Monthly Archives: April 2016

By TONY BROWN Staff writer Maryville Daily Forum Maryville’s business and civic leaders turned out in force Friday for a groundbreaking ceremony marking the recent start of construction for Lettuce Dream, a community-based effort to create a hydroponic greenhouse complex that is to provide vocational training for people with developmental and cognitive disabilities. When phase one is completed this summer, the three-acre campus will consist of two 35-by-96-foot greenhouses and a 32-foot-by-62-foot operations building. If all goes as scheduled, said Lettuce Dream board member Wayne Pierson, the first crop of lettuce, which is to be sold to area markets, restaurants, and dining services operations, will be planted shortly thereafter. Production is to continue on a year-round basis. Pierson said that two horticulture students at Northwest Missouri State University have been engaged as interns to help set up the hydroponic cultivation system once the greenhouse exteriors are completed. Hydroponics is an alternative agriculture technology in which crops are grown in nutrient-enriched water instead of tilled earth. Lettuce Dream President Diane Francis, who founded the organization three years ago, said the initiative began with a group of individuals and families who felt area young people coping with developmental disabilities had too few opportunities for job-focused training after leaving high school. After several meetings, Francis said, members of the budding organization began asking, “Why just talk about this. Let’s do something about it.” Since then, through a combination of private donations, trust and foundation gifts, government grants, and the sale of Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credits through the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the organization has raised more than $600,000. The ultimate goal is construction of up to 16 greenhouses and support facilities on the Lettuce Dream property, which was donated by Mark and Myles Burnsides, a local father-son business team whose Maryville East Side Development is behind the emergence of an adjoining retail district near the intersection of East First Street and the Highway 71 bypass. “The only thing limiting us is our imagination,” Pierson said during Friday’s ceremony. While Lettuce Dream is a non-profit enterprise likely to create, at most, a handful of jobs, both Nodaway County Economic Development Director Josh McKim and City Manager Greg McDanel said the initiative’s potential goes well beyond its humanitarian impact. McKim said that, aside from highlighting the community’s willingness to meet local needs with local solutions, Lettuce Dream, if successful, could serve as a pilot project demonstrating the viability of alternative agriculture enterprises generally. Any project, McKim said, that brings more “value-added agriculture” to the Maryville region should be regarded as a positive in terms of economic growth. For his part, McDanel said Lettuce Dream will provide restaurants and food retailers with fresh, locally grown produce while, along with the NoCoMo Industries sheltered workshop and other agencies, aiding citizens who face special challenges when it comes to finding and holding a job. From a planning standpoint, McDanel added that the Lettuce Dream operation provides “a perfect buffer” between a strip of light industry, including Consumers Oil Co. and MFA Agri Services, along Depot Street, and a retail area south of Depot and north of East First that appears poised for more growth. Francis said Friday that, for the moment, Lettuce Dream remains focused on construction, but that plans are beginning to move forward for accepting the organization’s first class of trainees. She said the number of clients served at any one time remains to be determined, as does the format for a planned series of vocational modules designed to lead toward employment by area businesses and industries. The organization probably won’t begin accepting applications until later in the summer. Francis said about 25 families have inquired about enrollment. Follow us onTwitter@TheDailyForum    

By TONY BROWN Staff writer Maryville Daily Forum No question that Monday was a big night for Mozingo Lake Recreation Park as city officials took the wraps off conceptual drawings for a proposed $4 million conference center and hotel complex to be located on a scenic hilltop overlooking the Sechrest 18 and Watson 9 golf courses. But the party is just beginning, as Assistant City Manager Ryan Heiland, Mozingo’s lead administrator, and his staff prepare to celebrate a new summer season with a grand opening for the Watson 9 youth course on May 14 and the start of conference center construction sometime around the Aug. 1. With the 2016 focus clearly on a rejuvenated youth golf program, Heiland told the City Council this week that a fundraising effort in support of programs for young players will get under way this Thursday just as the weather is forecast to warm in earnest and fairways return to peak use. The extended fundraiser, named “Fore the Youth,” will benefit the Youth Golf Foundation. Organized by Dr. Bruce Twaddle, the foundation’s initial purpose was to secure funding for Watson 9 construction. The group of grass-roots volunteers has since evolved into the foundation, whose goal has shifted to providing instruction, equipment, and financial support for young people across the Maryville region interested in learning the game. Among other things, the organization plans to provide golf “scholarships” and equipment to youngsters from lower-income families who may not be able to afford clubs, fees, and other expenses. Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed by foundation representatives and city officials last spring, the city has agreed to provide the Junior Golf Foundation with $2,500 during the current fiscal year, money intended to cover initial costs for programming and equipment. In addition, the foundation is to receive funding equivalent to 10 percent of all Watson 9 tee-time fees. Fore the Youth is intended to raise even more money for the program by giving park golfers the opportunity to make donations based on the number of holes played between April 14 and May 14 — the day of the Watson 9 grand opening. For example, Heiland said, if a Mozingo golfer pledges $1 per hole and plays two full Sechrest 18 rounds over the next month, he or she will have raised $36 for the foundation. As for the Watson 9 opening itself, Heiland said the day will be chock-full of special activities highlighted by the appearance of course designer and PGA great Tom Watson. Festivities will begin at 9 a.m. when Mozingo golf pro Kyle Easter is to lead a series of free youth clinics. The opening ceremony itself is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will feature Watson as the keynote speaker. Heiland said Tuesday that Fore the Youth contributors and other Watson 9 benefactors will also be recognized at that time. Afterward, Watson will join University of Missouri golf standout Ryan Zech and two local youth golfers in playing the course’s inaugural round. A post-round social and press conference is set for 4 p.m. to be followed by a youth tournament at 4:30. Follow us onTwitter@TheDailyForum

Maryville Daily Forum – Tony Brown   Construction of the proposed Lettuce Dream hydroponic greenhouse complex, envisioned as providing vocational training for people with cognitive and developmental disabilities, is under way and on track for completion this summer, according to Wayne Pierson, vice president of the non-profit organization established four years ago by a group of local volunteers. Pierson said phase one of the initiative, which will consist of two 35-by-96-foot greenhouses and a 32-foot-by-62-foot operations building, could be completed as soon as July 1 with the first crop of lettuce scheduled for planting shortly thereafter. Maryville builder Jeff Smith is acting as construction manager for the complex, which is going up on three acres of land donated by Maryville East Side Development near the newly constructed intersection of Che and East Second streets. The greenhouse operation adjoins a new retail district sprouting up just northwest of the junction of East First Street and the Highway 71 bypass. Pierson estimated the cost of phase-one construction at about $650,000, money that Lettuce Dream has spent more than three years raising through private donations, trust and foundation gifts, the sale of Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credits through the Missouri Department of Economic Development, and a Rural Business Development grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition to the donated land, Lettuce Dream has received significant in-kind support from local businesses and individuals. Brock Pfost of White Cloud Engineering, for example, is donating installation of water and sewer connections along with associated infrastructure. The three structures will have concrete pad foundations, and the operations building is to be constructed using pre-fabricated, interlocking poly-acrylic beams filled with insulating foam and concrete. Both greenhouses will consist of a framework covered with translucent acrylic panels containing air cavities for improved insulation. Pierson said each greenhouse will contain two suspended natural gas heaters that, in the winter, will ensure a minimum growing temperature of 45 degrees. Lettuce, which thrives in cool weather, will be grown year-round using a no-soil technology known as hydroponics, in which plants are cultivated in nutrient-enriched water instead of tilled earth. The idea is to sell the produce to area markets, restaurants, and food-service operations in order to cover operating expenses and pay administrative staff. Lettuce Dream President Diane Francis has compared the initiative to a trade school or college for the developmentally disabled and other handicapped persons, who she said have few educational alternatives following high school. Though phase one is under way, Pierson said the organization’s fundraising efforts will continue full force in order to prepare for phase two, a plan for two additional greenhouses to be constructed in two or three years. “A lot of people think, ‘They’ve got the money and they’re done,’” he said. “But we’re not done. This is just the first phase. Ultimately the organization hopes to build as many as 16 greenhouses at its current location in addition to an office building and a warehouse. Lettuce Dream was organized using a business model established by Wendie Blanchard, founder of Arthur & Friends, a New Jersey-based non-profit with a greenhouse operation serving wholesale and retail markets across greater New York City. Blanchard’s organization, which has provided training materials and coaching to similar organizations in various parts of the country, was hired by Lettuce Dream in 2013 under an agreement specifying that it would act as a consultant to the local group over a five-year period. Follow us onTwitter@TheDailyForum

Maryville was recognized by Site Selection magazine recently as one of its top 10 micropolitan areas of 2015, a ranking that signifies it had the nation’s 10th most expansion projects last year among all qualifying U.S. towns (10,000 – 50,000 population). Maryville, which was the smallest community to be recognized on the top 10 list, recorded seven significant expansion projects last year. The communities of West Plains and Moberly were also recognized by Site Selection with a combined 5 projects last year. Read more…. at Site Selection Magazine