Forum Flashbacks: Oct. 8-Oct. 14

FORUM FILE PHOTO
COMMUNITY HELPERS: Twenty students from the Maryville Headstart Home-Bound Program visited the Maryville Public Safety Department Friday, in conjunction with a unit they are studying on Community Helpers. Shown are Phil Rickabaugh, “Fireman Phil,” and his fire dog, Sparky, greeting the children. Public Safety Officer Sean Wiedmaier and Dispatcher Susan Staashelm assisted in the tour.

25 years ago

• Following tradition, the Maryville congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses raised a new house of worship along 16th Street in Maryville.
  Start to finish, the new building took barely four days to go from vacant lot to completed facility, all accomplished through the coordinated efforts of Witness volunteers from across a five-state area.
  According to Maryville resident John Graff, the effort to relocate the church was motivated by equal parts of desiring a more modern facility and a more readily accessible congregation.
  “In our old building, we were located in a rural area,” Graff said. “Our former location always seemed to be secluded and hidden away. While a new building will be nice to have, it will benefit us even more to have a street address in the city.”
  More than 300 volunteers arrived in the early morning hours Thursday and, just after 8, work commenced. By midafternoon, the roof was up and enclosed. As the sun set, interior work had already commenced.

15 years ago

• The meeting room at the Maryville Community Center was filled to capacity by Maryville citizens, as well as students from Northwest Missouri State University, who met to participate in a town hall meeting.
  The event was sponsored by the Maryville branch of the American Association University Women.
  “I was very pleased with the turn-out for this meeting,” AAUW Co-President Mitzi Lutz said. “I thought the participants asked super questions. It was great that these people were given the opportunity to ask their questions in a public forum such as this.”
  Community leaders included on the panel for the event were Maryville Mayor Mike Thompson, Interim City Manager Matt Unrein, Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lisa Luke, Nodaway County Economic Development Director Lee Langrock and Public Safety Director Keith Wood. …
  After a welcome by AAUW program committee member Rosie Duty, each of the panelists presented a short overview of what their responsibilities are within the city government.
• For nearly half a century Father Clarence Wiederholt, formerly of Maryville and Conception, has inspired thousands upon thousands of parishioners in the Catholic Church around the world.
  Wiederholt, currently the pastor at Our Lady of the Snows Church in Mary’s Home, Mo., will commemorate 50 years as a priest and will be the celebrant at the 10:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, Oct. 16 at St. Gregory’s in Maryville. A reception will follow the Mass in the Parish Hall.
  Wiederholt, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Val Wiederholt, was first ordained into the Catholic priesthood on Dec. 21, 1955 by the then Bishop John P. Cody at the former St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Maryville.
  The ordination ceremony was the first to be held at St. Patrick’s and was one of the first in the area to be held in a parish church, according to the Dec. 21, 1955 issue of the Maryville Daily Forum.

5 years ago

• Amateur pilots belonging to the Hawk Road Flyers, a local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter, gave children enrolled in Big Brothers Big Sister of Nodaway County, a youth mentoring organization, the chance to see Maryville from above on Saturday morning.
  “The EAA decided that they wanted to get more kids involved in aviation, so they decided to start doing the Young Eagle flights,” said Phillip Poynter, who coordinates the program locally. “It’s a free flight for kids ages 8 to 17, and the idea is to get them behind the wheel and let them try flying.”
  Big Brothers Big Sisters “Littles” and their “Bigs” showed up at Northwest Missouri Regional Airport at 9 a.m. Saturday ready to spread their wings and learn a little about aviation while actually getting to go aloft.
• Motorists negotiating the Highway 71 bypass running south to north along the eastern edge of Maryville will need to start lightening up on the gas pedal now that the City Council has gone along with a Missouri Department of Transportation recommendation to re-set the speed limit through the corridor from 60 to 55 mph inside the city limits.
  The limit along most of the bypass is currently 60 mph with the exception of a short stretch of highway beginning at the south city limits near the Kawasaki Motors plant where the top legal speed is only 45 mph.
  Under the new ordinance, the legal speed for that sector will increase to 55 mph, which will allow motorists to legally maintain a consistent speed from one end of the city limits to the other.
  City Manager Greg McDanel and Public Safety Director Keith Wood said they originally considered asking MoDOT to sign off on a 45 mph speed zone where the bypass intersects with South Avenue, but became convinced that encouraging drivers to move at a consistent speed would actually be safer.