Northwest employees who work in the Administration Building are busy packing away their offices as the facility prepares to go offline throughout the year of 2026. This is temporary while a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is put into place.
This is all a part of the University’s Energy Infrastructure Modernization Project, which has been in the works for many years now. As soon as Dec. 1, Administration Building offices will temporarily relocate to various spaces around campus and nonpermanent office buildings set up in certain parking lots — the president’s office will move to a building located at 720 College Ave., as approved by the Maryville City Council Nov. 10.
While the Northwest Foundation, Inc. owns this property, one Maryville resident who lives nearby, Ron Brown, came to the Council meeting to speak against its use as a temporary office building for the president.
“My wife and I oppose this application (by) the Northwest Foundation for the special use of the temporary space,” Brown said. “We do not believe there’s any reason to go off campus. I don’t care if it’s just across the street — it’s off-campus.”
After doing some research, Brown said he found that Northwest’s main campus includes 370 acres and multiple buildings; he said this should provide enough space for the president’s office on campus.
Brown said he has had various issues with the Northwest Foundation in the past and that he and his wife do not trust this action. He said if the motion passes — which it did unanimously — he expects it to strictly adhere to the one-year term. If the use of the space goes beyond Dec. 31, 2026, Brown said he will make his voice heard again.
While discussing the permit, Councilwoman Erin Allen posed a question to the Northwest Foundation’s Executive Director Mike Johnson; she wondered if the president’s office would host larger meetings that might result in an increase in traffic to the building. Johnson said the president’s office only has three members, and aside from small, internal meetings, the area is not expected to become overly congested with outside traffic.
After the discussion wrapped, the meeting jumped into new business; Mozingo Lake Recreation Park was the focus of roughly one-third of all its agenda items. Park Director Jordyn Greenhaw explained the need for new irrigation equipment as a result of a weather incident last month.
“October 6, we had experienced a very large boom right outside of a window that the entire 3,000-acre park felt and heard, and we soon found out that a lightning struck our 10 fairway irrigation clock, which then sends the signals to all of our irrigation heads and waters all of our beautiful golf course,” Greenhaw said. “Once we found that out, we quickly filed an insurance claim with our city’s provider (MIRMA).”
Greenhaw said the park uses one company — Toro — for its sprinkler system, so it had to go through it for this replacement.
The new irrigation clock tower is not to exceed $10,863 and is set to be reimbursed by MIRMA through the insurance claim.
Aside from the new sprinkler system, Mozingo Lake Recreation Park is getting new sand from Covia Corp as part of its Sechrest 18 Bunker Renovation. Greenhaw said the new sand will be angular as opposed to the round river sand it previously used. This prevents the wind from carrying the sand away and helps with drainage issues. The park will also receive a new multiuse dock and replace roofs on some of its buildings.
This story comes from our partners at the Northwest Missourian, the campus newspaper of Northwest Missouri State University.
