Icon is slated for Mozingo shoreline rubble

Under the guise of a special irregular meeting with an agenda of two action items, the Maryville City Council approved the demolition of the Mozingo Lake icon that had weathered more storms than any councilmember can imagine.

But their decision brought it down within less than 24 hours. I guess that is called power.

The agenda of the irregularly-scheduled Maryville City Council meeting was composed with great eloquence by City Manager Greg McDanel. There were only two items requiring action from the council. One was a change order with the contractor EL Crawford Construction concerning the construction of the conference center at Mozingo, while the other was to award a bid to Meyer Floors, St. Joseph, for purchase and installation of commercial flooring at the conference center at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park in an amount not-to-exceed $65,350.

The first had a staff recommendation to approve “the proposed ordinance to execute Change Order No. 4 with E. L. Crawford Construction, Inc. for the Conference Center at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park in an increased amount of $169,106.00. Change Order No. 4 represents the last foreseen change order on the project and includes major construction items that were planned in the FY’18 Budget. Completion of the site improvements will allow staff to begin landscaping efforts and concrete connections for pedestrian and golf cart access. The proposed monument sign will provide Mozingo Lake Recreation Park with its first substantial presence on Highway 136 in its 20+ year history. The sign will also feature Boulders Inn & Suites who will reimburse the City a total of $15,000 for the efforts.”

This agenda item was described by McDanel as site improvement. Nowhere within the shorter-than-usual seven-page agenda was the word “silo.” Removing the silo was not an improvement.

The Nodaway News Leader reporting staff had questioned the city staff and the mayor several times throughout the fall about the planned demise of the structure. We were told the council will have to vote. The clubhouse was demolished on the day of the council meeting, October 17.

Early the next morning, after the brief council meeting, Madget Demolition Inc., St. Joseph, wielded the wrecking ball against the structure. I was saddened by its demise, but evidently not as crazy-sad as predicted, as I understand Maryville’s Public Safety was called to the site for security reasons.

To heighten the level of anxiety, when the Nodaway News Leader posted on social media the story about the city council vote, several locals and former residents voiced their dismay about the decision. At one point, a participant noted the NNL article spoke of site improvements and not the condition of the silo. McDanel responded that the NNL did not attend the meeting and missed the “significant discussion.” At that point, my ears perked up. I noted on a post the lack of the word “silo” on the agenda about the topic of the silo. I also offered a suggestion to the city manager to write a regular column to better communicate with the citizenry on topics of this nature.

He then hurled a low-blow by saying, “I would be happy to write a column for a media source that’s committed to reporting all the facts as presented.” He is not the first official in today’s world who has accused the media of not reporting the facts.

I would now suggest that he visit with a former county commissioner who launched that type of insult at the NNL and the publisher awhile back. I told that individual, “Pick your arguments carefully as newspaper publishers buy ink by 50-gallon barrels.”

The final agenda topic was a discussion about the regularly-scheduled meeting for October 23. It was decided to not meet.

Finally, I would issue a challenge to the council and city staff to come celebrate with the Maryville Chamber of Commerce and the Nodaway County agriculture community at the annual Farm City Banquet on Monday, November 6. I’ll be counting noses.