioned in court documents.

Along with the allegations of poor medical treatment and unqualified staff, Callisons claims the facility also failed to provide proper nutritional and hydration support for Carter. Court documents state meals and fluids were not placed within reach and staff was not making sure Carter finished her food.

This is also listed as playing a role in Carter’s eventual death.

Callison is requesting a jury trial in the case. ABC 17 News reached out to Heisinger Bluffs for comment, a spokesperson for the facility said it would work to provide one after familiarizing themselves with the lawsuit.

Summons were issued for the defendants on Tuesday.

Heisinger Bluffs settled a different wrongful death lawsuit in May.

That lawsuit – which was filed in December 2023 by Bryan Tracy and the estate of Oma Tracy – accused the facility of wrongful death, lost chance of survival, negligence and violating the Missouri Omnibus Nursing Home Act. It was settled on May 13 and eventually dismissed on May 29.

Check back for updates.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

One City of Columbia landfill worker is in recovery Tuesday after he was seriously injured Monday in a machinery accident.

The worker who was seriously injured was operating a hydroseeder that was being pulled by a tractor when it fell into a large hole. The worker using the tractor also reportedly had some bruises following the incident.

 “We were really thankful when the fire department and EMS showed up  to lend a hand,” City Landfill Superintendent Adam White said. “We’re happy that the employee’s, recovering and getting the medical treatment that he needs.”

Crews were tending to a leachate seep, a leak in the side of a landfill that occurs when decomposing water becomes trapped in the landfill and seeps out. Ideally, water that collects inside of the landfill drains naturally through the dirt and trash and is collected at the bottom, where it is processed and put back into the water.

“Think of a layer cake: you have different sections of the layer cake and then you have the icing in between, those icing sections are the soil, we don’t want a layer cake,” White said. “We want that material to be continuous trash, no soil and our mix so that way that liquid has that free path to move vertically down.”

White said seeps are not common. When treating a leak, White said, crews dig out the area to get to the water, where it is either pumped out or a line is dug to drain it to the bottom of the landfill. Crews use the hydroseeder to spray the sides of the hole with an adhesive material to prevent trash from blowing away during the work.

“It was a combination of weight and angle,” city utilities spokesman Jason West said. “The tractor was backing down a slope, which redistributed the weight of the trailer. The pull of the trailer became too much for the tractor and it began to slide into the trench.”

White added the tractor is still operational and only had minor damage. The department is inspecting the hydroseeder which had the most damage, specifically around it’s motor. The hole is expected to be drained by the end of the day Tuesday and filled by Wednesday.

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Sutton Parker

COLUMBIA MO. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Water and Light Board on Tuesday recommended new utility rate increases to the City Council.

The board proposed a 6% rate that would apply to the usage portion of residents’ bills, meaning users will pay more for each unit of electricity that is used.

The new increase will not affect the flat base rate of $22.44, which will remain the same regardless of your monthly consumption.

Assistant Director of Electric Utility Gwen Corches said if approved, the new revenue will go to targeting system upgrades.

“The rate increase that’s being discussed right now is more focused around existing infrastructure needs, aging infrastructure, new projects that we’re facing, such as the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project, and just our cash reserve levels,” he said.

When it comes to the increase, Columbia Water and Board Member David Switzer said without the increase, it could put Columbia Utilities at risk.

“So to not commit to a 6% increase would mean that we would not meet our minimum financial obligation, putting our credit rating at risk, and we can’t do things like the other thing we proposed today, which is advanced metering infrastructure, which has all types of benefits for the community,” he said.

The proposed advanced metering infrastructure project is something officials say is long overdue and much needed for the city.

“I think it’s going to be one of the most transformative projects for the city of Columbia. It’s going to give so much agency to every resident and business to look at their bills, being able to see what’s driving their peak demands, what’s driving their cost,” Corches said.

The most-recent increases came in 2023 and was a 6.9% jump, followed by a 2% increase in 2025.

Switzer said that the longer increases are put off, the higher they will be down the line.

“People don’t like rate increases; rate increases are not fun and not enjoyable, but what is worse is when you put them off, and then you need massive, massive rate increases in the future,” he said.

He added that everywhere is experiencing electrical influxes.

“The reality is that the electric market in general is in a state of flux. This is what is minimally required for the financial future of the utility to be secured,” he said.  

Columbia Utilities recently completed an electric infrastructure resource plan that was designed to study the best ways to modernize the electric capacity needs for the city. Corches added with aging infrastructure and expiring power purchase agreements, the city is searching for the most cost-effective way to secure Columbia’s future energy capacity.

Corches said that when workshopping the plan, the city looked at sxi different scenarios.

“The last one is more realistic, it is probably the best one because it is a very diversified portfolio, so we will not have all of our eggs in one basket,” Corches said.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The budget to upgrade Boone County’s radio system could see a $1.13 million increase.

The county entered into an agreement last month with several local agencies in order to upgrade its radio system. Previous reporting shows the county had been looking n into upgrading its VHF system to an 800MHz system for nearly a decade, though talks heated up last fall.

Documents provided by the county show the commission may need to adjust its $8.17 million budget to $9.3 million as it got closer to finalizing contracts. Joint Communications Director Christie Davis told ABC 17 News in an email that the funding would come from the 911/Office of Emergency Management tax.

Davis said the projects are on schedule and equipment should be getting delivered this week, with the installation being completed by October.  

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man who was found guilty of murder last year in Monroe County has appealed the case.

Lyle Miller, 68, of Madison, Missouri, was found guilty by a jury on March 21, 2025, of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the December 2021 death of  Betty Hayes, 88.  Miller was arrested in July 2023.

Court documents in previous reporting claim a witness told law enforcement that they saw Miller driving quickly away from Madison the night Hayes went missing. Her remains were eventually found in a pond.

Miller is currently being held at South Central Correctional Center in Licking.

A notice of appeal was filed last year and it was accepted recently in the Eastern District Court of Missouri. It will be heard on Sept. 22.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The owner of a pit bull in Cole County has filed a lawsuit to prevent the county from euthanizing it.

Keith Nilges filed a lawsuit on Monday against Andrea Putnam, an animal control officer with the Cole County Sheriff’s Office. ABC 17 News reached out to the sheriff’s office and Sheriff John Wheeler said the department does not comment on potential litigation.

The petition says the family lives in rural Cole County and one of its dogs, a pit bull named Scooby, bit a deputy on June 27 when the deputy arrived to their property while the family was not home.

Court documents say the home and the dog were inside an electric fence and that signs around the area warn dogs are on the property.

The deputy was treated at an emergency room after Scooby bit their forearm, and the bite was determined to be a “Level 4 bite,” court documents say. The dog was impounded and eventually released back to the family on July 1, the petition says.

When the dog was being removed from the home, it allegedly had to be forced to leave the fenced in area “because he has been rigorously trained to adhere to that fence line,” the petition claims.

On July 2, the family received a letter signed by Putnam stating the dog was determined to be dangerous and was ordered to be euthanized within 10 days, court documents say. The petition says this was the third time the dog had bitten someone.

“The other two incidents referenced in Officer Putnam’s report involved individuals arriving at the property without advanced notice and approaching the property while neither Petitioner nor any family member were present,” court documents say.

A summons was issued for Putnam on Tuesday.

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Mitchell Kaminski

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Jefferson City has issued about 18% more parking tickets for expired meters through the first half of 2026 than it did during the same period last year, the first year the city has contracted with a private company to manage parking enforcement.

Records obtained by ABC 17 News show the city issued 4,674 expired meter citations between Jan. 6-June 30, compared with 3,963 during the same period in 2025. 

The increase comes after Jefferson City contracted with PCI Municipal Services LLC to provide parking management and enforcement beginning this year. The City Council also increased the fine for expired meters from $6 to $25 to help cover the cost of the contract.

“The City did contract with PCI to provide professional parking management and enforcement, and as the data reflects, there has been an increase in parking enforcement activity compared to the previous year under the City’s prior model,” city spokesperson Molly Bryan said in an email to ABC 17 News.

Ticket totals were higher early in the year before gradually declining each month. The city issued 998 expired meter tickets in January; 1,020 in February; 840 in March; 696 in April; 635 in May and 485 in June.

During the same months in 2025, the city issued 182 tickets in January; 639 in February; 1,110 in March; 889 in April; 546 in May and 597 in June.

ABC 17 News also requested records showing how much revenue the city or PCI has collected from parking citations this year. Bryan said those records are not immediately available.

The increase in enforcement comes as downtown parking has become a point of frustration for some residents following the demolition of the Madison Street parking garage to make way for the city’s new conference center. The garage’s closure, combined with higher parking rates and increased fines, has drawn criticism from some downtown visitors.

ABC 17 News spoke with a dozen people downtown Tuesday. Five said they were visiting Jefferson City and were unfamiliar with the parking changes. One couple said they do not live in the city, while another person said she uses public transportation and does not own a vehicle. Two others declined interviews but said they were unhappy with the combination of fewer parking options and higher parking costs.

Jefferson City resident Stephanie Gladbach, who has lived in the city since 2000, said finding parking downtown has become increasingly difficult.

“Parking downtown is terrible,” Gladbach said. “They took down the garage because of political nonsense that no one wants to deal with anymore. The current City Council seems determined to remove as many parking options as possible and increase parking rates.”

Gladbach said city leaders often point to the total number of parking spaces available downtown, but she believes many are too far from where people need to go.

“If you talk to anyone on the council about it, they say, ‘Oh, there’s 1,500 spots downtown,’ except downtown extends from Lafayette all the way to Highway 50. I’m not parking at Lafayette to go to the Truman Building. And I’m not parking at the Truman Building to go to the library, especially not when we’re in the middle of a heat wave and it’s 95 degrees outside,” she said.

While Gladbach said she understands why the city increased parking rates, she said she disagrees with the decision.

“I know we’re in a budget crisis and get all that, but it’s only hurting downtown businesses when it’s hard to park downtown. When rates are up downtown, you are harming the people whose livelihood depends on people coming downtown. You’re only going to hurt us in the long run, especially because downtown is one of our best spots to come see in Jeff City. You make it harder to be downtown. You’re only hurting everyone,” Gladbach said.

ABC 17 News has submitted a Sunshine Law request seeking records showing how much revenue the city has collected from parking citations since PCI began managing parking enforcement.

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Melissa Houston

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Jefferson City Council approved plans for the budget and construction of the new Jefferson City Conference Center during a special meeting Monday.

The conference center will be located in the “heart of Jefferson City,” according to Mayor Ron Fitzwater, on the corner of Madison Street and East Capitol Avenue.

Fitzwater said the council now has about 90 days to approve the needed documents.

Fitzwater said construction should pivot from tearing down the parking garage to building the $145.9 million conference center in October.

“We’re looking at the beginning of October to the middle of October for construction to start heading in the other direction instead of tearing down on that property, seeing something come out of the ground, and get ready for the facility,” Fitzwater said.

Fitzwater said the city will post updates throughout construction.

“It’s an exciting project. I think the community is really getting excited now that they’re starting to see some very positive movement,” Fitzwater said.

The city received a key piece of funding for the project when Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a budget last month that included $15 million for the conference center.

“We thank Governor Kehoe and the legislature and certainly our local legislative delegation for helping us to provide that funding,” Fitzwater said.

There is no exact date set for when this project will be completed, but Fitzwater said it is estimated to take 24 to 27 months and hopes the completion is done by the beginning of 2029 in time for the next legislative session.

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Matthew Sanders

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A contractor for Missouri American Water will close part of West High Street for an emergency repair.

The repairs are expected to take place until 5 p.m. Tuesday and again from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to a Jefferson City government news release. West High Street will be closed from Hamlin Street to Hart Street.

It is unknown when work will be completed, the city says.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Smithton man suffered serious injuries in a UTV crash in Morgan County on Monday night.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, an 82-year-old Smithton man was driving westbound on Route DD near Route KK southeast of Tipton in a 2016 John Deere XUV865R when the UTV went off the right side of the road and overturned.

The man was flown to University Hospital with serious injuries. The report states that the man was not wearing a seat belt.

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