City of Joplin asks Highway Patrol to investigate Hope Valley CID money

KOAM's Jordan Aubey reports that the City of Joplin has asked the Missouri Highway Patrol to investigate sales tax money that is going into the Hope Valley CID has been stolen.

The investigation came after Darrell Gross, a consultant to the Hope Valley CID was charged with stealing money from the Big Springs CID in Neosho.

From the KOAM report:

The same year investigators say Gross began stealing from the Neosho back in March of 2015, Joplin's city council approved the Hope Valley CID. The 147-acre CID includes the Cracker Barrel restaurant, two hotels, and a furniture shopping center. A one-percent sales tax in this area has been collected for proposed new construction, utility improvements, and walking trails. But Joplin city council members say not one of these improvements has been made in Hope Valley since the CID's approval.

Joplin City Attorney Peter Edwards told us in an e-mail, "Joplin is concerned, based on Mr. Gross charged with three felonies in Newton County...that Mr. Gross also had access to the bank accounts of the Hope Valley CID."

The Missouri Department of Revenue says more than $177,000 in revenue from the Joplin CID was mailed to, what the Missouri State Highway Patrol says is, Gross' personal address.