Forum Flashbacks: Nov. 4-11
MARYVILLE DAILY FORUM, NOV. 6, 2001
25 YEARS AGO: Teresa Macias’ reading class grades 5-8, Maryville Middle School, recently visited Maryville Public Safety and the fire station. The students presented the officers with candles and glass jars they had decorated in patriotic colors. … Pictured in the photo with Lt. Phil Rickabaugh, Maryville Public Safety Fire Division, are (front l to r) Bryan Gilbert, (middle, l to r) Seth Rickabaugh, Dakota Bownes and Dan Lawyer, (back, l to r) Tyler Young, Kale McBrien, Cody McClintock and Lukas Riley.
50 years ago
Maryville Daily Forum, Nov. 8, 1976
Party Lines Gradually Disappear
It appears that one day just as the telephone switchboard and the exchange operator disappeared, the party line will also become a thing of the past.
The four telephone companies serving Nodaway County are all in the process of upgrading service to both their city and rural customers. Some of the companies are working toward laying buried cables. Others are decreasing the number of customers on a party line and installing equipment enabling more customers to be serviced with private lines. …
The disappearance of the multiparty lines is also bringing about the demise of the monitor button. When the majority of customers were served by lines often having six, eight or ten families on one line, a monitor button was standard equipment on each telephone. The button allowed a person to pick up his telephone and “monitor” whether the phone was in use by one of his neighbors.
Multiparty lines, many party lines and even private lines, at the customer’s request, are also often equipped with a timing devise(sic). The devise(sic) signals when a conversation has continued for a set number of minutes, usually six or eight, and then a minute or two later the call is automatically terminated.
The move to fewer numbers of persons per party line or to private lines has not met with the approval of all of the telephone customers. Some customers do not like the increased monthly cost the new equipment causes. Other customers simply miss the close contact with their neighbors the party line provided.
25 years ago
Maryville Daily Forum, Nov. 9, 2001
Groundbreaking held for joint-use facility
The beginning of the construction of a new joint-use facility reflects Northwest Missouri State University’s and the Maryville community’s approval for additional recreational facilities and their support of the Missouri National Guard.
Local citizens supported the facility, through a “yes” vote on a sales tax proposal in August 2000. Now, the joint facility has become a reality with groundbreaking ceremonies held Wednesday for the new 500,000-square-foot facility Missouri National Guard Readiness Center and Maryville Community Center.
This joint facility will be an $8 million project, with $2.4 million of this project being raised at the local level. The National Guard/Maryville Park and Recreation Community Center is tentatively scheduled for completion in 2003. …
“This will be the first such joint facility of its kind, to be shared in the State of Missouri,” said Dan Edmonds, Maryville’s Park and Recreation Board president, in remarks during the ceremony. “The City of Maryville and the parks department are delighted to partner this venture with the Missouri National Guard.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The 50-year flashback is courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, accessible at shsmo.newspapers.com.
