Forum Flashbacks: Feb. 27-March 4

FORUM FILE PHOTO
Northwest Campus Safety’s 2005 Ford Crown Victoria patrol car was set on fire early Tuesday morning, apparently only seconds after it was parked in front of the Support Services building. Campus Safety director Clarence Green said they currently have made no arrests, but are investigating “some people of interest” to find out who is responsible for starting the fire.

25 years ago

• Maryville city officials were expected to tell Gov. Mel Carnahan today the city favored a proposal to house a prison at the former Mount Alverno Convent east of Maryville.
  Traveling to the state capital with the annual Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce legislative trip, Maryville City Council members left the city early this morning after unanimously approving a resolution supporting the prison proposal at last night’s council meeting.
  Called Council Bill 95’26, the resolution notes the Franciscan Sisters of Mary’s need to sell the former convent, the state’s current problem with prison crowding and the potential benefit to the local economy in supporting the Missouri Department of Corrections’ plan for the facility.
  The council vote came after one city resident spoke in favor of the resolution and four area residents addressed the council in opposition to the proposal.
  “(You are) really only considering a handful of people,” Kathleen Goerlitz of the prison opposition group Citizens for Quality Living, told the council.
  Goerlitz said the only points she heard in favor of the proposal involved money and said the community does not know enough about the proposal for the council to make a decision. Goerlitz said she had been involved in the Citizens for Quality Living community-wide survey effort and said the effort had been delayed because those taking surveys were having to answer several questions about the proposal.

15 years ago

• A change in state law means it will likely take the developers of The Village shopping center as long as 15 years to pay off the city-issued tax-increment financing bond, not 12 years as originally planned.
  And at Monday night’s city council meeting, Maryville Mayor Mike Thompson expressed frustration that the city only recently found out about the change.
  “This should have been discussed prior to where we are now, in my opinion,” Thompson said at the meeting.
  In early February, the council approved a TIF district for the shopping center, which is being purchased by developer David Christie. His plans include a large-scale expansion and renovation of the shopping center’s Hy-Vee grocery store and the potential addition of several other retailers in the vacant spaces. To help, the city issued Christie a $1.95 million bond.

5 years ago

• A landmark business in Maryville’s central commercial district is changing hands after nearly 45 years.
  David Boyles of Boyles Motors, 204 N. Market Street, announced Thursday that his family has entered into an agreement to sell its General Motors dealership to Doug Meyer of Auburn, Neb.
  The change of ownership is to become effective on April 1.
  Meyer currently owns two other GM franchises, the Meyer-Earp dealership in Auburn and Doug Meyer Chevrolet in Shenandoah, Iowa.
  David Boyles’ father, Bud Boyles, president of Boyles Motors Inc., said that Meyer is a “hand-picked successor” who “demonstrates the value of taking care of customers and employees.”
• Maryville R-II Board of Education President Frank Grispino announced Friday that Becky Albrecht will become the district’s new superintendent effective July 1.
  Albrecht is currently superintendent of the Trenton (Mo.) R-IX School District in Grundy County.
  She will succeed current R-II Superintendent Larry Linthacum, who is leaving Maryville to assume the top administrative post with Jefferson City (Mo.) Public Schools.