JOPLIN, Mo. — Joplin Schools has announced their pick for the position of Board Education Secretary and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent.
Cheryl Warstler will step into the job in July of next year, one month after her successor, Pat Waldo, retires from the role. Waldo served as Board Secretary for 10 1/2 years, Joplin Schools said in their release.
Since 2004, Warstler has served as Joplin High School’s Financial Secretary. She began as a receptionist in 2002.
The duty of the board secretary is to maintain school board records, archive all school board meetings and decisions, and provide transparency on school district business.
Warstler’s husband, Jeff, taught at JHS for 24 years.
MISSOURI — The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) released its annual report that breaks down the department’s revenue streams, which shows how funds are used and what investments were made to the state’s transportation infrastructure.
The report also highlights major construction projects and unfunded needs.
The report is four separate documents: The Year in Review, The Citizen’s Guide to Transportation Funding, The Financial Snapshot, and MoDOT’s Results Document.
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Non-perishables have been part of the lesson plans this week for all five elementary schools in Carthage.
They’re taking part in a week-long canned food drive.
Kids in eight classes at Pleasant Valley have been making donations.
This is sponsored by the high school’s “FFA” program.
All of the food will be distributed to the food pantries at “Crosslines”, “Bright Futures Carthage”, “River Street”, the “Carthage Crisis Center”, and “Fairview Christian Church.”
“Service is very big, and our character word of the month is service, and so showing the kids to serve others in your community by helping when you able to is very important. So the goal is to collect as many cans as you can, and if you are the class that collects the most cans, then you get a pizza party by the FFA, thrown by them, and they’ll come and have some fun with the kids for the class that did the most,” said Don Cox, Principal.
Food items are going to the high school before being distributed to the five local food pantries.
JOPLIN, Mo. — A fixture in Joplin’s “Mercy Park” has received another much-needed touch-up.
Weather conditions last year caused some of the tiles on both sides of the “Butterfly Mural” to crumble and fall off.
The same thing happened a couple of years ago. Today, work was done to fix it again.
“Grouting what was damaged. We had to take the whole thing down, we had to clean all the tiles off, and we had to put it back up. Now we get to grout it, seal it in so it’s set,” said Karen Sanginetti, Ken Slankard Construction.
What’s it like having to redo all of this work?
“I love it. I think it’s great. It’s probably not alright for the community, because they come and it’s, there’s nothing here and they wonder oh my god it’s gone, but it’s not. We’re workin’ on it. We’re gettin’ it back up. We want the people to see it. It’s wonderful,” said Sanginetti.
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Today marks 47 years of an annual tradition that brings gifts to local children.
It’s the “Laverne Williams Children’s Christmas Party”.
It’s in memory of a law enforcement officer who had a big heart for the children in his community.
He started this event nearly 50 years ago as a juvenile officer for the “Carthage Police Department”.
This year’s party saw over 60 kids receiving toys thanks to community donations.
Carthage Junior High leadership students worked with police officers to make it all happen.
“It means a lot to me, again because I worked with LaVerne, but it’s also a great thing that I think that we as the police department can do for this community, and we just like helping,” said Bill Hawkins, Carthage Police Chief.
“It’s also good to have the police officers here, we appreciate them helping. That way, the children know these police officers are a friend,” said Cheryle Finley, Laverne Williams Christmas Party Committee.
Santa even made it to the party, but so did the Grinch, who was eyeing up those presents.
Luckily though, Carthage Police Officers were there to make sure Christmas wasn’t stolen this year.
JOPLIN, Mo. — There was also some holiday arts and crafts action, today, in Joplin. This time, with a twist of educational creativity.
It took place at the “Shoal Creek Conservation Education Center”. People were able to create their own nature holiday ornaments, using recycled and natural materials.
Event organizers say this is an excellent idea as another way to decorate your tree, besides those store-bought ornaments.
It also provides some fun with material you might not expect to be used.
“For the recycling aspect of our ornaments, one of our ornaments, we’ve got a little birdhouse. It is recycled paper towel tubes, so we just cut them in half, in fours depending on how big the tube is, and then we utilize those again. We recycle things like trees that are going to be down out there. While this time of year, people are using them for firewood. We’re also using them for ornaments for families to use for years to come. We’re utilizing pine cones to make our little owls with. So, we’re using all these natural aspects that you can find in nature and then be able to make these beautiful ornaments to decorate your tree with,” said Jessie Ballard, Missouri Department of Conservation Naturalist.
The “Shoal Creek Conservation Education Center” will host an animal bingo event on December 29th at 2 p.m.
You’ll be able to see live animals and learn more about them.
JOPLIN, Mo. — Holiday fun was on the agenda at a historical museum.
The “Joplin History and Mineral Museum” hosted its annual holiday open house.
Guests were able to snack on some cookies and cider while making some holiday ornaments to take home.
The event also featured a gingerbread house decorating contest. 22 houses total were submitted for judging.
Awards were given out for best design by youth, adults, professionals, and families.
Attendees also voted on the best-decorated house, for a people’s choice award.
“It’s a free event. It’s an event for adults and children, anybody that wants to come out and feel the Christmas spirit that we have here at the museum,” said Paula Callihan, Joplin Historical Society President.
Callihan says this event also provides attendees a chance to experience the new exhibits that are currently inside the museum.
JOPLIN, Mo. — Around 5:30 Friday morning fire fighters responded to a two-story house at 832 S. Pennsylvania Ave. When they arrived they said flames were all through the structure.
The Joplin battalion chief said there was a man inside who managed to escape the flames. He was taken to an area hospital, but his condition is unknown at this time.
“The building is going to be a total loss,” said John Hubbard, Joplin Fire Department Battalion Chief. “We called in Public Works from the City to help tear down the structure.”
Fire fighters need the structure torn down in order to find and get to any hidden pockets of fire that could reignite. They are still investigating the cause.
CHEROKEE COUNTY, Kan. — A serial wife beater with a criminal history in three states rarely served any jail time for his assaults.
Larry Dustin Flowers, 39, currently sits in the Cherokee County jail awaiting transport to the Kansas Department of Corrections to serve two sentences: 16-months, and 40-months, for running from law enforcement officers and drug possession.
Flowers’ most recent booking photo via CCSO.
At age 19, Flowers pleaded guilty in 2002 to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree assault in Jasper County in connection to a vehicle crash that killed two Baxter Springs teens and injured two others. The court sentenced him to seven years in prison.
A Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson said Flowers was released in 2010 and reincarcerated from Aug. 2011 to March 2012 for parole violations.
While in prison Flowers did have behavioral problems but the Department of Corrections declined to elaborate on those problems.
Throughout the past two decades, police reports show Flowers often lost his cool and many times his beatings left his victims fearing for their lives. He has also been arrested and charged in Kansas and Missouri with drug offenses, theft, destroying property, trespassing and resisting arrest.
Flowers also admitted to law enforcement he was a “Joplin Honkey” according to an October 2014 police report.
According to the Anti-Defamation League website, the Joplin Honkies or Joplin Honkeys is a white supremacist gang with roots in the state’s prisons.
Flowers also has a habit of not showing up for court appearances, which prompted authorities to issue warrants for his arrests. When law enforcement attempted to serve those arrest warrants, Flowers often reacted violently.
One police report dated June 2022 stated “Larry has at least a 60 page criminal history spanning multiple states” and he “has been charged with felony resisting arrest numerous times and led me on a vehicle pursuit where speeds reached 110 miles per hour.” The report also stated Flowers “disregarded any and all traffic control devices” and “shows no remorse for his actions and if left uninhibited, will continue to offend and place innocent lives at risk.”
Prosecutors in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma charged Flowers with eight occurrences of domestic violence. At one time Flowers had 11 outstanding warrants out of Ottawa County, Okla., Benton County, Ark., Jasper County, the city of Bella Vista, Ark., the city of Webb City and Kansas.
Court records show he served a brief time in jail for his crimes, but most of the sentences were suspended.
Typically, small issues like not having dinner on the table when he got in from work would prompt Flowers to lash out, grab his victims by the neck with his bare hands, and squeeze until they almost lost consciousness.
The most recent domestic violence episode occurred at the River Bend Casino parking lot in Wyandotte.
A witness said Flowers grabbed the female victim and “had her on the hood of a vehicle” and “was grabbing at her mouth” and “had her in a choke hold and drug her down on the ground,” according to an arrest affidavit. The bloodied victim had a bruised and swollen right eye near the cheekbone, bruised and swollen bottom lip with several lacerations, redness and abrasion on her left knee, the affidavit states.
The couple was fighting over money Flowers had spent at the casino and after the argument escalated, his victim refused to get in his vehicle, the affidavit states.
She had felt the wrath of Flowers’ temper in an excess of 20 assaults, the affidavit states.
Flowers was charged in Ottawa County District Court in June with domestic assault and battery by strangulation – second and subsequent after former conviction of a felony. The victim referred to Flowers’ as her “on and off boyfriend,” court records show.
Wyandotte Tribal police contacted Jasper County deputies saying Flowers was likely headed to Missouri. When Flowers crossed the state line, he met up with a Jasper County deputy. They engaged in a high-speed pursuit from Missouri into Kansas, but Flowers was able to escape after the officer struck a deer and had to terminate the pursuit.
Court records show Flowers’ pattern of assaults:
In November 2012, “Flowers struck the victim in the face and then smashed her face into the vehicle’s dashboard while driving. The father also kicked the victim and child out of the vehicle into 50-degree weather and left them on the side of the road as it was getting dark with no phone or any means to get home other than to walk on the roadway in the dark.” He walked away with a one year suspended sentence.
2011 booking photo of Flowers.
In May 2013, Flowers hit and strangled his wife. When authorities tried to take him into custody, he tried to run an officer over. He received a one-year suspended sentence but was ordered to serve 15 days as “shock” incarceration in the Jasper County jail. That incarceration was waived due to time already served, court records show. After repeated parole violations Flowers was ordered to serve one year in the county jail.
Flowers was also hit with a one year no-contact order that was extended another year in 2014, court records show.
In March 2014, Flowers confined his wife and children to their residence. He also took away the victim’s cell phone and wouldn’t allow them to leave saying he would “punch her in the teeth and make her eat through a feeding tube.” He received a suspended sentence.
In October 2017, Flowers tried to choke and strangle his wife. He was sentenced in 2018 to 120 days in the Jasper County jail as “shock incarceration” and received a seven-year suspended sentence for the assault.
In December 2020, Flowers is accused of choking and strangling a girlfriend, and slamming her face on a kitchen countertop. This case remains open, court records show.
While most of those cases are resolved, Arkansas is trying to bring to close a six-year-old case accusing Flowers of beating his wife:
On Dec. 29, 2016, in Benton County, Ark. Flowers was charged with domestic assault and making terrorist threats after leaving the victim’s right eye and the right side of her face near the jawline bruised, her bottom lip swollen, and the left side of her face with a red mark, the police report states.
Flowers’ reaction was to his wife’s return home without groceries, so dinner was not ready when he came in from work, according to a Benton County police report.
As a result of the Benton County attack, Arkansas authorities filed criminal domestic violence charges including a no-contact order involving his child after the couple’s 3-year-old child had become ill with a high temperature and Flowers took the child into the cold weather with no coat or shoes.
In a related matter, in 2017 former Ottawa County Judge Bill Culver ordered a three-year-protective order against Flowers for the Arkansas assault. Flowers repeatedly punched the victim in the head and face with “a closed pocket knife in his hand” and “threatened to kill” the victim several times, according to the protective order.
The protective order was issued out of Oklahoma because the couple lived in Miami. Flowers did not attend the Ottawa County hearing because he was in the Benton County jail.
The Benton County case has dragged on for six years. During that time Flowers continuously failed to show up for court causing five failure-to-appear warrants to be issued.
On Nov. 6, Flowers’ case in Benton County was continued, again, until March, online records show. Flowers should still be in a Kansas prison at that time.
