Forum Flashbacks: June 2-8
FORUM FILE PHOTO
25 YEARS AGO: It’s A Whopper – Four-year-old Trevor Shell of Maryville brought home this 17-1/4 inch, 2-1/4 pound crappie from his fishing trip Saturday. Trevor was fishing with his dad, Marshall, at a farm pond north of Maryville. Trevor, who has been fishing since he was 18-months-old, is now eligible to qualify as a Missouri State Master Angler, an honor given by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The state record for a crappie is 4 1/2 pounds. Trevor is the son of Marshall and Cara Shell and grandson of Raymond and Anita Shell, all of Maryville.
5 years ago
“It’s been kind of a special day,” Maryville Public Safety Director Keith Wood said late Thursday morning, his desk sporting a small red, white and blue bouquet and a cluster of blue, silver and parti-colored balloons.
The occasion, which Wood had forgotten about before the gifts and good-wishes started arriving, was the 40th anniversary of the beginning of his law enforcement career.
It’s a milestone few officers reach. Given the physical and emotional demands of being a cop, coupled with long hours, odd hours and the pressures on spouses and children, working behind a badge is pretty much a younger person’s profession.
Even chiefs and other senior officers often bow out in their 40s and 50s, succumbing to the pleasures of early retirement, the effects burnout, the enticements of better-paying private sector jobs or a combination of all three.
But Wood, who as MPD director serves as both the city’s police and fire chief, has stuck it out, and, at age 60, is hoping for at least another couple of years doing the kind of job that one becomes rather than merely goes to.
That’s because he’d really enjoy still being around in the summer of 2019, the tentative target for completion of a new police and fire headquarters, a project essentially given the go-ahead this spring by the solid majority of voters who approved extending Maryville’s half-cent capital improvements sales tax for another 20 years.
15 years ago
It’s been less than a year since she moved to the Nodaway Nursing Home, but Virginia ‘Gabby’ McGinnis, 88, takes extra care every morning to treat herself like a beauty queen.
And now she can actually add that title to her list of accomplishments.
Chosen by the nursing home staff as the representative from Nodaway Nursing Home to compete in the northwest chapter of the Missouri Healthcare Association District 4 Nursing Home Pageant, McGinnis won and will advance to the state competition in late August in St. Louis.
25 years ago
The Bob Johnson saga at Northeast Nodaway continues.
A night that had started with high expectations and morale ended with a visibly dejected Johnson talking to a small group of supporters in the cafeteria of the Northeast Nodaway High School at midnight, just minutes after the board had voted not to take action on the decision not to renew his contract for the 1997-98 school year. …
The night started at 8 p.m. with over 40 Johnson supporters expecting the chance to talk to the board in an open meeting format regarding the board’s decision not to renew Johnson’s contract. What they got was the opportunity to file in one at a time to talk to the board in a closed, executive session. …
What the board did do is meet one-on-one with Johnson supporters who had signed-up to speak with them. Johnson, who was the last of the 22 people to speak with the board Tuesday night, was not allowed to sit in on the meetings.
The first person to talk to the board was David Bond, a representative from the Missouri State Teachers Association.
“I told them they were acting in a very unprofessional and unethical manner,” Bond said of his meeting with the board. …
“I told them to look at his performance as documented, do not include your personal opinion.” …
This was not the first altercation between the board and Johnson of the year, however. The board had made the decision in September to remove Johnson from his position as high school girl’s(sic) softball, basketball and track coach, even though they could not fire him from the position. …
Johnson was kept on as junior high boys’ and girls’ coach, athletic director and coach for all high school boys’ teams.
(High School Principal Marlin) Kinman said it was a decision made with Johnson’s well-being in mind.
“We’ve always had one coach for all of our athletic teams,” Kinman said. “But sometimes, Bob was coming in at 6 a.m. to coach the girls and staying until 11:30 p.m., or midnight, if we had a game. That went on from October to February. On top of that, Bob was teaching seven out of eight blocks.” …
The problems stem from four letters written from parents and former students complaining of everything from favoritism to use of foul language to mental abuse. …
“The board should listen to the majority of voices the same way they listened to the minority of voices,” Bond said, again referring to the overwhelming support compared to the four letters written against Johnson.
For the second straight meeting concerning Johnson’s removal from the staff, not one of the individuals involved in writing an accusatory letter to the board concerning Johnson was present.
100 years ago
SCHOOL TO GIVE TEACHERS BONUS
Board of Education,Conception Jct. Takes
Progressive Step to Encourage Efficiency
ADDS $5 PER MONTH TO SALARY
To Its Teachers Who Attend School or College Somewhere This Summer — Only School in County to Offer Monthly Bonus
The Board of Education of the Conception Junction public schools goes on record this year by taking a progressive step that is not to be duplicated anywhere else in Nodaway County so far as reports in the office of the county superintendent show.
At the spring meeting when the teaching staff was chosen for the coming year, the Board of Education announced that a bonus of $5 per month for the new school year would be given to every grade teacher who attended a standard school or college somewhere this summer, thus to prepare for better service in their capacity as teachers. The step was taken to encourage more teachers to avail themselves of the opportunity to strengthen their working efficiency and in a measure to help remunerate for the expense of such a course.
With exceptions of one teacher, the entire staff of the Conception Junction schools is in school this summer. The faculty for next year is composed of the following teachers:
Miss Leona Badger, superintendent, salary, $1650; Claude Thompson, principal; grammar grades, Miss Garland Grooms; intermediate grades, Miss Martha Alden; primary grades, Miss Mabel Merrigan.
The 100-year flashback is courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, viewable at shsmo.org/collections/newspapers/mdnp. The original article ran in the June 2, 1922, edition of The Maryville Tribune, a predecessor of The Maryville Forum.
