Archives for August 2012

A northeast Missouri Amish man died after his horse and buggy was hit by a truck. The Highway Patrol says 42-year-old Chris Yoder of Canton died after the accident on U.S. 61 yesterday, when a utility truck tried to merge into an exit lane and hit the back end of the buggy. The horse also died in the accident.

The playground at Kirksville’s P.C. Mills Park is now open for use. Crews will be completing more dirt work around the playground area at P.C. Mills next week, but it should not interfere with the use of the playground. The renovations were funded in part by a grant from the Land Water Conservation Fund.

And .. the entire playground at Brashear Park has also now been re-opened. The equipment that was damaged in the June arson fire has been replaced.

The Dean of the new Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health at A.T. Still University has been appointed to the state’s Higher Education Student Loan Authority. Governor Nixon tapped Christopher Halliday to serve on the board for the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. Halliday’s term on the loan authority board will run thru October 22nd, 2013. He can begin serving immediately, but his appointment still needs to be confirmed by the Missouri Senate when lawmakers return to the Capitol.

When Macon’s 4th of July fireworks display was postponed because of the heat and high fire danger, the show was rescheduled for September 1st. Due to current weather conditions and the continued burn advisory, the Macon Chamber of Commerce now says the fireworks have been cancelled.

The NEMO Job Fair is set for mid-October. For businesses wanting to participate, now is the time to sign up.

The job fair is from 11am to 4pm on October 16th, at the NEMO fairgrounds. The event is co-sponsored by The Missouri Career Center, Kirksville Area Chamber of Commerce, K-REDI, the Division of Workforce Development and the Kirksville Employer Committee. a booth for business costs $30, and registration deadline is October 5th. Flyers and registration forms are available from the Chamber of Commerce.

Kirksville City Council members will formally set the tax rate property owners will pay next year, at a special meeting tomorrow.

A public comment session is scheduled before the meeting, which starts at 5pm tomorrow in the City Council chambers. The city budget for next year will take a small increase in the mill levy to support. Part of the reason the increase is only .6823 cents per $100 valuation is that the city’s taxable property value has increased since last year. As we’ve reported previously, personal property leads the value growth on a percentage basis, up 4.1 percent from last year to this year. Overall, the total valuation of property in Kirksville is 1.9 percent higher than in 2011. That equates to an increase of nearly 3-million dollars in total property valuation.

Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers report a fatality crash this weekend in Randolph county. It happened about 5pm Saturday on Route BB nearly five miles west of Route A. Troopers say 67-year old Richard Drew of Huntsville was riding a motorcycle westbound on Route BB and hit some ridges in the road, which caused him to lose control. That sent him into the eastbound lane where he was hit head-on by a 2005 Ford Escape driven by 34-year old Katherine Lucas of Huntsville. She and two children in the SUV were taken by ambulance to Moberly for treatment of minor injuries. Drew died at the scene.

A majestic bur oak in mid-Missouri survived the Civil War and floods, but this summer’s drought has taken a toll on the tree. One man is hauling hundreds of gallons of water in an effort to save it. . .

Landowner John Sam Williamson said that for the first time he can remember he had to haul water into the Missouri River bottoms last week for the massive oak tree that sits on his 1,000-acre farm. Williamson deposited two loads of about 850 gallons of water that soaked into the ground quickly. The U.S. Drought Monitor this week said more than 99 percent of Missouri is in one of the two worst drought categories. More than one-third of the state, including most of Boone County, is in an exceptional drought, the most severe category. The tree, which stands at least 90 feet tall, was estimated by the University of Missouri Forestry Club in the 1950s to be 300 years old, making the tree about 350 years old today. If the club’s estimate is accurate, the bur oak was already more than 100 years old when the Williamson family bought the land it stands on in 1835.

Authorities have charged a Kirksville woman who reported another woman had given birth and put the baby in the trash. According to court papers, Kelly Fuller, along with her teenage daughter, claimed a La Plata woman had either given birth, or had a miscarriage, then wrapped the baby in a trash bag and put it in a trash can in the front yard of her home in La Plata. Kirksville Police and Macon County investigators found out the La Plata woman had never been pregnant.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is helping pad the campaign account of Missouri gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence.

McDonnell, who is chairman of the Republican Governors Association, headlined a suburban St. Louis fundraiser Wednesday for Spence’s challenge of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. Spence campaign manager Jared Craighead says the event drew about 125 people and raised more than $150,000. Both the Republican and Democratic governors’ associations have been active in Missouri’s race. The national Republican group has given $1.75 million this summer to its Missouri affiliate. The national Democratic group gave $2.5 million to its Missouri affiliate earlier this year.