News Staff

The City of Kirksville invites you to celebrate Historic Preservation Month with a Historic Site Tour at 5:30 pm on May 27. Mayor Zac Burden will lead this tour of seven properties proposed to become local Historic Landmarks, providing historical information on each building. The tour will start in front of Pagliai’s. We encourage residents to park downtown because five sites are walkable from there, but two of them, the former Willard School and Rieger Armory, will need to be driven to.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control (DDCC) announces the arrest of Brody C. Lewis, 26, of Tina, Missouri. Lewis, a former Macon County Sheriff’s Deputy, was arrested on May 6, 2025, in connection with a domestic assault investigation conducted by the Troop B Criminal Investigative Unit. On May 6, 2025, allegations of domestic assault against Lewis were reported to the Macon County Sheriff’s Office. Macon County Sheriff subsequently requested DDCC investigate the allegations. Investigators with the Patrol learned that a woman had reported that she was assaulted by Lewis. After further investigation, DDCC investigators arrested Lewis on May 6, 2025. The Macon County Prosecuting Attorney charged Lewis with three counts of Domestic Assault and one felony count of Unlawful Use of a Weapon on May 7, 2025. He was transported to the Randolph County Jail and is being held without bond.

Here’s a friendly reminder from the City of Kirksville to have your trash and recycling totes curbisde by 6:00 am on your collection day. Doing so helps ensure your trash and recycling get collected.

The bridge rehabilitation project to make essential structural repairs on the Interstate 72/U.S. 36 Mark Twain Memorial Bridge near Hannibal is scheduled to begin on May 12. At that time, traffic will be reduced to one lane on eastbound and westbound I-72/U.S. 36 over the bridge, with a 12-foot width restriction in place. On May 30, the bridge will close for up to 30 days, as the repairs at that stage cannot be completed under traffic. MoDOT has issued an emergency contract and is working with the contractor to make these repairs as quickly as possible, including incentives should the crews restore one lane of traffic in each direction earlier than 25 days.

Truman State University says Kirksville will be the site of the 2025 Special Olympics Missouri State Summer Games, May 30th to June 1st! Volunteers are needed to make the games a special event for athletes, families and spectators. There are more than 300 opportunities available during the event. Volunteers are a crucial component of making the games a special event for athletes, families and spectators. There are more than 300 volunteer opportunities available during the event, from help at the athletic competitions to many of the support efforts. In addition to assistance for swimming, track and field, and powerlifting, volunteers will be needed for the opening ceremony, the Healthy Athletes stations, move in, bingo, crafts, photography and more. Individuals and organizations can sign up for multiple volunteer opportunities as long as there is no time conflict between events. A complete list of volunteer needs can be found online.

Starting today, students at Ray Miller Elementary in Kirksville will be dismissed via the new KidAccount system they are piloting. When arriving for parent pickup, parents/guardians will have their cards scanned as a check-in and the adult who is picking them up will be selected through our portal by dismissal staff. You will also be expected to show your ID to confirm your name. Students will be notified via staff members that their ride has arrived and will be sent to line up with our staff organizer. Once students are present, they will be directed and loaded into their vehicle and dismissed through KidAccount. This system will ensure that students are picked up by authorized adults and that we have an accurate record of student dismissal.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol would like to remind the public that driver examination stations throughout the state will be closed on the following dates:
Thursday, May 8, 2025, in observance of Harry S. Truman’s birthday. Normal operations will resume on Friday, May 9, 2025.
Monday, May 26, 2025, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal operations will resume on Tuesday, May 27, 2025.

A bridge replacement project on the Nodaway County Route NN Bridge over Platte River is scheduled to begin Monday, May 5. Louis-Company, LLC, working with the Missouri Department of Transportation, expects to complete the project and reopen Route NN at the bridge by October 2025. Following a routine inspection in August 2024, crews from MoDOT closed the bridge due to deterioration.

MoDot says weather permitting, a resurfacing project located on U.S. Route 136 in Schuyler County, from U.S. Route 63 in Schuyler County to 0.3 mile west of Route N near Livonia in Putnam County, is scheduled to begin on May 1. The total length of improvement is 8 miles and is expected to be completed by late May. Traffic will be reduced to one lane with a 10-foot width restriction at the location where crews are actively working.

Two people were killed in a two-vehicle crash that happened in Schuyler County on April 24th. The Missouri State Highway Patrol says two vehicles hit head-on at the centerline of Highway 136, a mile and a half east of Lancaster. Both drivers were killed. They were a 59-year-old man from La Plata, driving a Dodge Dakota, who was not wearing a seat belt. The other driver was in a Toyota Rav-4, a 63-year-old woman from Lancaster, who was wearing a seat belt.