Montgomery County celebrated its 206th anniversary in 2024 by having a boys basketball team ending a long state tournament drought, having a new medical center, getting a resident earning a state prosecutor of the year award, having a highway sign named after a Vietnam veteran and making plans for a mega-site industrial park.

The county also had numerous accomplishments from the athletic teams at Montgomery County and Wellsville-Middletown high schools.

Here are the top Montgomery County stories for 2024:

MCHS boys basketball places fourth at state
The Montgomery County boys basketball team enjoyed a memorable 2023-2024 season. The Wildcats finished with 25 wins, won Eastern Missouri Conference and district championships and placed fourth at the Class 3 Show-Me Showdown. MCHS made its first state tournament appearance since 1974.

MCHS advanced to the Show-Me Showdown for just the fourth time in program history with a 42-40 overtime win over Priory in the state quarterfinals on March 2 at Fulton High School, earning the Wildcats a short, one-hour trip to Columbia. They lost to Summit Christian Academy and Thayer in the two-day state tournament.

The team had a strong junior group that included all-state performer Clayton Parker as well as Isaiah Thomas, Tyler Erwin, Jay Rodgers, Sean Rodgers and Tatum Wessel.

Arthur Center opens for business
The Arthur Center Community Health Clinic was open for business on March 21 after 17 months of construction. The $4.5-million facility, located at 1225 Aguilar Drive in Montgomery City, held an open house on May 30 that included more than 40 people in attendance.

The open house was held in honor of Ann Wilkerson, a longtime Montgomery City resident who served as a member of the Arthur Center board, worked as an advocate for people with mental illness and started a National Alliance of Mental Illness group in Montgomery County. She passed away on Jan. 19.

It cost $4 million to get the 11,000 square foot facility built. The clinic includes staff members such as Dr. Eric Kondoro, family nurse practitioner Carolyn Canterbury and psychiatric nurse practitioner Victoria Sanford.

County makes plans to build a megasite
The Montgomery County Economic Development Council and the Montgomery County Commission held an open house on Sept. 5 at Montgomery County Middle School to inform the county citizens, property owners and other stakeholders of the plans of building a mega-site industrial park, creating more jobs for Montgomery County.

M&H Architects, a firm based in St. Louis, was hired to develop the master plan of the park which will be built along the Highway 19/Interstate 70 corridor in New Florence and will be split into different quadrants – Renewables Park, Logistics Campus, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) Campus and Future Campus.

The park will have immediate access to I-70, Norfolk Southern’s mainline railway and gas pipelines.

Highway sign constructed to honor fallen soldier
A portion of Highway 19 was constructed in Montgomery City to honor a Montgomery County resident who was killed in the Vietnam War. Signs of the Sgt. Norbert Overkamp, Jr. Memorial Highway were built on the intersection of Highway 19 and Highway B and south of Montgomery County High School.

Overkamp was 22 years old when he was killed in August 1967, becoming the first county casualty in the Vietnam War. He was from New Florence.
Three Vietnam veterans – Richard Penn of Middletown, Ron Overkamp of Hermann and Wayne Watson of Brighton, Ill., started a petition to have the signs built along Highway 19. The project was part of the MoDOT’s Memorial Designation Program.

Freie named state prosecutor of the year
Wellsville-Middletown graduate Keith Freie was named the Missouri Prosecutor of the Year in 2024, just two years after he was named the Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney. He was honored twice, the first on Aug. 29 at the MAPA Annual Conference at the Lake of the Ozarks and second on Sept. 18 at a Missouri Bar Association annual meeting in St. Louis.

Freie became the county prosecuting attorney in April 2022. He served on an interim basis before he was elected to take over permanent duties in November.

Freie became the first county resident to be named the state’s prosecutor of the year.

County sports highlights
A total of 13 county athletes earned all-state honors in their respective sports this year. They were Jacer Brower (Montgomery County, track), Tyler Erwin (Montgomery County, track), Aliviah Fischer (Montgomery County, softball), Cooper Henderson (Wellsville-Middletown, track), Reese Hill (Montgomery County, softball), Gage Marshall (Wellsville-Middletown, track), Weston Marshall (Montgomery County, track), Clayton Parker (Montgomery County, basketball), El Reagan (Montgomery County, track), Malia Rodgers (Montgomery County, basketball), Bethany Slovensky (Wellsville-Middletown, track), Jadrian Thurmon (Montgomery County, cross country) and Sam Turner (Montgomery County, track).

MCHS won team conference titles in girls and boys basketball and girls track. The MCHS boys basketball team was the only area squad to win a district title.