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Volume 104 • Number 91 • Monday, May 12, 2014 • PO Box 188 • 111 E. Jenkins • Maryville, MO
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Mozingo planners Six county schools graduate question proposed location for lodge By TONY BROWN News Editor
Mozingo Lake Recreation Park Advisory Board members, city of Maryville officials and other local residents with a stake in the future of the 3,000-acre park, golf course and wildlife area gathered at the Mozingo Lake clubhouse Friday to weigh in with suggestions for a proposed comprehensive plan that would govern development at the park over the next 20 years. Also present were staff from RDG Planning & Design, the consulting firm hired by the city to assist with drafting the development blueprint, which is scheduled for completion later this summer. RDG is the same company that put together the city’s comprehensive growth, development and zoning plan, which was adopted in 2012. The Maryville City Council appropriated $58,000 to pay for the Mozingo planning document, which to guide development at the lake. The reservoir serves as the city’s primary water source. RDG landscape architect Hans Klein-Hewett said the last major planning effort at the lake took place as it was being completed in
the mid-1990s. Many of the provisions in that earlier document, he said, such as the development of the 18-hole golf course, recreational vehicle camping areas, boat docks and other facilities, have been completed. The council elected to move forward with a new round of planning following the failure of its effort to find a developer willing to build and manage a proposed hotel, banquet facility and meeting center at the lake. Several council members have said being able to show potential developers that the city has a longrange vision for the park could help attract the kind of private-sector dollars that building and running such a facility will require. And while RDG’s preliminary proposals deal with the park as a whole, the lodge is already shaping up as a centerpiece. On Friday, Councilman Glenn Jonagan sharply disagreed with RDG’s plan to place the lodge somewhere on “The Point,” a hillside that rises above the eastern shore of the lake near the south end of the main channel. Over the past year, The Point has become something of a special
See more graduation photos on pages 5 and 6.
See MOZINGO, Page 3
Father and son work so Maryville can play By KEVIN BIRDSELL Staff writer
Running things
KEVIN BIRDSELL/DAILY FORUM
Rod Auxier (left) and his son Erick (right) both have jobs that give them the responsibility of directing recreational activities for the city of Maryville. Rod is the director of Maryville Parks & Recreation and Erick is the operations manager at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.
OFFICE NUMBER
660-562-2424
By different routes, a father and son have taken on the responsibility of making sure Maryville residents have quality parks and recreational facilities at which to make the most of their downtime. Since 1986, Rod Auxier has served as director of Maryville Parks & Recreation, the quasi-independent municipal agency responsible for the city’s parks and playgrounds. Beginning this year, Auxier’s son Erick was named operations manager at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park, which is controlled directly by the City Council rather than Parks & Rec because it also functions as Maryville’s primary water source. When Rod became the top administrator at Parks & Rec, Erick was barely a year old. The younger Auxier had worked at Mozingo for more than five years before being picked by City Manager Greg McDanel as operations chief. Rod Auxier grew up in Gower and attended East Buchanan High School before earning his undergradu-
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ate degree at Northwest Missouri State University. Prior to joining Parks & Rec, he held similar jobs in St. Joseph and Peoria, Ill. Erick Auxier is a graduate of Maryville High School and earned his undergraduate degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He earned a master’s degree at Northwest in 2010. Erick had been working at city-owned Mozingo Lake Golf Course when the new opportunity opened up late last year. “In January we kind of redid the structure of the organization, and I was promoted up to operations manager of the entire park plus the golf course,” he said. As for Rod, he recalls thinking that Maryville would be just a brief stop on a career path leading elsewhere. “When I came here, I didn’t think I’d be in Maryville long,” Rod said. “I thought it would be about three to four years, but I made a promise to my kids when we moved that once they got to middle school, I would not move.” Those children are now
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grown, and Auxier is still here. “The other reason I stayed here was because Maryville has been supportive of parks and recreation,” he said. “That’s why I’m still here. Just the support the community has shown.” Auxier also praised the backing he was gotten from the Parks & Recreation Board of Directors. “They hire the director,” he said. “Close to 50 individuals have been on that board since I’ve been in town, and I’ve always had a good board to work for. A lot of directors couldn’t say they’ve been around a board or community that has been as supportive as Maryville.” Once Erick graduated from MU, he came back to Maryville looking to attend graduate school and find a job. “When I graduated from Mizzou, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted a job or to go to get my master’s. The assistant athletic director at Northwest contacted me and let me know about a (graduate assistant) opening that was going to open for the first time. I applied See AUXIER, Page 14
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