Part of Elk St. in Carthage will close next week as crews build roundabout

CARTHAGE, Mo. – Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will close Elk St. and Garrison Ave. at the five-way intersection at Fairlawn Ave. (Missouri Route 571) in Carthage for the construction of a roundabout. The closure will begin the week of March 8.

MoDOT says there will not be any signed detours. Drivers should find alternate routes.

This work is part of a project to build a new roundabout at the five-way intersection of Elk Street/Fairlawn Ave./Garrison Ave. along with ADA improvements and resurfacing of Missouri Route 571 between Fairview Ave. and I-49.

Contractors expect work to finish by November 1, 2021.

Joplin lays out Connecticut Ave. widening project to area residents

JOPLIN, Mo. – Property owners along Joplin’s Connecticut Avenue reviewed the latest proposed designs for the city’s project to widen the street.

They saw the designs at a public meeting held Tuesday. The project would widen Connecticut avenue to five lanes from Murphy Boulevard to 30th Street.

“When I was a teenager I remember driving on Connecticut to avoid driving on Rangeline because it was a lot busier,” said Assistant Director of Public Works Dan Johnson. “So now when my son turns sixteen he will be able to do the same thing but on a lot nicer Connecticut.”

The project is paid for through a 10 year sales tax approved by voters in 2004 and renewed for another 10 years in 20-14.

Kansas encourages online driver’s license renewals

TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Department of Revenue urges residents to avoid waiting until the last day of the extension period to renew expired driver’s licenses and ID cards.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Laura Kelly issued Executive Orders, most recently Executive Order #20-70, to temporarily extend the deadline for Kansas driver’s license and state identification card renewals.

The Kansas Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles cautions Kansans to avoid waiting until the last day of the extension period to renew expired credentials.

As part of its efforts to get renewals completed and not crowd its offices, the Division of Vehicles asks Kansans to first consider renewing using iKan, the agency’s online driver’s license and vehicle registration renewal system. Online renewals can be performed by going to www.ikan.ks.gov.

To further encourage online renewals, KDOR has temporarily waived service fees for using iKan. By statute, some restrictions apply. If criteria are not met, customers are asked to schedule their renewal through the appropriate appointment process.

KDOR implemented the need for appointments at all its offices. While walk-ins are permitted, customers with appointments receive priority. For information about scheduling an appointment, customers can visit https://ksrevenue.org/DOVAppointmentInfo/.

A day in the life of a tow truck driver

JOPLIN, Mo. -Robert Gooch was looking for a change in his life, and decided to make the switch from working in telecommunications, to being a tow truck driver.

“I absolutely love it,” says Robert Gooch, a tow truck driver at Cottrill’s Towing in Joplin.

He says it gives him freedom that his other job didn’t

“There’s no other place around where you can get out, meet people, and not be cooped inside all day”

Robert has been doing this for about four years, and says he’s loved it ever since.

As a driver, he says he just wants everyone to stay safe, especially with recent winter weather. Gooch even says he and his fellow drivers have struggled to drive through it.

“We had a couple times where we almost couldn’t get through the ice and barely managed to get through it.

Robert says he accepts it as just part of his job.

When reminiscing on times where he’s saved others, he makes a point to remind people of safety when driving in harsh winter conditions.

“I was just coming up on one where, dead intersection, and the lady had unfortunately lost traction on ice, and went head first down into a ravine. thankfully she walked away from it, but i quite literally had to take the car up vertically just to get it out of the hole.”

Even Robert gets nervous driving in these conditions, and says the part that makes his job hard has been dealing with other drivers.

“We had an instance roughly two years ago. two o’clock in the morning, lights are flashing off every mile marker within eye shot, and had a gentleman hit the back of our truck at eighty miles an hour, thankfully everybody walked away safe but it’s just another issue of pay attention ”

Robert is dedicated to his job, and knows his life is at risk everyday.

“It does make you think a bit, this could be my day it could not but it’s just one of them things, there’s people out there who need your help. That’s what tow truck drivers, not just locally, across the country are doing. they’re going out putting their lives at risk.”

All they ask for in return is for people to be cautious and courteous to give them the room they need to save lives.