Looking Back: The Millennium

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 
Each week this column gets a little closer to 2025 and each week I struggle more with the history of each decade.  I suppose it takes more hindsight than I realized to determine what is the real “history” of our town.

Last week, and again this week, I relied on the Historical Society collection of local newspapers and clippings before writing this column. Perhaps in another 50 years, some of the articles will seem more important (or more laughable) but right now they mostly seem typical and routine for a small town that was experiencing rapid growing pains.

The 1990s ended with the discovery of 10-year-old Pamela Butler's body behind the Christian Church, the $6,000,000 drug bust at the small hotel behind the Pilot Gas Station, the arrest of a city council member for child abuse, and the fear of the millennium, also known as the “Y2K bug.”  

If you remember some computer systems used only two digits to represent the year, leading to the potential misinterpretation of "00" as 1900 instead of 2000. This fear was that these systems, including those controlling critical infrastructure, would malfunction, causing widespread chaos and potentially shutting down everything from power grids to financial systems. Obviously, nothing happened; at least to the computers in Grain Valley!

By 2010, the population had increased to 12,854 and all of the news articles centered around growth.

In 2000, the Marketplace Shopping Center was built on Eagles Parkway and the new bridge was completed on Buckner Tarsney Road south of Eagles Parkway. And while I’m on that subject, I can recall many rainy spring mornings in the 50's and 60's when school would start late because the buses south of town had to “take the long route” due to flooding on Buckner Tarsney Road.

Also in 2000, Grain Valley annexed several acres on the north side of I-70 allowing for hundreds of new homes and new people in Woodbury and Rosewood Hills off Duncan Road.

• 2001: The Community Center was completed, City Hall was built and dedicated in January, and property was purchased for South Middle School.
• 2002: South Middle School was completed.  Some may remember this as a sad time. The 1925 Grain Valley School ceased to be used and was sold and eventually torn down.
  
• 2003: Patrons approved a bond issue to add additional classroom at the middle school and the high school.

Through all the years, our Eagle keeps soaring!

• 2004 – Central Office moved to the Pink Hill Road. 
• 2005 – Prairie Branch Elementary was added in the Rosewood Hills subdivision.
• 2006 – Grain Valley graduated over 100 students for the first time!
• 2007 – Stony Point Elementary was built on Ryan Road near South Middle School.
• 2008 – Additional four classrooms at Prairie Branch and four classrooms and library expansion were completed in time for school in August.  Eight additional classrooms and athletic field improvements were also completed at the high school.
• 2009 – A $2,290,000 bond allowed for completion of Stony Point Elementary renovation and expansion was completed at Matthews Elementary for 2009 School year. 
• 2010 – Phase one of North Middle School at the Pink Hill Campus was complete in August. EC Center, Pink Hill was started April 1, 2010 and completed for school in August. North Middle School became the 7th school in the district which includes the high school, 2 middle schools and four elementary schools.

As you can see, the “aughts,” 2000-2009 were synonymous with growth in our town.  So, while the rest of the United States dealt with hanging chads (the Bush/Gore 2000 Presidential Election, 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, we just kept growing! 
 
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