5 years ago
Thanksgiving doesn’t arrive until later this week, but the Christmas shopping season was in full swing Saturday at the Maryville Community Center during the fifth annual Christmas Craft & Vendor Fair hosted by Maryville Parks and Recreation.
Nearly 70 vendors packed the center’s gymnasium floor from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. as an estimated 1,000 shoppers moved from booth to booth.
Parks and Rec marketing manager Jordyn Swalley said the number of vendors was up this year, continuing a trend of rapid growth for the event, which began in 2013 with only about 20 seller displays, mostly offering wares created by local crafters.
While Maryville-area artisans and home-based businesses are still an important part of the fair, Swalley said the annual holiday season kickoff has evolved into a truly regional event that attracts sellers from Kansas City as well as communities in Nebraska, Iowa and across northwest Missouri.
Swalley said the fair has grown to become Parks and Rec’s largest commercial exhibition, and the Community Center parking lot on Saturday was jammed from almost the moment the venue’s doors opened.
Dozens of shoppers were forced to park on grass and gravel areas adjoining the lot, while others simply pulled onto the sidewalk along a street connecting the center to the Northwest Missouri State University campus.
15 years ago
The Maryville Department of Public Safety opened a homicide investigation after a body was found early Friday morning in a vacant lot on the corner of Mattie and Jenkins streets.
Twenty-four hours later, two men in custody were being charged with murder in the second degree. Director of Maryville Public Safety Keith Wood said, “The bulk of the investigation is concluded at this point — other than tying up some loose ends and whatever the prosecutor needs additionally from us.”
Public Safety received the call at 8:17 in the morning when men taking care of the trash service behind the Wonder Bread store at 102 East First Street saw the body across the street in the empty lot. …
The victim has been identified as Donald “Ray” Gardner Jr., 46, of Maryville. …
Erik B. Romig, 26, and Nicholas A. Rosencrans, 21, both of Maryville, were charged by Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney David Baird with murder in the second degree in connection with the Nov. 16 murder of Gardner. This charge means that the crime had little premeditation.
The felony complaint filed by Baird alleges that the two men, with the purpose of causing serious physical injury to Gardner, caused his death by striking him.
25 years ago
At approximately 8:47 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 20, two inmates from the Nodaway County Jail overpowered a lone guard and escaped from the jail.
The two escapees — Aaron M. Lacey, 19, Maryville; and Shaun R. Hager, 18, Maryville — were apprehended Friday morning near Poplar Bluff, Mo., and are being held in the Butler County Jail.
Lacey was incarcerated on burglary and stealing charges.
Hager was being held on stealing charges.
100 years ago
SWIMMING POOL WILL BE BUILT HERE IN SPRING
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A concrete swimming pool—to be constructed next spring and opened early in April if possible—will be built in Maryville by G. W. Aley, and his son, Ralph Aley, it was announced today. An architect is to be employed to get to work on the plans soon and material for the structure will be assembled here during the winter so that building can start early in the spring, Mr. Aley said today.
The natatorium is to be built on lots owned by Mr. Aley on the west side of South Vine street, just west of the Washington school building. The plant will include the pool proper, 120 feet of dressing rooms which will be built across the front of the lots, facing east, and a board fence around the pool and grounds. The front is to be built of wood with concrete floors and will be finished in stucco.
The pool itself will be approximately 100 feet square and varying in depth from two feet at one end to ten feet at the other. The pool is to be modeled after one at Crete, Neb., but will be bigger. Mr. Aley says that the usual maximum depth is only eight feet, but that he intends to make the Maryville pool ten feet and be safe.
The usual natatorium appurtenances, diving boards, spring board and chutes, will be built around the pool.
The water which will be used in the pool will be tested as required by the state laws and Mr. Aley said today that he is absolutely going to have the water clean at all times.
There will be a matron at the pool at all times and there may be an instructor in swimming.
Admission to the pool will be 25c and the Aleys are now out selling advance tickets and are receiving support from the business men of the town which assures them that the venture will be a financial success.
A good swimming pools is something which has been needed in Maryville for a long time and the kind of structure which the Aleys plan to build will be a credit to the town.
The natatorium will cost approximately $10,000.
The 100-year flashback is courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, viewable at shsmo.newspapers.com. The original article ran in the Nov. 23, 1922, edition of The Maryville Tribune, a predecessor of The Maryville Forum.
