Forum Flashbacks, March 25 – March 31

By Geoffrey Woehlk | March 26, 2021 |

FORUM FILE PHOTO
25 years ago – Desiree Winget dresses her baby for the Baby Think It Over program at Nodaway-Holt. A male and female infant simulator were purchased in September for the program which is part of the childcare and parenting course at the high school.

25 years ago

One of the great educators of fire safety in Maryville, passed away Friday afternoon. Sparky the fire dog, a Dalmatian, had been with the Maryville Department of Public Safety since 1988, prior to an accident with one of the department’s trucks.
The truck was leaving on a call to extinguish a car on fire, when Sparky was struck by the truck, according to MDPS Director Keith Wood.
“Sparky had trained more kids in fire safety than anyone else in our department,” Wood said. “Kids have thought a lot of him.”
Sparky was a member of Lt. Phil Rickabaugh’s family prior to his service with Public Safety.
“He gave our community a lot of service and our department will miss him greatly and our sympathy goes out to the Rickabaugh family,” Wood said.

15 years ago

The Maryville City Council may have just found its man.
During Monday evening’s meeting, City Manager Michael Rietz said the city has been looking to recruit a new wastewater treatment superintendent and was leaning on Public Works Director Gregory Decker on that placement.
“Greg was calling around for an option for the interim period, and this company specializes on water and wastewater treatment operations,” Rietz said, referring to PeopleService Inc. of Omaha, Neb.
Thunderstorms — even tornadoes — made their mark on Nodaway County on Thursday night.
Radio reports indicated a tornado touched down between Fillmore and Rosendale and that the system was moving toward southeast Nodaway County. That system, reports said, was moving northeast at 55 mph.
The biggest damage seemed to have occurred west of Clearmont, said Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey.
“We had a 40-by-60 building that was totally flattened,” Espey said. “We’re not sure right now what the cause was, but we’re thinking it might have been a microburst.”

5 years ago

Outside this planet, robots are for space travel. On it, robots are for nerds, like the students at South Nodaway R-IV who have reclaimed the term.
It’s official. Members of the Novice Engineers Robots Design Society No. 9960 of South Nodaway are NERDS. The group is composed of six students who meet to build robots by learning engineering principles and computer programming.
On January 30, NERDS competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Teams were responsible for designing, building, and programming the robots to accomplish tasks and competed both individually and paired with others.
NERDS earned third place out of 24 teams. Schools that took the first two places have more than 1,000 students. South Nodaway has about 90.
Saddle up pardner. Pending approval by the Maryville City Council tonight “Extreme Cowboy” horse racing is coming to Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.
The proposed events would take place April 2, April 30, and May 14-15 on a course already being prepared on the west side of Mozingo Lake.
Extreme Cowboy racing is a relatively new sport that hearkens back to the days of all-around ranch horses that could jump obstacles, work cattle, ford streams, and serve as reliable saddle mounts over long distances.
Craig Cameron of Texas, a noted professional rodeo cowboy, created Extreme Cowboy Racing about 12 years ago and subsequently founded the Extreme Cowboy Association — EXCA — as its governing organization.
Competitions incorporate the natural landscape into courses that demand a variety of horse-and-rider skills, including trail riding, ranch work, jumping, barrel racing, cutting, and reining.