As the United States readies itself
to choose a President, ThyssenKrupp Stahl Specialty Company in Kingsville
will also be choosing a new leader.
A vacancy has been left in the position by Stahl's most recent president,
Brian Donaher, who departed from his position with the company last
week.
According to John Cowden, chief financial officer for the Waupaca Foundry
in Waupaca, Wisconsin, he will be serving in the capacity of interim
president until a permanent candidate can be chosen.
Cowden said he expects that process to move rather quickly, "We've
narrowed our choices down to two candidates," Cowden said. "We
should be making a decision in the next couple of weeks."
Cowden said although the company expects to choose a new president in
the next couple of weeks, it may be up to two months before employees
meet their new leader, noting that once the candidates is hired, it
is likely they will have to relocate to the area to begin working in
their new position.
A
Holden teen faces criminal charges through Lafayette and Johnson Counties,
in connection with a high-speed chase with police throughout the county
last Wednesday.
According to acting Holden police chief, Rick Martin, the 16 year-old
boy had escaped from a Waverly, MO juvenile detention center where he
was being held in connection with the 2004 theft of a four-wheeler from
the Bank of Holden's repossession lot. According to Martin, a high-speed
chase, in excess of 80 miles per hour occurred during that incident
as well.
According to reports, the boy's other became concerned and went to look
for him. She was able to get behind him in her vehicle but was unable
to catch up. She called the police who began pursuing him on Highway
131 North in Holden.
After Holden officers were able to get in behind the boy's vehicle,
a train approached blocking officers from being able to cross over the
tracks to stop the vehicle. The Johnson County Sheriff's Department
was notified and they continued to chase the vehicle out into rural
parts of
the county.
Martin described the chase as "high-speed," and said the teen
led sheriff's deputies down gravel roads throughout portions of Johnson
County until he entered onto U Highway heading back toward Holden.
Holden officers were able to deploy spike strips at the 700 block of
East Second Street in Holden, succeeding in puncturing two of the tires
on the vehicle the boy was driving, slowing speeds in the chase down
to approximately 30 miles per hour.
The pursuit continued through town from Second to Main Street, down
Fourteenth Street, then up to Clay and south to 1201 Road just north
of County Road 600.
"We had a potentially bad situation because, at one point he was
heading toward the schools," Martin said. "It could have been
very bad if we had been unable to get the spike strips down."
Although two tires on the vehicle were down to just the rims with a
few strips of rubber hanging on, the teen continued to evade officers,
continuing down Road 1201.
Holden Codes Officer Mike Wakeman was able to get behind the teen's
car on Road 1201 and using a pit maneuver, was able to stop the car
chase which ended with the car resting in a ditch.
The teen then exited the vehicle, climbed through a barbed wire fence
leading officers on a foot chase through an area pasture.
A very heavily-guarded perimeter was set up on all sides of the pasture,
including 131 Highway South, Road 1201 and several other connecting
rural roads. After approximately 45 minutes, officers were able to catch
up to the teen, taking him into custody without-further incident.
"No one was seriously injured and no police cars were damaged,"
Martin said. "I think everyone handled the situation very well."
The boy was transported to an area juvenile facility, where several
charges are pending in connection with his activities on October 20
and 21. |
According to a report from the firm of Troutt, Beeman and Co., Harrisonville,
the Holden Board of Public Works received a clean audit of its financial
records for the fiscal year ending June 30. The announcement was made
during the board's monthly meeting in early October.
The report outlined total revenue for the year at $698,450 and operating
expenses at $632,000.
According to Butch Beeman, who presented the findings, the firm of
O&M Enterprises should be commended for running a tight ship.
According to Tony Lerda, owner of O & M Enterprises, he is pleased
with the performance of his company in the past year and especially
the progress made with the city-owned utilities.
"As far as capital growth, we increased the figures from $2,489,661
in 2003 to $2,882,569 in 2004," said Lerda. "Our net assets
will also increase Dec. 1 when the lake is paid off and it helped
when we paid off the water plant in November. This will also free
up some funds which will make it easier to maintain stable utility
rates."
Costs, however, are also on the rise. Lerda points to the rapidly
increasing cost of water purification as the main culprit.
"In the last two years, the costs of water purification has gone
up 400 percent. This is due to meeting new regulations put in place,"
he added, "as well as the chemical cost involved."
In other business conducted that night, Lerda announced the city received
its construction permit for the new sewer lagoon to be built on property
in west Holden on 58 Highway.
Construction of the new lagoon is expected to be completed sometime
in mid-July.
Lerda added that water and sewer connection fees would need to be
addressed at the board's next meeting in November.
Nearly
16 hours of production time was lost October 21 at ThyssenKrupp Stahl
Company in Kingsville thanks to a phony bomb threat.
According to reports received from the Johnson County Sheriff's Department,
shortly after 11 p.m. on October 20, an employee at the company received
a phone call reporting that a bomb had been placed in the factory.
The employee who received the phone call gave a formal statement to
the sheriff's department, detailing a full account of her phone conversation
with the suspect. According to the report, the caller was an unidentified
adult male with no identifiable accent to his voice. The employee
also said there was no static in the phone call., leading her to believe
he was calling from a land line as opposed to a cell phone.
"There's a bomb in the 02 foundry set to go off at 5 a.m.,"
the caller said according to the witnesses' account. "I'll call
back at 2 a.m. with demands and if they aren't met, the bomb will
go off at 5 a.m." The employee asked the caller to hold on the
line while she could get someone to help him to which the caller answered,
"You don't understand... There's a bomb in the 02 foundry."
The caller then hung up.
The building was evacuated and a secure perimeter, extending three
blocks, was established. During the incident, employees of the company
were sheltered at the Kingsville High School. In an effort to keep
everyone as safe as possible, train traffic on the Union Pacific Railroad,
extending through Kingsville, was halted as well.
"We evacuated as soon as we identified that it was a threat and
a concern," Walter Link, operations manager for the company said.
"We evacuated the south foundry first. Then we went ahead and
evacuated the north side as well."
Bomb detection canines were brought in from Whiteman Air Force Base
and conducted a thorough search of the building. No explosive devices
were found.
Equipment and personnel from the Western Johnson County Fire Protection
District, Johnson County Ambulance District, Holden' Police Department,
Missouri State Highway Patrol, Kingsville Police Department, Union
Pacific Police, Johnson County Chapter of the American Red Cross and
the Johnson County Sheriff's Office all responded to the scene. Officials
kept the parameters secure, redirecting traffic and assuring that,
in the event of a true bomb, bystanders would not be caught in the
fire.
The building was released back to employees at 5:30 a.m. after their
safety was established. Unfortunately, ,the incident will still cost
the company, as well as the Union Pacific Railroad, an undisclosed
amount of income, related to shut-down time because of the incident.
According to Link, although the incident occurred during the overnight
shift, the south foundry was unable to run for most of the daytime
shift on October 21. "W had to take time to reheat the furnaces
from shutting the gas off," Link said. "When they're shut
down, the metal becomes solid. It takes between four to six hours
for them to heat up again."
According to Link and representatives of the Johnson County Sheriff's
Department as of the afternoon of October 21, there were no suspects
in relation to the case. The incident is still under investigation
by the Johnson County Sheriff's Department.
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