At the November 10 Maryville Tourism Committee meeting, members voted to clean up Ordinance Number 7931, 1-23-2017 detailing the make-up of the committee.

City Council member Dannon Merrill addressed the committee stating three main issues:

• Expansion of committee, yes or no;

• Open up to non-city residents;

• At-large or organization members.

He wanted a recommendation to take back to the city council. The committee voted to recommend organizational members could be non-Maryville residents. Three members abstained, Greg Hanson representing Northwest Missouri State University, Justin Miller representing the City of Maryville and Mozingo Lake, and Jeff Stubblefield representing Maryville Parks and Rec; one member voted no, Josh McKim representing Nodaway County Economic Development; and the rest voted yes.

McKim had cast a no vote because a majority of his board of directors had favored expansion of the committee.

The Maryville Downtown Improvement Organization applied for a $5,000 grant to purchase Christmas lights for the lighting of Downtown Maryville this Christmas. It was approved.

An update was given on the Mozingo Creek Bridge replacement. The Mozingo Creek bridge on Highway 136 will need construction to start early enough in 2022 so that the bridge is finished by the end of April. MoDOT is stating the traffic detour will be no more than 45 calendar days.

After the first bridge is completed, construction will begin on the Long Branch bridge. It will have one lane of traffic open and will take longer to complete. The official detour from Highway 136 will be south on Highway F to Highway N, east on Highway M to Highway J to Conception and back West on 136.

The committee is going to look into supporting the Mozingo Lake Recreation Park during the bridge closures. A suggestion was made to ask Terry Ecker, who is on the MoDOT state committee, to the next meeting.

A list will be compiled of the tourism efforts made by the organizations represented on the committee for the next meeting.