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Another record day for gas prices in Missouri and nationwide

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ST. LOUIS – Gas prices continue to climb and break records nationally and locally.

As of Saturday, the nationwide average is $4.45 per gallon, the highest cost ever reported by the American Automobile Association. In St. Louis, AAA reports another record with gas costing $4.25 on average in the metropolitan area.

Missouri sits comfortably below the national average but has seen a big hike in recent weeks. According to AAA Missouri, the average gas price sat at $3.61 per gallon last month. The state average now stands at $4.04 per gallon. It also rose 16 cents from last week along. Across the river, Illinois has it even worse reaching on average, $4.81.

Many drivers are frustrated about the spike, including one man from Texas who drove to St. Louis for a job, shelling out double than usual.

“Gas prices are so high, on the way here, I made sure once it touched half a tank, I went in filled back up. But even that was almost 40-50 dollars, it’s not 10-20 dollars like it used to be, so it’s bad,” said Driver, Antoine Watson, “I spent $250 to get here.”

Rising prices are hitting at an especially bad time given that in just a few short weeks roads will be packed with memorial weekend travelers.

Experts say some easy ways to save a little money on gas include slowing down, avoiding premium gas and doing your homework by comparing prices to find the lowest price where you live.

Roper Kia's 7th annual donation to the Children's Center

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JOPLIN, Mo. — A near decade-long tradition culminated with another batch of generosity today in Joplin.

For the past 7-years, Roper Kia has used the month of April to help the Children’s Center of Southwest Missouri.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month.

Roper collected toys from customers — enough to fill a vehicle in the lobby — and also set aside a portion of the proceeds from each vehicle sold last month.

$15,000 is going to the Center.

The toys will be used as comfort items for the kids who come through its 4 locations — Joplin, Nevada, Monett, and Butler.

“It means everything to us, you know. We are funded about two-thirds by grants, which leaves us about a third we have to do with fundraising and so we couldn’t do it without these important community sponsors that we have to help us keep our mission going,” said Matt Stewart, Children’s Center.

“We’d really like people to take away that there are a lot of good nonprofits out there doing a lot of great things, and so if they can really get behind somebody and give them a good solid push, that would be what we’d want to do as an example, and just so as a business here in the community we want to do that,” said Jack Frost, Roper KIA.

The Children’s Center is hosting a 25-year celebration at its Joplin facility on Wednesday, May 25th. It runs from 11 to noon — and will be open to the public.

Ink enthusiasts line up in Joplin for Friday the 13th

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JOPLIN, Mo. — A local tattoo shop saw plenty of business Friday, as did many others in and around town as well as around the country.

It’s part of what’s become a “Friday the 13th” trend, where many of them offer discounts or specialty tattoos.

Blacklist Ink on south Main Street, offered deals today where customers could get tattoos on their arm or leg for $50. This was the first “Friday the 13th” the business celebrated since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Which is probably why close to 200 people were lined up in front of the store two-hours before it opened.

“That was super exciting. We weren’t expecting such a huge turnout, but we are very happy and very humble to see everybody that lined up this morning,” said Mariah Vazquez, Blacklist Ink Shop Manager.

“Honestly, yeah the price, and my tattoo artist did a really good job,” said Drew Chotrow, Blacklist Ink Client.

Blacklist employees say they usually have 50 to 60 people get inked every “Friday the 13th.”

Judge orders Jasper and Newton Co. to recount City Council votes

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JOPLIN, Mo. — A decision today in court over the vote total in the April Joplin City Council election. Our cameras were there when Judge Gayle Crane made the call.

The process is underway to recount the results of that April 5th ballot.

“I’d like to get it over with, move on.”Brian Evans, Council Candidate.

It’s been more than a month since Brian Evans lost his Joplin Council race by just 13 votes. His focus now is finding out if that total will change.

“It’s a machine recount. So it should be quick. It should be easy,” Evans said.

Jasper County Judge Gayle Crane ordered both Jasper County and Newton County to recount votes in the Joplin City Council race, using election machines for that total. Before that can happen, both counties will have to find election judges to monitor the recount, names Evans will have to sign off on.

“We are we are going to most likely hire six individuals, three Republicans and three Democrats that will come into our office in Carthage at the courthouse. And we will set up three machines and we will refeed all 13 precincts from the City of Joplin into the machines and just tally the votes and make sure that the votes are the same as they were election night,” said Charlie Davis, Jasper Co. Clerk.

Jasper County Clerk Charlie Davis is confident the numbers won’t change.

“One of the things that we want to stress is I have faith in our election systems. Explained the process to her and I think that really made her understand that the system works, process works,” he said.

“The main thing I am worried about regardless of win or lose, I just want to make sure that that the people are satisfied they have faith in the system because if if the people don’t have faith in the election process, then we’re in trouble,” said Evans.

Both Jasper County and Newton County officials expect the process to wrap up pretty quickly. They must submit names of the election judges by next Friday, but that’s expected well before the deadline.

Kiddieland Amusement Park officially opens

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PITTSBURG, Kans. — It was scheduled to open last Friday, but weather pushed things back a week. Today, the official opening day of the season for the Kiddieland Amusement Park in Pittsburg.

Kindergarteners from St. Mary’s Elementary were the first ones to embrace the fun today as part of their end of the school year celebration. That fun also included the debut of the park’s newest attraction — a vintage carousel donated by Rigg’s Chiropractic.

“In this community it is huge and if you go to the Facebook page, I think it’s called ‘I remember when in Pittsburg.’ A lot of people are sharing their memories for the last 50 to 75 years of Kiddieland and three or four generations of families coming here,” said Donna Landrith, St. Mary’s Elementary Kindergarten Teacher.

Kiddieland will be open every day of the week with the exception of Mondays — but hours differ.

You can check out the schedule and learn more about the facility by following this link here.

Purdy receives DNR grant

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PURDY, Mo. — An area community receives financial assistance to cover some of the cost of upgrading their wastewater system.

The City of Purdy has been granted $50,000 from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to help cover the engineering cost of improving their water and waste water treatment system.

One of the goals is to figure out how to reduce infiltration of stormwater into the city’s sewer collection pipes, the plan should be complete by October of 2023.

The money is dolled out by the D.N.R. but actually comes from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Non-traditional student to graduate after years of hard work

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PITTSBURG, Kans. — As students across the Four States are preparing to graduate, many are reflecting on their journey’s through education.

As she’s helping the students at Countryside Christian School prepare to cross the stage, pre-school teacher Leeann Kershner is getting ready to do the same.

“When we were putting their hats on and making sure they were right and their tassels were right, I thought ‘Wow, it’s going to be me tomorrow, but as an adult,” said LeeAnn Kershner, PSU Class of 2022.

Kershner’s journey at Pittsburg State University didn’t start until 2016. Her husband Mike had gone back to school to finish a degree from 25 years ago and after hearing what it was like, Leeann decided to take a chance.

“I thought it was very not like the school that I had been to previously in high school and I thought ‘You know what, I can do this. My husband was great, he helped me, if I needed to study or homework, he made sure that he made time in his schedule with work and his own school so that I could do that,” she said. “The first A that I got I was extremely excited, and it was a Gen Ed and I thought I put in so much hardwork, like hardwork, my heart and my blood and my sweat and my tears and to see that come back an A I thought ‘I did that’. It was big, it was huge and I thought I can do this.”

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And she did do it. On Saturday Leeann will get her degree and become the first generation in her family to do so.

“If you have a great support system, you can do it. It’s a lot of hard work and sacrifice on myself, my children, my husband, but it’s worth it,” Leeann said.

MSSU police academy graduates sworn in at Nevada PD

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NEVADA, Mo. — Three cadets were sworn in Friday at a local police department through the help of an incentive package.

Like many police departments in the country, Nevada has also struggled with a lack of new officers. The Nevada Police Department says the cost to go to a law enforcement academy is increasing.

“Staffing has been problematic here, along with every single department, you know, around this general area,” said Joshua Westerholde, Assistant Chief Of Nevada Police Department.

In an effort to help bring in new officers, the City of Nevada paid for the cadet’s education as part of an incentive package.

“That’s the main reason why we implemented this program to help our department,” he continued.

The police department says this program is impactful because it encourages those looking to be an officer to serve their own communities.

“This program is going to be designed to bring people from our community or close, surrounding communities to this department, to want to stay here long-term, and give us more experience. Basically, our, I guess, opportunity to them was to pay for that and you know, have people locally in our community want to be police officers and help them by getting that education and that training. So they can come here and work here and stay in this community as well,” Westerholde said.

All three cadets are either from Nevada or grew up close to the city.

“I grew up here, so this is where I really wanted to be, as an officer, um, and it worked out best for me,” said Christian Richter, Nevada Police Officer.

“I grew up here. We moved here in second grade, I’ve been here ever since and everything. I kind of know the ins and outs of the town, and I’m happy to be working here. I kind of feel expectations are on me a little higher, and everything, since I grew up here and everything like that,” said Franklin Miller, Nevada Police Officer.

These cadets just finished their training at Missouri Southern’s Law Enforcement Academy, and graduated Thursday evening.

“It was real, everything got real at that point,” said David Moenning, Nevada Police Officer.

“Super excited to get started. This is something I’ve wanted my whole life, so this is awesome,” said Richter.

The three cadets, who are now officers, are the first graduates of the program to work in Nevada and will start next week

Neosho's Senior Hill painting tradition continues

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NEOSHO, Mo. — It’s one of the oldest and most colorful high school traditions in the Four States, and even a few rain drops didn’t stop it from taking place.

No senior year in Neosho is complete without the painting of Hill Street, a time honored, school sanctioned tradition dating back to the late 1970’s.

The event was and always held in the evening until 1983, when rain forced the event until the following morning, and it’s been held at that time ever since. Each of the students must submit their designs in advance, so school officials have the opportunity to approve them before the first brush strokes take place.

“I’m going to do Homer Simpson wearing a graduate cap, I think that will fit my personality pretty well,” said Zane Ornelas, Neosho H.S. Senior.

“I’m going to paint a finish line hinting that I’m finished with high school, finished with school in general,” said Izec Anderson, Neosho H.S. Senior.

“I painted this hill 20 years ago with his dad and it was a lot of fun, he looks exactly like I did. They’ve already had paint wars. We ran around, we threw paint on each other, we took lots of pictures, yeah it was fun,” said Amber Anderson, Former Graduate.

“Families are out here, it’s our last time to do something fun with one and other so I just think it’s a wonderful experience overall,” said Brian Recinos, Neosho H.S. Senior.

Even the pandemic didn’t stop the tradition from taking place each of the last two-years.

Even after all the paint has dried, school officials check and make sure nothing inappropriate was added to the original designs.

Lauria and Ashley Memorial Scholarships awarded

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CRAIG COUNTY, Okla. (KSNF/KODE) – Two Oklahoma students were awarded scholarships in honor of two teenagers missing for decades.

Seth Schaper, of Welch, and Ella Bluejacket, of Bluejacket, were each given $500 from the Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman Memorial Scholarship.

“This is the first year we were able to award the scholarships,” said Lorene Bible, Lauria’s mother.

Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman were teenage best friends. Lauria attended Bluejacket Schools where she was a cheerleader and Ashley attended Welch Schools where she was on the girls’ basketball team.

The Bible and Freeman families set up the account in 2020 to provide scholarships to students from where the girls attended school.

“We hope that we can help give an education to other children since our girls’ opportunities were taken away,” said Lisa Brodrick, Lauria Bible’s cousin.

The 16-year-old best friends were spending the night at the Freeman homestead when they disappeared on Dec. 30, 1999. Investigators believe Danny Freeman was fatally shot over a drug debt and Kathy Freeman was also fatally shot and the mobile home was set on fire.

The girls were kidnapped and are presumed dead.