Jefferson City

After years spent studying how to revitalize Fat City, business and political leaders in Jefferson Parish are coalescing around a plan that prioritizes the construction of new greenspace and parking and ditches an earlier proposal to build a multi-million-dollar coworking space.

Among the envisioned projects is an acre-and-a-half “leisure park,” stretching from Division Street to Hessmer Boulevard on the south side of 18th Street that officials hope will soften Fat City’s image and serve as a catalyst for growth.

“We want to do something more fabulous than just grass and trees,” said Dana Pecoraro, the board chair of the Metairie Business Development District, or MBDD, which oversees economic development efforts in Fat City. She pointed to Klyde Warren Park in Dallas as an inspiration.

“If you build something really beautiful, people are going to want to develop around it.”

Drago’s sign photographed in the Fat City area of Metairie, La., Friday, April 5, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER▲

The latest plan to breathe new life into Metairie’s business district doesn’t include the “EAT Fat City Center” — a multi-million-dollar “campus for entrepreneurship, art and technology” that Jefferson Parish At-Large Council member Jennifer Van Vrancken sought to construct during her tenure representing the council’s 5th District.

After taking office in January, 5th District Council member Hans Liljeberg and the MDBB took a fresh look at the proposal and decided there were more urgent needs to address. Liljeberg plans to cancel two contracts related to the EAT Fat City Center at the April 17 council meeting.

Once a nightlife mecca, Fat City lost its luster in the 1980s with the resurgence of Bourbon Street and quickly developed a seedy reputation. In the decades that followed, Jefferson Parish commissioned almost a dozen studies to determine what to do with the downtrodden district.

In 2010, during her own stint representing the 5th District on the Parish Council, Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng authored an ambitious proposal that, among other provisions, put a curfew on alcohol sales and forced out adult businesses and strip clubs.

“She went in there and did a lot of hard work … and it’s made a big difference,” Liljeberg said. “All the heavy lifting is done.”

A strip mall houses businesses in the Fat City area of Metairie, La., Friday, April 5, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER▲

Liljeberg, who represents much of unincorporated Metairie, said he plans to let the business leaders that serve on the MBDD take charge on redeveloping Fat City. Established in 2009, the MBDD collects a portion of the sales tax revenue generated in the area bounded by Causeway Boulevard, West Esplanade Avenue, Division Street and Veterans Boulevard.

“I’m confident they know what’s best for this area and want what’s best for this area, so I want to help them get there,” Liljeberg said.

In addition to the leisure park, the MDBB is hoping to acquire a smaller lot on the southeast corner of 18th Street and North Arnoult Road to build a “pocket park,” with landscaping, benches and, perhaps, a water feature. The property has sat vacant for almost a decade, Pecoraro said.

Another top priority is parking. To transform Fat City into a pedestrian-friendly shopping district, there needs to be a place where customers can leave their cars. The MBDD is eyeing several locations in Fat City for new surface parking but hasn’t yet acquired any property, Pecoraro said.

Vehicles park on the pedestrian sidewalk in the Fat City area of Metairie, La., Friday, April 5, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER▲

Even though EAT Fat City is no more, the parish may ultimately end up purchasing the property where it was going to be located anyway.

Van Vrancken had hoped to acquire an apartment complex and hotel near Division Street and 18th Street to build the co-working space, but her efforts were blocked by Lee Sheng, who in rare rebuke of a council member, publicly questioned the logistics of a proposed land swap in August.

By then, the owner of the Orleans Courtyard Apartments and Orleans Courtyard Inn had evicted his tenants and shut down his businesses, believing the parish would purchase the properties.

The Orleans Courtyard Apartments are located next to the open lot that is planned to be developed into a Fat City Leisure Park and shared surface parking lot in Metairie, La., Friday, April 5, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER▲

Liljeberg said if the parish doesn’t end up purchasing the lots, it’ll likely face a lawsuit from the property’s owner, Srinivas Kata, and end up paying damages instead.

“I think the parish has some liability for just the way the whole things been handled,” Liljeberg, a former state appeal court judge, said. “We’re going to wind up paying something for it. I’d rather the parish own the property.”

Kata’s attorney, Dave Sherman, said, “We’re working out the final details, but we’re certainly optimistic that we’ll get the deal done.”

The two EAT Fat City contracts that Liljeberg plans to rescind at the April 17 meeting are with Reform Res LLC and Rome Office LLC. To date, the parish has spent roughly $680,000 on the two contracts.

To fund its ambitions, the MBDD is hoping to receive around $12 million in Community Development Block Grant funds. The group is waiting on the state to sign off on the allocation.

Whatever the MBDD decides to do in Fat City, Liljeberg said it will be important to get buy-in from Lee Sheng.

In November, Pecoraro took Liljeberg, Lee Sheng and their staff on a walking tour of Fat City to lay out the MBDD’s vision. 

“You know the old saying, ‘If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together’,” Pecoraro said. 

Originally Appeared Here

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

On Thursday, government officials broke ground on a new multi-agency state laboratory campus in Jefferson City. 

The multi-story, 250,000-square-foot facility is estimated to cost $183 million with construction, expected to be completed by 2026. American Rescue Plan Act funding was allocated to help cover the cost. 

State officials say they want Missouri to lead the nation in public safety, health, agricultural production, wildlife and environmental areas. The new laboratory will be home to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Conservation and Missouri State Highway Patrol, for human, animal, and environmental testing. 

Gov. Mike Parson and members of his cabinet attended the ceremony, which was held behind the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory from 2-3 p.m.

Parson told ABC 17 News that the idea for the new lab came after seeing some of the things the state has been through in the past several years. 

“Our crime lab, we know they’re outdated. We know going through COVID how critical that was to how much more space we needed, how much more evaluations we needed, how much more research we needed,” Parson said. 

In January, Parson suggested a $1.4 million investment to enhance the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab. However, with each of the state’s current laboratories aging, it opted to include them all under the same roof to help boost collaboration between the various agencies. 

“We had an opportunity to build multiple labs and none of them would just be state-of-the-art labs. We decided, ‘Look let’s get all the agencies together to see if we can’t find a way to build a big enough facility that will take care of all our needs.’ Not only now, but for the future,” Parson said. “I think what we have done here is just remarkable, bringing all the cabinets together, and to be able to say, ‘Yeah we agree with this and we’re gonna get it done.’ That doesn’t very often happen anymore in the world of this arena. It’s a good day for Missourians.” 

Members of Parson’s cabinet echoed a similar sentiment. 

“Us coming together as state agencies really truly is a historic effort. It also reminds us of our motto ‘The Show Me State,’” Department of Conservation Director Jason Sumners said during the ceremony. “This laboratory campus is certainly showing citizens of the state what it means to work together. As we talked about, this effort to other states and other conservation organizations across the country they certainly are envious of our ability to do this.” 

Director of Agriculture Chris Chinn said her department had to collaborate with the Department of Health and Senior Services during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Chinn, the Department of Agriculture helped provide extra equipment to the DHSS to help with testing. She believes the new facility highlights what Parson’s cabinet is about, being one team. 

“When we first talked about this on a cabinet level, I went back to my department, talked to our state veterinarian and our assistant state veterinarian Dr. Strubbert and Dr. Schmidt. And Dr. Scdmidt said ‘Are you kidding me?’ She goes ‘It’s not nice to tease’ and I said ‘No seriously this is something we think can be a possibility, what do you think?’ And she said ‘We would love to be a part of that,’” Chinn said. 

The new lab will feature energy-efficient systems to reduce its carbon footprint. The DHSS will use the lab for testing services related to public health and disease, while the MDA will test issues related to animal health and diseases. 

The DNR will test a variety of things related to environmental health, such as water quality, air quality and hazardous waste, while the MDC will continue to do lab testing on services related to wild animals. The facility will also serve as an upgraded crime lap for the MSHP and more than 600 law enforcement agencies across the state.

Originally Appeared Here

The Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission (JEDCO) will join hundreds of economic development organizations across the country with their own series of public events from May 6-10 for Economic Development Week.

Economic Development Week is a global initiative created by the International Economic Development Council to recognize and honor the dedicated work of economic developers and their contributions to communities around the world.

Mixers, networking events and a seminar are planned in Jefferson Parish to generate meaningful discussions, build relationships and answer pressing questions about doing business in Jefferson Parish. JEDCO’s main objective is to attract, grow and create new business in the area, proactively influencing the economy through the retention and creation of quality jobs, entrepreneurship and investment in Jefferson Parish

“As one of only 73 accredited economic development organizations in North America, JEDCO is a leader in its industry and a driving force for economic growth in Jefferson Parish. We welcome the opportunity to showcase the important work that this team does to drive innovation, progress, and impact in Jefferson Parish,” said JEDCO President and CEO Jerry Bologna.

Economic Development Week in Jefferson Parish is sponsored by Avondale Global Gateway.

“Over the past five years, since our initial purchase of Avondale (Shipyard), we have valued JEDCO’s partnership at every step as we worked together to revitalize the West Bank of Jefferson Parish,” said HOST Chairman and CEO Adam Anderson. “We are thrilled to sponsor Economic Development Week to highlight hard-working entrepreneurs and the promising future of Jefferson Parish.”

Economic Development Week events:

Java with JEDCO

Monday, May 6, from 8:30 – 10 a.m.

Kick off Economic Development Week with a morning mixer designed for open dialogue. Mingle with economic development leaders, partners, and other business owners over a steaming cup of coffee and light breakfast offerings at sponsoring business Drago’s Seafood. Space is limited, so sign up early! REGISTER HERE

Start Here! Your Roadmap to Opening a Business in Jefferson Parish

Tuesday, May 7, 9 a.m. – noon

JEDCO and Jefferson Parish teamed up to host a seminar aimed at helping business owners launch their next business venture in Jefferson as painlessly as possible. Parish officials will break down business owners’ biggest questions and provide the most up-to-date information about how to effectively open, operate, and expand in Jefferson Parish. REGISTER HERE

JEDCO Happy Hour

Thursday, May 9, from 4-6:30 p.m

Raise a glass to growth as JEDCO toasts to a thriving economy! This special networking event will be held at Stained Glass Wine House in Gretna. Join us for a drink in at this vibrant Veteran-owned wine bar. Space is limited, so sign up early! REGISTER HERE

 

For more information, visit www.jedco.org.

Originally Appeared Here

A constellation of political action committees tied to a Jefferson City lobbyist raked in $530,000 in contributions this month from a pair of companies.

The six PACs — MO Majority PAC, Missouri Growth PAC, Missouri C PAC, Missouri Senior PAC, Missouri AG PAC and Conservative Leaders of Missouri — are connected to Steve Tilley, a lobbyist and former Republican speaker of the Missouri House.

And both of the donors — Torch Electronics and New Day Healthcare — are Tilley clients.

It’s a familiar pattern. Tilley’s clients for years have spread donations among the six PACs, drawing criticism from those who see it as a way to skirt limits on how much a candidate can accept from an individual or PAC, as well as a ban on direct corporate contribution to candidates.

A spokeswoman for Tilley’s firm declined to comment on the donations.

Torch, which owns games that operate like slot machines state gambling regulators argue are illegal, cut checks last week for $55,000 to each of the six PACs. Since 2022, the company has given the PACs $750,000.

New Day owns Missouri-based Phoenix Home Care and Hospice. It gave $40,000 checks to each PAC, adding to the $400,000 Phoenix has directly donated to the PACs since 2022.

The haul comes a little more than a month before voters head to the polls for the statewide primary Aug. 6.

None of the PACs have made any donations this year. But they’ve been active in the past, especially with legislative candidates.

For example, on the same day in late November 2023, all six PACs made identical $2,000 donations to House Majority Leader Jon Patterson.

The maximum individual donation to a House candidate is $2,000.

The largest beneficiary of the PACs largesse in recent years has been House Speaker Dean Plocher. The committee supporting his candidacy for secretary of state has received $50,000 in combined donations since 2021 from Conservative Leaders of Missouri, Missouri Senior PAC and MO Majority PAC.

In addition to its donations to Tilley’s PACs, Torch also gave $15,000 this month to Uniting Missouri, a committee set up in 2018 by supporters of Republican Gov. Mike Parson.

Tilley is a longtime friend and adviser to the governor. And though Parson has made it clear he has no intention of ever running for office again, Uniting Missouri keeps raising and spending money.

On the same day as the Torch donation, Uniting Missouri received $50,000 from the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, which is also a Tilley client.

Tom Burcham, an attorney who serves as spokesman for Uniting Missouri, did not respond to a request for comment on the future of the PAC or its ongoing purpose with Parson’s political career nearly over.

Andrew Mullins, executive director of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, said in an emailed statement second-term governors “always raise funds to support causes and to promote the great State of Missouri. We are happy to help this effort.”

Parson took over as governor in June 2018 when his predecessor — Eric Greitens — resigned to avoid impeachment and settle a felony charge in St. Louis.

Parson won a full term in 2020. But because Greitens had more than two years left on his term when he resigned, Parson is prohibited from running again because of term limits.

After his 2020 victory, Uniting Missouri spent much of its money on campaign advisers and advertising — $69,000 on consultants in 2022, along with, $150,000 on ads.

Spending patterns changed the last two years, focused mostly on Parson’s travel.

Uniting Missouri spent $58,000 in 2023 and $65,000 for Parson’s trip to watch the Super Bowl. The PAC also spent $52,000 in 2023 in payments to an aviation company owned by Tilley.

The Missouri Independent, www.missouriindependent.com, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering state government and its impact on Missourians.

Originally Appeared Here

JEFFERSON CITY — Access to affordable housing is a pressing challenge for many in mid-Missouri. In Jefferson City, Transformational Housing stands out as an organization that goes beyond providing shelter by offering transformative support to those in need.

Following the devastating 2019 tornado in Jefferson City, Transformational Housing emerged to address the growing need for housing assistance. Over the past five years, community support has fueled the construction of a second special house, demonstrating the organization’s commitment to its mission.

Katie Raines, a beneficiary of Transformational Housing, shared her story of overcoming a one-year drug addiction treatment program.

“My life had become unmanageable. I was in jail for seven months and realized I couldn’t do it anymore,” Raines said.

Homeless and struggling, Raines found not just shelter but also hope and support through the organization.

“Don’t give up, whatever changes you need to make or whatever mountains you need to climb, it is possible. If I can do it, anyone can do it,” Raines said.

Key aspects of Transformational Housing’s approach are the weekly coaching sessions and community support provided to program members. The organization also only requires residents to pay what they can, using about 25% to 30% of their income toward their rent.

Volunteers like Marlene Medin, Raines’s coach, find joy in assisting individuals on their transformative journey, emphasizing the organization’s holistic support system.

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“If someone wants to make a change and improve and better their lives, we’re here to help,” Medin said.

Transformational Housing is dedicated to offering affordable rental housing. Through collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, the organization repurposes and renovates donated buildings, providing homes for those in need.

Currently, Transformational Housing is undergoing construction at 1112 E. McCarty St. The location will have a total of six bedrooms when completed. The organization also just received approval for a grant which will go toward another home at 101 Jackson St. It will have total of five bedrooms when completed.

Mark Kiekhafer, the president of Transformational Housing, emphasized the positive impact of affordable housing on individuals’ lives, showcasing the collaborative efforts between the organization and the city. Kiekhafer explained how much Raines has improved through this program.

“She has full-time employment, she has stayed very involved with the programs at Healing House and is making tremendous steps forward in her life and as a mother. Part of that is because she has affordable housing,” Kiekhafer said.

Jefferson City officials recognize the critical role organizations like Transformational Housing play in addressing homelessness. Approximately 200 people live unhoused in Jefferson City at any given time, according to Rachel Senzee, supervisor for Neighborhood Services in Jefferson City. She said she appreciates what Transformational Housing has brought to the city.

“From the city’s perspective, we like organizations like this, we call them stepping stones. Partnering with a nonprofit that is better at these services is often how we approach these problems,” Senzee said.

As Transformational Housing opens new doors, it brings hope and positive change to mid-Missouri families. To get involved, visit the organization’s website.

Originally Appeared Here

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Majority of Missourians sent to restrictive nursing homes because of mental illness would be better served in a less restrictive setting, a year-and-a-half federal investigation determined

June 21, 2024 at 4:00 a.m.

by
By Clara Bates Missouri Independent

The Missouri Capitol is seen, April 5, 2024, in Jefferson City. State lawmakers were working to pass a budget on Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)

Missouri is violating federal disability law by unnecessarily institutionalizing thousands of adults with mental illness in nursing homes, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a scathing report published Tuesday.

The report, which is based on a year-and-a-half of investigation, determined that those suffering with mental illness are “subjected to unnecessary stays in nursing facilities, generally because of a series of systemic failures by the state.”

For years, Missouri has placed a higher portion of adults with mental health disabilities in nursing facilities than “all but a few states,” according to the report.

As of March 2023, there were 3,289 adults with mental health disabilities who had spent at least 100 days in Missouri’s nursing homes, according to the report. That number excludes those with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

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Originally Appeared Here

The report, which is based on a year-and-a-half of investigation, determined that those suffering from mental illness are “subjected to unnecessary stays in nursing facilities, generally because of a series of systemic failures by the state.”

For years Missouri has placed a higher portion of adults with mental health disabilities in nursing facilities than “all but a few states,” according to the report.

As of March 2023, 3,289 adults with mental health disabilities had spent at least 100 days in Missouri’s nursing homes, according to the report. That number excludes those with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Most don’t fit the profile one might imagine. 

Around half are under 65, and some are in their 20s. Most don’t need help with basic physical activities like eating, transferring to bed, or going to the bathroom. 

Once placed in a nursing home, adults with mental health disabilities are often stuck, staying for an average of at least three years. 

“We found that almost none of the adults with mental health disabilities living in nursing facilities in Missouri need to be in these institutions, even for short-term stays,” the report found.

Most, the report found, are there against their will and end up in nursing homes out of a series of Missouri’s “deliberate policy choices.” 

Those sent to nursing homes are often resistant to treatment and cycled in and out of psychiatric hospitals. 

The major problems are that the state doesn’t provide sufficient community-based mental health services and “improperly relies” on guardianship for those who have resisted treatment. Appointed guardians often place the person in nursing facilities.

One woman in her late 50s interviewed in the report, who was placed in a nursing home by a guardian, is quoted as saying, “I have a dream that one day I will be free” — to live in her community, have overnight stays with her grandkids, and be “free to not have someone place me in a nursing home and leave me, without any regard to my well-being, mentally and physically.”

A mother is quoted as saying her son “had a life before they took him there and now, he has nothing.” He lives in a locked unit of the facility.

These adults are largely concentrated in a few dozen facilities across the state. In some facilities, over 80% of the residents have bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. And those facilities generally offer little by way of mental health services beyond medication. 

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires states to make reasonable modifications to allow adults with mental health disabilities to live in a setting that is the most integrated with the community as possible. The state can’t discriminate through what amounts to segregation of those with disabilities.

The state will need to work with the DOJ to come up with a plan to fix the violations identified in the report. If they can’t reach a resolution, the state could be sued by the DOJ.

The relevant state agencies told The Independent they are currently reviewing the report. The Department of Mental Health oversees the state’s mental health services, the Department of Health Senior Services oversees nursing homes and the Department of Social Services runs Medicaid, which funds eligible nursing home stays and community-based services.

‘Sent out of sight and out of mind’

Many of those adults with mental health disabilities in nursing homes are under court-ordered guardianship, the report states.

The state has relied on guardianship when people resist mental health treatment, which the DOJ found serves as a “pipeline to unnecessary institutionalization.” 

According to the report, one provider called guardianship in Missouri a “sentence to be locked in a [nursing facility].”

Guardianship is supposed to be used in extreme cases when a person lacks the capacity to make basic decisions and no less-restrictive options exist, but in Missouri, it is used more broadly, the report states, and frequently is used when a person with a mental health disability is not engaging in treatment.

“Combining guardianships and nursing facility placement creates the functional equivalent of involuntary and indefinite commitment,” the report states.

Guardians are often public administrators, meaning county officials who are appointed when no adult relative is available or suitable. Many have heavy caseloads and place the person in a nursing home because they have limited resources and are trying to ensure safety, according to the report.

“Instead of diverting people with mental health disabilities from unnecessary nursing facility admission or transitioning people from nursing facilities who do not need to be there,” the report states, “people are sent out of sight and out of mind.”

One man, in his late 20s, has goals well-suited to intensive community-based mental health services: He “wants to work part-time at a fast food restaurant and live in his own apartment or trailer around Kansas City. 

“Instead, he lives in a locked nursing facility over 6 hours away,” according to the report.

That person did not receive appropriate services, the report states, which would include permanent supportive housing. He was unhoused and hospitalized several times, some of which were because he needed shelter in the cold. His caseworker recommended guardianship because they lacked access to needed services and a public administrator was appointed.

“His guardian has since placed him in three different nursing facilities.”

The report urges Missouri to prioritize community-based services, including wraparound services that assist with housing, treatment, and other needs, directly to the person’s home and community.

“The fact that some of these changes might result in short-term increases in spending does not render them unreasonable,” the report states.

Housed in jails

Beyond the issues laid out in the DOJ report, Missouri has been struggling with housing those with mental illness in another inappropriate setting: jails.

Missourians who are arrested, deemed unfit to stand trial, and ordered into mental health treatment are now detained in jail for an average of eleven months before being transferred to a mental health facility.

There are currently 312 people in jails waiting to be moved to psychiatric hospitals, according to data provided to The Independent last week by the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Debra Walker, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email last week to The Independent that the reason the number seems to keep going up is due to a workforce shortage.

“People in need of mental health care or substance use treatment are unable to access it in a timely manner due to provider shortages,” she said.

The state’s years-long struggle to transfer people from jails into mental hospitals stems, in part, from a lack of hospital beds and an increase in referrals. Patients are supposed to be moved to receive rehabilitative mental health services that allow them to become competent to stand trial, a process called competency restoration. Instead, they languish in jails — often solitary confinement — without having been found guilty of any crime.

Missouri this year passed a law to bring treatment to the jails — “jail-based competency restoration” — which Department of Mental Health officials said will reduce the wait time.

The hiring of staff has begun, Walker said, and training will start soon as jail contracts are “being finalized.”

(Photo licensed via Envato Elements)

Originally Appeared Here

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The May 2019 tornado that swept through Jefferson City marked a historic moment that changed people’s lives and the scope of the city, while also taking some pieces of history with it.

It tore through the east side of town, damaging many parts of the city that held historical significance. These included landmarks like the Missouri State Penitentiary and rows of historical houses along Jackson Street and East Capitol Avenue.

Donna Deetz was the president of the Historic City of Jefferson organization in 2019 and remembers the eerie feeling of seeing the damage to Capitol Avenue after the tornado.

“Everybody was just kind of walking around in a daze wondering what was going to happen next and what the damage looked like,” Deetz said.

A map provided by Deetz shows 15 buildings within two blocks of East Capitol Avenue were damaged by the tornado. Of the 15 that received damage, most were listed as unsafe. Six were designated as local landmarks.

Some of those buildings are now just empty plots.

This includes the Dix Apartments at 623 E. Capitol Avenue, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is now a slab of concrete.

Or the Dallmeyer House at 600 E. Capitol Avenue, built in 1875 by a Civil War veteran, which is now just a patch of grass.

623 E. Capitol Avenue, 2016, Courtesy: HCJ

600 E. Capitol Avenue, 2016, Courtesy: HCJ

623 E. Capitol Avenue, 2019, Courtesy: HCJ

600 E. Capitol Avenue, 2016, Courtesy: HCJ

623 E. Capitol Avenue, 2024

600 E. Capitol Avenue, 2024

Deetz said the tornado picked up the Dallmeyer House off of its foundation and it couldn’t be reset. All that is left now are a few concrete steps leading up to where the house used to stand.

“It was a hard one to have taken down,” Deetz said.

She said it was heartbreaking to see what was happening to the historical buildings in the City.

“There’s so much history and so many stories there,” Deetz said. “When you lose one of those buildings, you’re losing a piece of that history and a piece of those stories.”

Not every building that was damaged, though, had to come down.

512 E. Capitol Avenue after the 2019 tornado. Courtesy: Adam Veile

512 E. Capitol Avenue had an entire wall knocked down into a pile of bricks after the tornado.

The building, originally built in 1873, now houses the Communique offices. CEO Adam Veile said he was surprised the building wasn’t condemned.

“We were a building with three walls, and it turns out you only need three walls,” Veile said. “So, we kind of just got to work.”

Communique has been in that building on Capitol Avenue since 1983.

Veile said he remembers days from his childhood sliding down the banister and attending Christmas parties in that building, and it’s for both historical and personal reasons that it was important to him to rebuild.

“It’s all the lives that came before you,” Veile said. “And, in this building, we’ve been here 30 years, so, it’s not only the people who came before us, it’s a lot of our own history.”

He said insurance gave them $290,000. So, Veile made that his budget.

“Every once in a while, somebody would walk by on the street and say, ‘What are you doing? Why are you even trying to do this?’ But, you know … this is our building,” Veile said. “It’s important, I think, to this street.”

Veile said a large tarp was put up in the meantime to try to keep the elements out and the Communique team worked in a different office.

The rebuild was completed in the summer of 2020, more than a year after the tornado knocked the wall over.

The interior, which used to be decorated with lush blue carpet and unique wallpaper, now looks a bit different with hardwood floors and light blue walls. But, parts of the history were able to be recovered, including a mantle that Veile said was found intact in the large pile of bricks.

512 E. Capitol Avenue, 2024

512 E. Capitol Avenue, 2024

Now, Communique is being recognized for its preservation efforts.

Veile and the Communique team are receiving the Golden Hammer Award and the Gregory Stockard Award from the Historic City of Jefferson. Deetz said these awards are given to people who do extraordinary preservation work in Jefferson City.

“It’s hard to talk about the City of Jefferson without talking about its history,” Deetz said.

Historic City of Jefferson is also doing what it can to preserve pieces of the historic buildings.

Deetz said when a historic building is scheduled to be demolished, such as those along Capitol Avenue, Historic City of Jefferson will ask the owner to salvage any historic pieces like doorways, windows and mantlepieces.

Those items are then resold through Historic City of Jefferson’s salvage store for anyone to buy and repurpose.

“There’s a lot of ways to re-utilize that material, but there’s stories that go along with them,” Deetz said.

Deetz said after the tornado that she was focused on fixing the damage to the Historic City of Jefferson office building, which included broken windows, a blown-off roof and a knocked out wall. Other than that, all she could do was support the other homeowners in the area.

“There’s not a whole lot that we can do other than physically help clean stuff,” Deetz said. “We did a lot of reclamation, a lot of salvaging where buildings could not be saved.”

Veile said he remembers so many volunteers coming around to help.

“It was just amazing, it was an army of people, and people calling and texting, everybody wanting to pitch in,” Veile said. “We couldn’t have done it without all those people.”

Jefferson City is currently working through the RFP process to address blight in other buildings along Capitol Avenue due to both the tornado and other pre-existing conditions.

Watch the ABC 17 News special “Rebuilding Mid-Missouri” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Originally Appeared Here

Missouri’s delays in processing Medicaid applications — among the worst in the nation — have the attention of federal regulators, who will conduct a “focused review” of the problem, according to a letter obtained by the Missouri Independent.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in a letter sent to the state May 22 and obtained Friday afternoon under Missouri’s Sunshine Law, said it is concerned the state is not doing enough to “achieve and sustain” compliance with federal rules on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Because of these concerns, the agency will intervene to help Missouri identify strategies to come back into compliance.

Medicaid applications for low-income Americans are required to be reviewed within 45 days.

In Missouri, the most recent federal data from February shows 72 percent of applications took more than 45 days to process — the worst in the country that month. That’s up from 58 percent in January.

Nationwide, most applications were processed within 24 hours last year.

The Missouri Department of Social Services, which oversees the state’s Medicaid program, is required to submit specified data to the feds this month to work on strategies for coming back into compliance. If it doesn’t improve, Missouri could be subject to formal compliance actions, including an official corrective action plan, and would be at risk of losing federal funding.

A similar letter was sent to Texas, according to the business publication Modern Healthcare. A CMS spokesperson didn’t immediately answer a question about which other states were included.

Long processing times can cause low-income patients and those with disabilities to forego medical care and prescriptions. Patients have told the Independent they are delaying medical care during pregnancy because they can’t get enrolled in Medicaid.

The federal government said in the May letter it is concerned “particularly given the prolonged period of the state’s noncompliance.”

In December, more than half of Missouri’s applications took longer than 45 days to process.

As of February, Missouri’s 72 percent noncompliance rate stands far above other states. The next highest were New Mexico (58 percent), Alaska (53 percent) and Texas (46 percent).

Tim McBride, a health policy analyst, professor at Washington University in St. Louis and former chair of the board that oversees Missouri’s Medicaid program, said it is “very concerning” just how much Missouri’s issues stand out.

“If we compare the state’s processing time to other states, we appear to really be an outlier,” he said, and “in not such a good way.”

It’s not clear why Missouri can’t meet the 45 day requirement, McBride said.

“We have heard the problem is understaffing, antiquated computer systems and a problematic call center,” he said. “But more could be done to rectify this.”

In summer 2022, the federal government initiated a formal mitigation plan with the state to get the processing time down.

It worked, but wait times started creeping back up in October, according to the letter. In October, 34 percent of determinations exceeded 45 days.

“Although we understand that the state continues to employ the strategies outlined in its July 2022 mitigation plan,” the letter states, “due to the persistent nature of the current backlog, we believe it is critical for the state to review its current processes and adopt additional alternative strategies that will mitigate the harm being caused to applicants.”

Missouri’s social services agency is committed to cooperating with the federal probe and improving the wait times, spokesperson Baylee Watts said, and will submit the data by the deadline.

“The Department of Social Services is actively working to furnish the information needed for CMS’s review process,” Watts said.

“Our goal is always to strive towards continuous improvement when serving Missourians, and we will continue to work with our federal partners to achieve that.”

The letter states CMS engaged with Missouri staff in January to try to understand and fix the backlog, and the state attributed the problem to an increase in applications at the time.

From November to mid-January, during open enrollment season for the federal insurance marketplace, the state generally sees an uptick in Medicaid applications.

McBride said that influx in applications “should have been anticipated” around open enrollment.

And the increase in applications hasn’t leveled off as much this year as was expected, officials previously said. McBride said some of the continual increase in applications could be due to people losing coverage and reapplying.

The state around a year ago began re-checking every Medicaid participant’s eligibility, after a federal COVID-era suspension on annual renewals expired.

Around 356,000 people have lost coverage in the renewal process, preliminary state data analyzed by the Center for Advancing Health Services Policy and Economics Research at Washington University in St. Louis, shows. Around half of them were children.

Net enrollment, which includes the number of people who got on the program as others were getting removed, fell by 212,203 people. Over half Medicaid participation sits at 1.3 million as of May, down from 1.5 million in June of last year.

Joel Ferber, director of advocacy at the nonprofit Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, said he’s glad the feds are “finally taking action” to require Missouri to explore more strategies for compliance.

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri is one of the state’s legal aid programs that provides free legal assistance to low-income and disadvantaged Missourians, including on Medicaid application issues. Advocates for months have noted the intensifying bureaucratic hurdles for Missourians to access and retain coverage, including issues with the state’s online portal to upload eligibility documents.

Ferber has been urging Missouri to pause its disenrollments while it makes improvements.

“Too many are falling through the cracks under the current system,” Ferber said.

Another issue the state identified, according to the letter, was it “faced shortages in eligibility staff due to the needs of other human services programs, which compete with the state’s Medicaid and [Children’s Health Insurance Program] agency for resources.”

One of those programs competing for the Department of Social Services’ resources is food stamps: A federal court last month ruled Missourians were being illegally denied food aid by the state, in part due to hours-long call center wait times.

The call center wait time issues seem to cut across all of DSS’ programs — Medicaid’s average call wait time was the longest in the nation in Missouri as of February, according to federal data, though it’s not the focus of this probe. It was 56 minutes in February.

The Missouri Independent, www.missouriindependent.com, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering state government and its impact on Missourians.

Originally Appeared Here

JEFFERSON CITY — Jefferson City Council members voted in favor of a plan to redevelop a piece of land the city owns next to the Missouri State Penitentiary Monday night. The plan includes the construction a river market at the location. The city was at risk of losing the land and millions of dollars in state funding along with it. 

“We have a community revitalization grant, and it’s a match grant. So if we would not fulfill the terms in that grant, then we could lose, potentially, the city-controlled area, as well as $2.1 million in grant funding,” city spokesperson Molly Bryan said.

Part of the terms of the contract with the state involve having the site developed by July 2025. Bryan said the city already has the appropriated funds to meet the state matching grant.

Map showing location of a proposed river market in Jefferson City

City of Jefferson and Bartlett & West

In response to why council members would consider voting against the proposal, Ward Three councilmember Treaka Young said they are concerned about a lack of infrastructure in the area. 

“But that’s one of the things it’s going to be able to bring us,” Young said. “The new infrastructure process — that will help us to be able to build on for future things that we may have in mind.”

The site is on Chestnut Street, close to the Missouri River. The current proposal includes a pavilion with plans to be used partially as a farmer’s market. The plan includes planting grass on a vast majority of the multi-acre space, which could be further developed later on.

Rendering of a proposed pavilion, which would be home to a farmer’s market, on Chestnut Street adjacent to the Missouri State Penitentiary.

City of Jefferson and Bartlett & West

Young said there was also concern that other community institutions, such as Lincoln University, have plans to open a farmer’s market. 

“We were concerned about duplication of efforts. And we were able to work that out. It seems that we do have support from the other entities,” Young said.

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Young explained that council members have met with the state and other community entities to discuss the project, and she said she will be voting to approve the current proposal at the Monday night meeting. 

Jefferson City Parks and Recreation will operate the space if the plan goes through.

“You can just picture the views and the events that could take place with the backdrop of the river here,” Ashley Wiskirchen, community relations manager for the department, said. 

Part of the plan involves knocking down a large stretch of old wall from the penitentiary and paving Chestnut Street down the park street. A portion of the street is currently gravel.

Current site of the proposed Jefferson City river market.

John Murphy, KOMU 8 Reporter

Wiskirchen said the market and pavilion will be able to rent for public and private events, such as birthday parties and art shows. 

“We do have Deborah Cooper Park (located on the Missouri River in front of the State Capitol, northwest of the proposal site), so the opportunity to connect trail systems from that park all the way up to the east side of the Capitol is also a really great opportunity,” she said. 

Rendering of the pavilion at the proposed river market in Jefferson City

City of Jefferson and Bartlett & West

Jefferson City has already spent city money as well as matched state funding to remove rubble from old buildings on the site.

Originally Appeared Here