Christian County

OZARK, Mo. -- Christian County is one of 11 counties recently added to those participating in a statewide program to provide assistance to people with developmental disabilities. The Partnership for Hope program provides home and community-based services to 1,300 individuals statewide. It began last October as a way for families to receive assistance before a crisis situation arose and options for care became more limited. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon was in Ozark today to highlight the expansion of the program.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A driver faces several charges after a lengthy chase through Christian and Greene counties on Monday morning. The chase started in Christian County after officers received a call about a robbery.  The driver led deputies and Springfield police through the southern part of the city and then turned north before he hit spike strips near Calhoun Street at Dickerson Avenue. The man jumped out of the pickup but was captured after a short foot chase.

OZARK, Mo. -- Christian County Sheriff Joey Kyle is looking for the owner of a small dog that he rescued from the forest fire his his county last week.  Kyle found the dog on Friday about halfway between Highway UU and Persimmon Road after he had to stop because a burned tree fell across the road. Kyle says the dog was covered with ash and soot but appears to be unharmed.  It had no collar.  Kyle took the dog back to the sheriff's department office in Ozark, where the dog slept for several hours.  The sheriff says the dog appears to be a mixed breed similar to a dachshund or a basset hound.  He's mostly black with a white blaze on his chest and mottled lower legs.  He's friendly and healthy.

SPOKANE, MO. -- Copper thieves turned off the lights in an entire Christian County community. Power has been restored in Spokane after vandals hit an electric company's sub-station. A thief's plan to make some easy cash turned south quickly. A dark morning for people in the Spokane area Tuesday morning after the power suddenly went out. White River Valley Electric Coop quickly sent crews to the substation causing all the trouble. Initially when they got the call at 1 a.m., 1960 people had lost power.

OZARK, Mo. -- Christian County prosecutors charged a man from Sparta this week for a crash that killed his son last Nov. 13.  John C. Clark, 33, also is charged for injuries to five other people during the crash. The crash was on Missouri 14 just east of Nixa about 4:40 p.m.  Highway Patrol troopers said Clark was drunk when he lost control.  His eastbound car went off the right side of the highwlay, then veered into the other lane into the path of an oncoming SUV, which struck Clark's car in the passenger side.  Another car then hit the SUV. Kohen Clark, 3, died at the scene.  He was riding in the back of Clark's Toyota.  John Clark and four others, including a baby and a 4-year old child, were all rushed to a hospital, some with serious injuries, by air ambulance and ground ambulances.

NIXA, Mo. - A man from Nevada was arrested late last month on a warrant from Christian County for three counts of sexual misconduct involving a child, authorities said Thursday. Jayant Sharma, 30, was arrested by Washoe County, Nev., sheriff's deputies on July 23 in Reno, Nev. after a two-year investigation by the Nixa Police Department Cyber Crimes Unit into online chats Sharma conducted. According to a press release from the city of Nixa, Sharma is accused of exposing himself and sending several images of pornography to detectives, believing them to be young girls from Missouri.

OZARK, Mo. -- Many safe rooms are designed to withstand winds of up to 250 miles per hour, and they have been shown to save lives.  However, there is a chance people could get trapped inside underneath mounds of debris. "We heard some concerns about people who were in their storm shelter and lots of debris everywhere, and there could be a case where somebody could be trapped in there," said Christian County Emergency Management Director Phil Amtower. The Joplin devastation last May spurred Amtower and his team to come up with a new system to track safe rooms .  They launched the online database last week.

NIXA, Mo. -- Booming growth in Christian County means second high schools are part of the long term plans for the Ozark and Nixa school districts.  Construction projects are common sights in these two districts because their populations are growing so fast that they exceed projections.  The Nixa district likely will have 6,000 students next year, a number that, four years ago, administrators didn't plan to hit for a few more years. While classrooms were filling up, construction crews were working outside Nixa Junior High on Wednesday to make more room.

CHRISTIAN COUNTY, Mo. - Striking images of the devastation in Oklahoma are forcing people far beyond the destruction zone to think about life and death. Local storm shelter companies are receiving inquiries from people concerned about their own safety here at home. "We are constantly seeing an increase in phone and emails coming across," stated Jordan Smith, with Red Zone Storm Shelters. Red Zone sells a newer design of storm shelter, which fits into the floor of a garage.

OZARK, Mo. -- The driver of a semi-tractor is charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer after a 20-mile southbound chase, much of it in the northbound lanes of U.S. 65, on Sunday night.  Jesse DeJongh, 18, was arrested early Monday, several hours after officers say he crashed his truck in southern Christian County and fled into the woods. Greene County sheriff's deputies started chasing DeJongh's truck on U.S. 65 after employees of Hood's Truck Stop near Bois D'Arc said he drove off with about $700 worth of stolen fuel.

NIXA, Mo. - A man from Nevada was arrested late last month on a warrant from Christian County for three counts of sexual misconduct involving a child, authorities said Thursday. Jayant Sharma, 30, was arrested by Washoe County, Nev., sheriff's deputies on July 23 in Reno, Nev. after a two-year investigation by the Nixa Police Department Cyber Crimes Unit into online chats Sharma conducted. According to a press release from the city of Nixa, Sharma is accused of exposing himself and sending several images of pornography to detectives, believing them to be young girls from Missouri.

NIXA, Mo -- Two major rivals in the Ozarks are coming together all in the name of economic development. Nixa and Ozark may not get along on the football field, but when it comes to promoting business in Northern Christian county, they have no problem playing on the same team. "What's good for Ozark is good for Nixa and vice versa," said Nixa Area Chamber of Commerce President Sharon Whitehill Gray. "Planning for the future is more important today than it ever has been," said Ozark City Administrator Steve Childers.

CHRISTIAN COUNTY, Mo. - Christian County is searching for a man wanted on a federal warrant who eluded law officers on Tuesday. Sheriff Joey Kyle told KY3 News that a U.S. Marshals task force was waiting for a man wanted on a federal warrant to show up when the man spotted the marshals and fled, leading law enforcement on a brief pursuit. The man went off a road into a forested area in northeastern Christian County. Officers began searching for the man, who Kyle did not name.

NIXA, Mo. -- A fire destroyed a large home in the 1800 block of Riverdale Road, south of Nixa, on Sunday night.  Seven fire departments from Christian and Greene counties sent more than 40 firefighters to the fire, which was reported just before 9 p.m.  It will still burning after 11 p.m. Nixa Assistant Fire chief Whitney Weaver said the 5,000-square-foot home was fully involved in flames when the first crews arrived.  The road to the home is...

OZARK, Mo. - Christian County commissioners have hired an engineering firm to analyze what to do next about the Riverside Bridge in Ozark. The county closed the bridge in March of 2011 because of structural problems.   But, the first order of business is finding money for a new bridge to carry car traffic over the Finley River. Preservationists hope the old span can be used for bicycles and pedestrians.   

A Christian County commissioner has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.  Tom Huff is accused of neglecting his duties and breaking state law by financially benefiting from work funded with county money. Huff's asphalt company did several road projects in the county. Huff's attorney says he and his wife checked with the Missouri Ethics Commission about bidding on road projects, and also had approval in a letter from the county attorney in November.

OZARK, Mo. -- Christian County Sheriff Joey Kyle is looking for the owner of a small dog that he rescued from the forest fire his his county last week.  Kyle found the dog on Friday about halfway between Highway UU and Persimmon Road after he had to stop because a burned tree fell across the road. Kyle says the dog was covered with ash and soot but appears to be unharmed.  It had no collar.  Kyle took the dog back to the sheriff's department office in Ozark, where the dog slept for several hours.  The sheriff says the dog appears to be a mixed breed similar to a dachshund or a basset hound.  He's mostly black with a white blaze on his chest and mottled lower legs.  He's friendly and healthy.

BRADLEYVILLE, Mo. - North of Bradleyville, a fire being called the Martin Fire, has burned about 1,000 acres of land, coming dangerously close to some homes.   About forty personnel, mostly with the U.S. Forest Service, are working to keep the fire contained.   It spans both private land and national forest land.   Though it's still burning, things are much calmer than 24 hours prior. It was a scary time along Martin Road Thursday.  Buddy Compton went to see all the commotion and tried to help as the wind switched and the flames approached a family's home.  “She grabbed her water hose, and I had a rake, kind of helped her a little bit. What started with a spark from a brush hog hitting a rock turned into about 1,000 acres of charred land.  “It spread so rapidly.  It's unreal how fast it went, says Compton.

OZARK, Mo. -- Republican Tom Huff has served as a Christian County commissioner since 2005.  Now he faces criminal charges and a petition to remove him from office. Huff hadn't been to a commission meeting in 19 months until last week, when he came to vote on a single issue.  It's an issue where he's accused of having an illegal conflict of interest.  Nearly five years ago, Commissioner Tom Huff was publicly questioned for the way he directed county resources to fix a parking lot problem at a Chadwick school.

OZARK -- Minutes after getting a call to an inferno on the side of Highway NN in Christian County, the Ozark Fire Chief and his crew imagined the worst when they reached the scene of single semi crash. "It wasn't looking good," said Chief Darren White.  The crew, though, could not have known what happened in the minutes before they arrived. First on the scene was Barry Baker, who had been driving down the highway when he saw the rig swerve off the road, skid hundreds of feet, slam into a culvert and tip on its side.