Friday, Nov. 06, 2009
In Brief | Car wash accident proves fatal; part of Locust Street downtown to close
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ReprintGRANDVIEW | Woman killed in car wash accident
A 40-year-old south Kansas City woman was killed and another woman injured Thursday in a freak accident at a car wash, police said Friday. The women were on a bench in front of the business at 12204 Blue Ridge Blvd., waiting for their vehicles to come out of the car wash at 3:55 p.m. when an SUV emerging from the wash apparently went out of control and struck them, police said.
The deceased woman’s name was not released. The other woman, 66 and also of south Kansas City, was hospitalized. The SUV flipped onto its side. Police said the driver, a 66-year-old Leawood man who had stayed in it as it went through the wash, was shaken but uninjured. The accident is under investigation.
KANSAS CITY | Locust Street closing
Locust Street from 11th to 12th streets will be closed from 7 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. on Monday while contractors repair and replace a sewer line. Approximately 10 feet of 18-inch clay sewer line will be replaced and repaired. An obstruction in the line is reducing its capacity.
Following this work, a solid liner will be installed in the sewer at a later date.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. | Teen pleads guilty to random killing
A boy who was 13 when he killed Charles McElroy, 47, of Kansas City, Kan., last year pleaded guilty Thursday in juvenile court to first-degree murder. Antwuan Taylor, now 15, will remain in the juvenile system, where he can be held until he is 22 1/2 years old. A judge will sentence him later.
Taylor told police that he shot McElroy repeatedly after a woman friend gave him a gun and asked him if he wanted to go shoot a stranger on the street. The woman drove him around until they saw McElroy. She stopped the car while Taylor shot him repeatedly, the boy said.
Days later, the woman went to police with her lawyer and told them Taylor did it. She later picked Taylor up and drove him to police. She has not been charged.
OLATHE | New superintendent tapped
The former school leader in Abilene and Lindsborg, Kan., will become the next superintendent of the 27,000-student Olathe School District July 1.
School board members selected Marlin Berry, the district’s assistant superintendent for general administration, Thursday to succeed Superintendent Pat All when she retires next year.
Berry came to Olathe from Abilene in 2007, where he became superintendent in 2000. He served as the superintendent of the Smoky Valley Public School in Lindsborg from 1991 to 2000. Between 1982 and 1985, Berry was principal of the Gardner Edgerton High School.
NORTHLAND | Prescription drug dropoff planned
Prescription drugs are second only to marijuana as the illegal drug choice for teens, experts say. Most kids get them from friends and unknowing family members. Yet improper disposal of prescription drugs can pollute the environment.
That is why Kansas City police and the Northland Coalition have set up opportunities for Northland residents to clean out their medicine cabinets. The first is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at N.E. 82nd Terrace and North Ditzler, across from J.C. Penney. The second is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 21 in the Zona Rosa Community Area at 8690 N. Dixson Ave., below Marshalls.
Adults 18 and older are invited to bring prescription medication in their original packaging. Medication from anyone not residing in their home, illicit drugs, and sharp or bio-hazardous materials will not be accepted.
JEFFERSON CITY | DNR announces layoffs
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has announced it is laying off 48 employees in its Division of State Parks and Historic Sites, far fewer than the 100 the agency originally estimated.
DNR spokeswoman Travis Ford says 77 other employees are transferring into different positions or taking pay cuts, and eight are retiring. He says the moves were necessary to cut $3.7 million from the department’s budget. The layoffs are effective Nov. 15.
None of the state’s 80 parks and historic sites will be closed because of the budget cuts, officials said.