Forging a partnership between the city and Boone County to plan for the future of the Central Missouri Events Center is one of the main priorities the Columbia Chamber of Commerce listed in its agenda for 2017. The chamber unveiled the agenda at the annual Mayor's Appreciation Breakfast on Wednesday morning.

Police were investigating a death that occurred Thursday at the Welcome Inn motel in Columbia as a homicide, Columbia Spokeswoman Bryana Larimer said in an email Friday morning. At about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, officers from the Columbia Police Department responded to a report of a cardiac arrest at the Welcome Inn at Providence Road near Interstate 70.

In two years, CoMo Gives increased the amount of money it raised for local nonprofits by nearly sixfold. The campaign, run through the Community Foundation of Central Missouri and sponsored by local businesses, allows donors to give money to participating nonprofit organizations in the month of December.

The status quo remains in Boone County's state House seats. Republicans retained the 44th and 47th Districts, while Democrats kept the 45th and 46th Districts. Republican Caleb Jones was unopposed in his bid to keep the 50th District. In the 44th District, Hallsville Mayor Cheri Reisch defeated insurance agent Tom Pauley by a vote of 9,188 to 7,298, or 55.7 percent to 44.3 percent.

Boone County voters on Tuesday will help pick the person who will serve as the next president for about 324 million Americans, but it's certainly not the only important office that will be filled tomorrow. There are eight local races in which the outcomes arguably will have a more direct influence on Columbia and Boone County residents.

On Tuesday, Boone County residents will flock to the polls to vote on five statewide ballot measures and on a plethora of county, state and federal races. They'll help select the next president. They'll decide whether they want to keep or replace their U.S. senator in a race that could have national implications.

Tom Leuther, a local pastor who sought the Third Ward seat on the Columbia City Council last spring, has been fined by the Missouri Ethics Commission for violations of state campaign finance laws. Leuther, who made an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Third Ward incumbent Karl Skala, has agreed to a consent order from the Ethics Commission that in essence will fine him $200.

Columbia will receive five more electric buses and battery charging stations from BYD, a company from which three buses were leased in August of this year. Delivery of the buses is expected around Nov. 4. The buses will be obtained on a lease-to-own agreement over the next 12 years. At the end of the agreement, the city will own the buses outright, according to a memo to the Columbia City Council.

Monica Miller finds that most political forums lack people of color in the audience. That's why she helped create an organization to encourage minority involvement in the political process. Miller is the political chair for Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which joined with the Minority Men's Network in spring 2015 to establish the Civically Engaged African-Americans of Columbia.

COLUMBIA — Vicky Riback Wilson grew up on Rock Quarry Road and watched it change from a rural gravel lane to a busy, paved street. Now, she's fighting to ensure that the only officially designated scenic route in Columbia retains as much of its natural beauty as possible. Wilson co-chairs the Rock Quarry Road Scenic Roadway Stakeholder Advisory Group, an association dedicated to maintaining the natural beauty of Rock Quarry Road. Recent tree clearing the city did along the road for utility maintenance has triggered complaints from the group, which was close to presenting a plan to the city for preserving the road. Wilson saw the clearings occur while driving the road, and she tried to stop it. "I contacted Richard Stone, who is our committee staffing person, and he started looking into it," Wilson said. "It took a while to figure out who had asked it to be done and why, but by that time it was too late." Rock Quarry was formally designated a scenic roadway in 1998. Long before that, city planners had recognized Rock Quarry as special. In 1935, Hare & Hare of Kansas City, a consultant for the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission, proposed that the lane — from immediately south of Stadium and continuing across Hinkson Creek and along Grindstone Creek — become part of the state topographical scenic highway. The Columbia City Council voted in favor of that idea. The commission's recommendation concluded that the scenic highway would add "a note of distinction and individuality to the city in the minds of the traveling public." The plan also noted that future "provisions should be made to protect the scenery adjacent and guard against commercial intrusions and billboards." "Rock Quarry Road has had a scenic designation for many years because it is considered a treasure, not just for the people that live on it or use it regularly, but for many people," Wilson said. In June, the city began clear-cutting 70-foot trees near the MU surplus equipment warehouse adjacent to Capen Park to prevent the trees from becoming entangled in power lines or falling on the lines during a storm, said Stone, the city's traffic engineering supervisor. "It is a danger for people in the surrounding area," Stone said. "Especially during the winter, that can be dangerous as far as people not having heat, (and) people not having the ability to have electricity." Water and Light Department spokeswoman Connie Kacprowicz agreed and said the city spends $2 million per year to maintain trees near utility lines. "Tree trimming is one of the most important things we can do to protect the reliability of our electric system," Kacprowicz said in an email. "Mother Nature is the worst enemy of an electric system and causes the majority of our outages." Kacprowicz also said the city got approval from MU, which owns the affected property, before clear-cutting the area. The city generally only cuts down underbrush and volunteer trees that pose hazards to streets or ones that are over 12 feet tall, Kacprowicz said. Water and Light follows the National Arbor Day tree trimming guidelines and has received the Tree Line USA award annually since 1998, she noted. Power lines along Rock Quarry are maintained by both the city and Boone Electric Cooperative, a separate utility that serves around 20,000 customers. A Boone Electric representative told the Missourian it was aware that Rock Quarry is a scenic road and was not involved in cutting trees near the MU land. Boone Electric trims a maximum of 10 feet off trees along Rock Quarry Road if they become hazards to power lines to avoid doing too much damage to the scenery. David Wilson, Vicky Wilson's son, drives Rock Quarry Road frequently to get to his home on Blackberry Lane, where has lived for 18 years. He said Rock Quarry is important to Columbia. "I think Rock Quarry is a real gem of Columbia. It's my favorite road," he said. "I think it's a unique road in Columbia, and so I think that character and that tone of the road are worth preserving." Kacprowicz said city officials are meeting with the Rock Quarry advisory group to hash out a plan for replanting trees and to control future incidents in a more satisfactory way. Barbara Hoppe, a member of the advisory group and former Sixth Ward councilwoman, said a set of recommendations is nearly ready to present to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which will review them before forwarding the plan to the City Council. "I've been serving on this group for two years, and we're almost done with the work," she said. "The goal was to come up with some recommendations for Planning and Zoning and the council on ways to preserve the scenic road and enhance it, yet also (make) it safer." She cited a past episode in which Boone Electric was planning to clear-cut trees along Rock Quarry. Residents contacted Hoppe, though, and she was able to intervene. "At the time Boone Electric said, 'Oh, we didn't know it was a scenic road. We were just doing whatever we do on the country roads,'" she said. "I mean, it was just one size fits all." Hoppe hopes Rock Quarry can be preserved so future generations can also appreciate it. "I hope the road will be here in a hundred years. I won’t, so it's not for me," she said. "There's an importance to preserving some of the sweet things of one generation that other generations can enjoy, and if we don’t take measures to protect them they're gone. "So you have to be vigilant and you have to be willing to work and fight for what you want." Supervising editor is Scott Swafford.

COLUMBIA — Living next door to a possible Native American burial ground could be in the cards for Columbia residents in the near future. Tompkins Homes and Development, Inc. received a recommendation at Thursday's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to annex a property at the end of Smith Drive in the western part of Columbia. The property, which will be known as Breckenridge Park, will be a 90.8-acre, 138-lot preliminary plat zoned for single-family housing. One of the lots in the plat will be set aside from construction to preserve a mound that is possibly a Native American burial ground. The mound appears to have been constructed between 450 and 750 A.D., according to a letter written to the commission by Michael O'Brien, a former professor of anthropology at MU. The mound had been examined as part of an archaeological survey in 1980, which determined it was "probably eligible" for registration with the National Register of Historic Places. According to a city staff report, the development company is aware of the mound and how it must be maintained. The company will treat the mound as a burial ground. It would be regulated by state statutes that govern how you can handle human remains. The company will take steps to ensure the site is preserved and undeveloped, and will isolate it as part of a green space. The development company reached out earlier this year to the Osage Nation, a tribe with historical connections to the region, and agreed to let them tour the site. The Nation quit responding though, and afterwards the company reached out to O'Brien. Phebe LaMar, who spoke for the company, said O'Brien told them he did not think it was Osage land. LaMar told the commission the development could reveal potential archaeological finds, even though they were not going to dig on the site of the mound. "We've already agreed that if there are artifacts found in the development of this project we will donate them to the University of Missouri," she said. Before the annexation can be finalized, it must be approved by City Council. Supervising editor is Allison Colburn

Martha Stevens and Don Waterman, the two candidates vying for the 46th District seat in the Missouri House, didn't agree on much during a forum at Friday's meeting of the Boone County Muleskinners. About 40 people attended the luncheon at the Columbia Country Club. During introductions, Stevens, a Democrat, spoke about her background and her career advocating for reproductive rights and Medicaid expansion.

The head of the Columbia Police Officers' Association is unhappy with a City Council decision last week to make newly hired Columbia police lieutenants at-will workers. The council voted 5-1 last Monday night on a provision related to the fiscal 2017 city budget that made all newly hired police lieutenants, as well as those who are promoted to the position, unclassified workers.

Monday’s meeting of the Columbia City Council will be the third and last chance for the public to offer comments on the budget, which is estimated at $440.9 million. The previous two meetings have produced several proposed amendments from council members. Moving planned street work at Fairview and Chapel Hill roads to fiscal 2024.

The idea of establishing a Mayor's Task Force on Medical Tourism in Columbia was gaining steam even before Mayor Brian Treece made his initial appointments to the group Wednesday morning. “My phone is ringing off the hook from people who want to participate in this,” Treece said during a news conference at the Daniel Boone City Building where he revealed the first eight members of the task force.

COLUMBIA - Secretary of State candidate Jay Ashcroft began his general election campaign tour Thursday with stops in mid-Missouri to tout the importance of requiring a photo ID to vote. Ashcroft's Election Integrity Tour included a speech at the Missouri Pork Producers Association after a stop in Jefferson City.