Forum Flashbacks: March 12-March 18

FORUM FILE PHOTO
The Rev. Jesse Jackson addressed an estimated 2,700 people at Northwest Missouri State University’s Lamkin Arena last night. Jackson spoke on several topics and challenged the students to become politically active.

25 years ago

• With landfill usage still below the level city officials had hoped to achieve and some haulers transporting area waste out of state, the Maryville City Council last night approved a closure and post-closure plan for the facility which will eventually have the city held accountable for more than $3.6 million.
  The council had virtually no choice in the matter since operating a landfill under current state and federal regulations requires having a closure and post-closure plan on file with the Department of Natural Resources. The back-against-the-wall position was reflected by the vote of City Councilman Jerry Riggs, who voted in support of the measure, but added his vote was made “reluctantly.” …

15 years ago

• A compromise was reached between the city, a local business and a neighboring church at the Maryville City Council meeting on Monday, ending a dispute over the church’s right to grow and the business’s right to survive.
  At a previous council meeting, members of the Laura Street Baptist Church presented an expansion plan to the council, asking the city that they vacate the alley between the church and the Wonder Bread-Hostess Bakery Outlet next door. In vacating the alley, the city would basically give the land back to the two property owners, the church and the bread store each taking half.
  On Monday, the owner of the bread store, Kermit Lager, told the council he opposed the alley vacation, and the expansion of the church, because he said it would limit the ability for truck drivers to deliver goods to the store. …
  After lengthy discussion on the issue, councilman Ron Moss suggested a solution: the city would approve the alley vacation, and by default the church expansion, if the church would agree to a seven-foot easement on the bread store’s east side, so truckers would have more room and visibility. …
  Both the church and the city agreed to the plan, and the council approved the alley vacation ordinance.
• William Taylor told a friend in 1994 that he was trying to sell enough bushels of seed corn to win a contest and take his wife Debra on a well-deserved vacation cruise.
  Only a few months later, Debra Taylor was dead, and William had confessed to killing her by running her over with a combine. In 1995, he was sentenced to first-degree murder and ordered to serve life in prison without parole.
  But in a hearing Thursday to determine whether Taylor gets a new trial, his lawyers said the jury received improper instructions, the prosecution presented corrupted expert witnesses and Taylor was effectively coerced into pleading guilty.
  Now Taylor’s fate is in the hands of Daviess County Circuit Court Judge Daren Adkins, who presided over the hearing Thursday. He will make a decision by early May on whether Taylor receives a new trial.

5 years ago

• The Maryville City Council has entered into a contract with SFS Architecture of Kansas City for the design of a proposed new welcome center/administration building at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.
  A central component of the park’s master plan, completed last fall, the center is to be located along the main entry road near an existing check-in stand and will embrace an information desk, rental headquarters, gift shop, convenience store, storage space and offices.
• Maryville Middle School eighth-grader Hayden Mildward has won the Northwest Missouri Regional Spelling Bee and has earned a trip to Washington, D.C. May 24-29 to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
  Mildward won the regional, held Saturday at St. Francis Xavier School in St. Joseph. He beat out 27 other contestants, and correctly spelled the word “hydraulic” in round 20 to clinch the victory.