Ray Beck

Uncontrolled storm water can be hazardous and can cause major damage; it sometimes can even endanger the lives of children. In June 1967, firefighters rescued two grade-school boys...

Early in its history, the Flat Branch area was Columbia’s primary commercial zone. Over time, it became a bustling industrial area with train traffic. But after the MKT...

As Columbia moves toward the rededication of the renovated Wabash Station this fall, it seems appropriate to look back at how the city wound up with the building...

On May 23, 1992, I announced the appointment of Greg Geissler as our first administrator of the new Office of Cultural Affairs. Creating an office to assist and...

Columbians may not remember that the city launched its own space program in the 1960s. Of course, our space program had nothing to do with rocketry. It was...

One day in early August 1965, shortly after my return from a meeting on the West Coast, City Manager Don Allard called me into his office. “Guess what?”...