Forum Flashbacks: Jan. 14 – Jan. 20

FORUM FILE PHOTO
Jasmine, a 4-year-old boxer belonging to Mike Morton of Maryville, has one heart on the inside of her chest and one heart on the outside. While walking the dog in Maryville recently, Morton pointed out the unique, heart-shaped marking on Jasmine’s coat.

25 years ago

• “So far, so good” was the word from a confident and enthusiastic new Chamber director midway through the afternoon on her first day on her own.
  Judy Brohammer, executive director for the Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce, was already busy getting organized and meeting with businesses on her first solo day.
  Brohammer commented on the exceptional job done by former executive director, Joss Walter, and said one way she will personalize her new position is to visit with many people and determine what the Chamber can do to fulfill various needs.
  “I want to get out and meet with Chamber members to find out what they expect from me personally and what they want from the Chamber that they haven’t had in the past,” Brohammer said. “I’m here to fulfill the desire of the members. They’re my bosses.”
• Thirty-one months prior to the end of a 15-year contract with the Classic Cable, the City of Maryville has received an official letter regarding Classic Cable’s intentions to refranchise.
  In the current contract, which was originally enacted in August 1983 under CableVision, it states that a 24-month notice is required to inform the city of the cable company’s intentions to refranchise.
  Since the city has received the official notice, they are proceeding with the refranchising process.
  David Angerer, city manager, said he is currently soliciting proposals from companies and individuals with expertise in franchising.
  The City of Maryville is planning to retain a consultant, who will know how cable is expected to grow in the next 10 years, Angerer said.
  “There are expected to be some rather dramatic changes in the cable industry and we want a franchise agreement that takes them into account.”

15 years ago

• A group of Nodaway County residents is working to halt the construction of a 5,000-hog feeding operation to be built near Burlington Junction.
  To stop the plan — which they say will create terrible smells, damage the environment and lower property values — they’ve gone before the Nodaway County Commission. Commissioners at a meeting last week indicated they were opposed to such an operation, and they are working to draft a health ordinance to make confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, against the law in Nodaway County.
  However, the man selling the property to United Hog Systems of Marshall, Mo., and a representative of that company say new technology helps reduce the stench and the environmental impact, and they haven’t seen any evidence of lower property values near similar operations.

5 years ago

• SSM Health St. Francis Hospital President Mike Baumgartner presided over what he called a “different kind of groundbreaking” Wednesday afternoon as a group of staffers donned hardhats, picked up sledgehammers, and pounded holes in the wall of what used to be a lounge area just inside one of the hospital’s east entrances.
  The “wall-breaking” ceremony marked the official start of construction for a $1.7 million project that will add space to the existing emergency treatment center while providing patients there with considerably more privacy.
  “It’s all about the patients,” Baumgartner said just before the hammers thudded and the sheetrock flew. “It really is all about improving the care we provide for our patients.” …
  When the renovation project is complete, the former lounge area located to the south of the hospital’s main entrance will contain a relocated St. Francis gift shop. The existing registration area will then move across the hall into the space occupied by the current gift shop.
  That will allow for expansion of the emergency department.
• The anticipated campaign to garner support for the continuation of the existing half-cent sales tax supporting operations at Maryville’s Mozingo Lake Recreation Park and the imposition of an additional sales tax of one-eighth of 1 percent to provide funds to construct and operate a new conference center at the popular park was officially launched last week.
  Maryville City Manager Greg McDanel and Assistant City Manager Ryan Heiland have begun a series of presentations to various civic and service organizations in an effort to provide as much information as possible about the two requests that will be submitted April 5 to Maryville voters as separate questions.
  Each will require a majority of positive votes for affirmation.
  The larger of the two sales tax levies being requested is a 20-year extension of the existing half-cent levy that has been collected since the inception of the 3,000-acre city park located just north of U.S. Highway 136, approximately six miles east of Maryville.
  The existing sales tax for Mozingo operations is scheduled to expire July 1, 2017, unless renewed by voters.