Category: knpn-local-news

News-Press NOW

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — The Drew Brown Art Gallery in Potter Hall at Missouri Western State University will host an exhibition of art by alumni and friends.

The School of Fine Arts and the Alumni Association are sponsoring an opening reception at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18.

Light refreshments will be served. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

The exhibition will feature work by Lori Wilson ’84, Larry Goldberg, former News-Press NOW Multimedia Journalist, Ashley Luthans ’24 and others.

The exhibition will be on display through Oct. 17.

The Drew Brown Art Gallery is located in front of Potter Hall. Regular hours at the gallery are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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Praji Ghosh

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — One local mom is already seeing the benefits of the free InspireU membership. 

Amanda Bowen, who has two kids, said the membership is an amazing opportunity for families — especially those who might not have been able to afford it otherwise.  

“The weather’s about to get cold, and so it’s another indoor activity that’s fun to take your kids and it’s educational,” Bowen. said.  

She said InspireU gives children a chance to explore, learn and even discover ways to give back to the community. It also keeps kids engaged with educational exhibits and prepares them for what’s ahead.

“When my kids found out about this, they were super excited and we were in the process of going to make a purchase because we go there on weekends, but now we can go whenever,” Bowen said.   

The goal behind the donation is to make sure more families can enjoy InspireU and to highlight how valuable education is for the entire community.  

Lowell Kruse, with the Mosaic Life Care Foundation, said their role was simply to make the idea happen.  

“Help is not on the way; that’s up to us to educate them, support them along the way. We’ve got a tremendous community willing to participate. All we need is to organize the stuff around them,” Kruse said.  

Organizers hope this gift encourages even more families to take advantage of InspireU and its opportunities for hands-on learning. 

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News-Press NOW

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — The Buchanan County Courthouse will be closed from Friday through Monday for a scheduled cutover to a new emergency generator system.

The court will be closed from 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 19, through the entire day on Monday, Sept. 22. Services will resume during regular business hours on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

There will be no jail visitations through Saturday, Sept. 20 and Monday, Sept. 22.

The Buchanan County Courthouse also houses the St. Joseph Municipal Court in its basement.

The Municipal Court will reopen at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23. Residents needing to pay fines or conduct other business with the court are asked to plan accordingly.

For more information, contact the Buchanan County Commissioners at Commission@buchco.gov or 816-271-1503.

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Payton Counts

ST. JOSEPH, Mo (News-Press NOW) — Over the next couple of weeks, St. Joseph will once again be bursting with the colors of autumn. 

Certain weather conditions are needed to make the colors of fall, such as yellow, red and orange, appear. Cooler days, sunshine and moderate rainfall help prevent leaves from turning dry and brown. 

Fall foliage usually peaks in mid-October, but the recent dry spell and hotter days could keep leaves from reaching their full color potential, and may cause trees to drop them early. The ideal temperature for color change is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Leaves changing colors during autumn are based on three different pigments that leaves contain. 

According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, chlorophyll gives leaves a basic green color and is a necessity for photosynthesis.

Timothy Wolfe, a forester at MDC, shared more about the process.

“Take milkweed, for example, you’re going to notice yellow and green leaves……this breakdown process of the chlorophyll essentially is allowing it to reveal the color change that you’re going to see in the fall,” he said.

Chlorophyll absorbs energy from sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into sugars and starches for trees. 

Carotenoids — which are always present in the leaf but are ‘hidden’ by the chlorophyll — provide yellows and oranges. They are the same pigments that turn carrots orange and daffodils yellow. 

The red and purple colors of fall are different; they form when sugars are produced during warm days and then trapped in leaves during cool nights. 

The trapped sugars change into anthocyanins, which appear as shades of red and purple. 

As northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas are currently in a D0 drought stage (abnormally dry), this could play a role in how leaves change in the weeks ahead.

Missouri Western State University professor of biology and plant science, Csengele Barta, states, “…it’s more likely that the change in the colors will be less gradual and it’s going to happen a little earlier.”

Meaning that the leaves could just turn brown and then fall to the ground.

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TaMya Bracy

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — In the fall, typically, there are more accidents, according to auto accident data from Carfax.

There are various reasons why crashes in the fall are on the rise, including deer, harvest season, diminishing daylight and other factors.

Sgt. Shane Hux, the public information education officer for Missouri Highway Patrol Troop H shares tips on what to do about deer.

“The deer runs out in front of you,” Hux said. “It’s very important not to swerve to miss that deer, because what we see happen a lot of times is somebody has swerved to miss a deer traveling off the roadway, striking a fixed object or overturning, so it becomes a lot worse than actually just striking the deer again.”

Hux also said the northwest Missouri harvest is underway, so there will be more slow-moving vehicles on the road.

“You never know where they’re coming out of field entrances off of gravel road, secondary roadways, Hux said. “That’s why it’s always important to obey all the traffic laws, devote 100% of your attention to driving at all times,” he said.

Hux said it’s important to utilize your headlights and not leave them on automatic during daylight savings time.

“When you come to work and just prepare for that, make sure all of the lighting in your vehicle is properly working and make sure your vehicles are in good mechanical condition,” he said

Hux reminds both vehicle drivers and passengers to always wear their seatbelts.

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Cameron Montemayor

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — St. Joseph Parks and Recreation is setting the stage for long-awaited improvements to Fairview Golf Course after years of obstacles for one of the earliest scheduled parks tax projects.

Contractors with TranSystems are currently mapping out a 3D model of the 102-year-old golf course in preparation for $1.5 million in improvements planned through the 2021 parks sales tax.

The project will see as many as three ponds dredged, along with renovations to pedestrian/cart bridges and upgrades to its sprinkler system to support long-term functionality, aesthetics and efficient water management.

“They’re shooting from a lot of elevations, so we can get a good, detailed map of the system through here. Part of that also is they’re doing a hydraulic study of not only what’s on the course but including the watershed that runs through here,” said Jeff Atkins, director of St. Joseph Parks and Recreation.

A watershed is a large geographic area where all surface and groundwater drains to a common outlet.

Located on more than 200 acres, Fairview Golf Course is one of the oldest in Northwest Missouri and the only city-owned course in town. It’s also dealt with ongoing challenges with heavily silted ponds and irrigation due to stormwater runoff that enters the course from the north.

“You can imagine during a storm event how much dirt, silt gets flushed through the system. And it’s running pretty good until it gets here to the golf course,” Atkins said.

The city had planned to spend about $1.25 million to address the situation in 2022 before new flood maps were released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, delaying the project.

Delays were further compounded when an outflow structure for one pond began to fail, impacting its ability to retain water properly and necessitating repairs in accordance with the U.S. Corps of Engineers, a multi-year process.

“With the repairs to our outflow structure. We’ve been able to reinforce that these were truly ponds and not wetland areas,” Atkins said. “We have now returned to the pond setting, so it’s just been a long, drawn-out process that we’re going through here.”

The course was initially one of the first in line for renovation after voters approved the parks sales tax in 2021.

Now, Kansas City-based company TranSystems has been contracted by the city to carry out an array of design services in advance of dredging and bridge work, including 3D modeling, a hydraulic analysis and assisting with environmental permitting with the Corps.

“That will let us know what levels of water we could expect to be coming through the course on a normal day… if we have a quarter inch of rain or one inch rain… that will help us determine how to properly size our ponds,” he said.

He said the ultimate goal is to design the ponds so they can retain water that can be used for the course’s irrigation system, reducing its dependence on city water.

“One of the ponds up at the north end of the course will be designed as kind of a silt collection pond. Hopefully most of that debris and silt will be caught where it’s easy for us to come in once or maybe twice a year and clean it out instead of having to possibly affect the entire pond system,” he said.

Until the official size of the ponds and depth of dredging is determined during the design process, the department will have to wait to confirm the scope of bridge renovations.

A completion date for the project has yet to be determined.

“We’re anxious to get through the planning stage and actually start seeing boots on the ground out here and start moving some dirt and get these ponds taken care of,” he said. “I know the golfers. They’ve been extremely patient with us over the last two or three years.”

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Carter Ostermiller

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — One local man is working to preserve a family legacy.

Francis James Talbot, who goes by Jim, his father, and their friend Joe McNary built the sign outside of St. Patrick’s church 60 years ago.

Talbot and his family have lived in St. Joseph their whole lives and have been a part of the church since he was just a boy.

As a boy, Talbot and his father would bond through the construction jobs. He recalled, his dad would bring him to project sites after he got out of school.

Now all grown up, Talbot had begun to notice the sign beginning to wear down and asked Father Davis, of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, if he could restore the sign with his friends, Dale Frankum and Brett Profits.

Father Davis let the group commence, and Talbot was emotional with the nostalgia.

“Means quite a bit. I kind of get a little emotional when I think about it,” said Talbot.

With his friends’ help, Talbot restored what his father once built, and their memories of bonding through construction live on.

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Nia Hinson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia welcomed home 70 area veterans Monday night after a day trip to Washington D.C.

Central Missouri Honor Flight’s embarked on its final flight Monday morning, a trip that gave veterans the opportunity to see memorials in Washington D.C. years after their service. 69 Vietnam veterans were on board the flight, as well as one Korean war veteran.

One of those veterans was Steve Achenbach, who served in the Vietnam War in 1970 and 1971, working in the air force as an aircraft mechanic.

“I had a wonderful day and then boy, to come in here like this, when we come off the bus and there’s 50 plus motorcycles and then be followed by state police and they stopped every car on every intersection, it was great,” Achenbach said.

Honor Flight asked the public to attend the veteran’s arrival Monday night at the Columbia Courtyard by Marriott, located at 3301 Lemone Industrial Dr. Hundreds of family members and first responders flocked to the area, holding American flags in their hands and posters.

Veterans arrived in buses around 9:30, escorted by around 50 motorcycles and were greeted by community members and several first responders.

Achenbach said the day was jam-packed, consisting of veterans getting to view the Vietnam wall, Korean War and World War II Memorial. He said he viewed the day as a chance for veterans to receive the respect they’ve earned.

He was influenced to go on the trip by his friend, Gregory Kam who attended flight 68.

Kam surprised four of his friends on Monday, greeting them at the Courtyard when they arrived. After his experience, he said he knew it was something other veterans should experience.

“You never forget it, never forget it at all. It’s a nice way to honor those who serve for you,” Kam said. “When I was in service going home every year, dressed in uniform, going to the airport, there was no Hi, nothing. It was like we weren’t there so this is good closure.”

Patricia Grimes and Michelle Wamble were one of the many family members who greeted their family member at the hotel on Monday. The two stood alongside 9 of their other family members.

“It was just amazing,” Grimes said. “My grandpa was in the Vietnam War so they didn’t get something like this and so it feels nice that after this many years, we can kind of repair that and give him back some of what he didn’t get before.”

Wamble became visibly emotional after reuniting with her father, crying as the two embraced.

“It’s a big healing process and I hope this has healed him. I don’t see my dad cry very often but I seen him in tears tonight so that’s awesome. I think he’s begun to heal,” Wamble said. “

Spokesperson for the group Shelley Becker told ABC 17 News via text message Monday afternoon that the buses were expected to arrive in Columbia around 10 p.m.

According to Becker, hundreds of motorcyclist were planning to stage at the Firefighters Memorial in Kingdom City ahead of the veterans’ arrival. Greeting and crowd announcements were also expected to be conducted when the buses arrived at the 174 mile-marker on Interstate 70 near Hermann and the buses slowed down near Kingdom City as they were escorted, Becker said.

“Tonight is all about these 70 veterans who have waited a long time to get closure,” Becker said.

Since launching flights in 2009, Central Missouri Honor Flight has taken nearly 5,600 veterans on flights to the nation’s capital.

Organizers told ABC 17 News on Sunday that a lack of applicants, as well as rising costs played a role in the organization deciding to stop the flights.

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Praji Ghosh

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — A St. Joseph woman said she’s fed up with thieves targeting her vehicles.  

Kim Spencer experienced the latest incident a few weeks ago when her husband’s Bible case was stolen right out of his truck, along with a few other sentimental items. 

Spencer said the items aren’t worth much, but are very important to her family. She’s calling for the items to be returned.

She also says this has been a hard lesson for her family and she wants others to take precautions.  

“We have one of those days where we forget to lock the truck or the jeep and then we go running outside because we forgot to clock the lock button again and realize our vehicle has been rifled through,” Spencer said.  

She says this is the fifth time in the past decade that something’s been stolen from their vehicles — but this time hits differently.  

“The bible and my kid’s backpack both were Potawatomi tribe. My father-in-law had the front of the bible case engraved with his favorite scripture on it during christmas a few years back,” Spencer said.  

Local law enforcement is also reminding people to take simple steps to protect themselves — like parking in well-lit areas, locking vehicles, and keeping valuables out of sight.  

“I think it is cyclic throughout the year and it just depends on when different groups are working but unfortunately they victimize hardworking citizens to take their property,” Bill Puett Sheriff said.  

Spencer urges neighbors to think twice before leaving anything valuable in their vehicles.  

“Definitely try to keep it locked, if you have an alarm for your car that would go off that would be awesome,” Spencer said.  

She is holding out hope that someone will come forward and return the items that mean so much to her family. 

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TaMya Bracy

ST. JOSEPH, Mo (News-Press NOW) — Second Harvest is partnering with local restaurants to combat hunger during Hunger Action Month.

From Sept. 16 through Sept. 18, any restaurant listed will contribute a portion of the day’s proceeds to Second Harvest Community Food Bank.

The funds raised will be turned into meals for families across Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas.

Mackenzie Bally, marketing manager for Second Harvest, shared the real goal of the fundraiser.

“There are about 41,000 people who are facing food insecurity,” Bally said. “And so the goal is kind of just to bring awareness to that need and support in any way you can and just really acknowledge that that’s going on.”

Hazel’s Coffee and Roasting Company is participating in the fundraiser all three days. Hazel’s will feature four menu items customers can purchase for the Dine Out Event. For each item purchased, Hazel’s will donate 20% of the proceeds back to Second Harvest.

Heather Mitchell, owner of Hazel’s, said this fundraiser is important to her because she always tries to have her business involved with the community.

“So this is a great way to be kind of centralized in the community where you’re still getting, you know,  something in return for your donation of supporting the campaign,” said Mitchell.

You can view the full list of restaurants participating on Second Harvest’s website.

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