CON V ERGING CA MPUS & COMMU NIT Y
NORTHWEST MISSOURIAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2026
MARYVILLE, MISSOURI
NWMISSOURINEWS.COM
VOL. 114, NO. 16
@THEMISSOURIAN
NW Missouri prepares for World Cup, economy to be impacted ANNA BAILEY News Editor | @AmBailey16
both sides of the family, so being able to get grandparents’ support, but we loved being able to come up here, to…plant roots, to be able to really invest in the community, but also to raise our kids here, because it is such a safe, warm, welcoming community that has pretty much everything that you need.” Oshel said the people and how much they care about supporting each other are what have kept him in this area. Christopher Smiley, a fellow employee at Thrivent Financial, said Oshel is a perfect fit for this position. He said Oshel is not a career politician, but rather, someone rooted in the community he seeks to serve. “I really feel like he will be able to represent well and really make sure that the people of the sixth district are heard and that their voices are represented well in Congress,” Smiley said. “He has a really, really good understanding of what the real issues are of the people across the district.” Smiley said Oshel’s good communication skills and his ability to listen would make him successful in Congress. If elected as the Missouri 6th District representative, Oshel said he will have multiple goals. He said his first priority is rural health. “Right now, in the last year, three rural hospitals have closed in Missouri,” Oshel said. “At any day, 50% of them can close tomorrow, which would make a huge impact to the people that live and work here, and their livelihoods.”
The FIFA World Cup is rolling into Kansas City, Missouri, and with it, over 650,000 visitors. Not only can the city expect an economic boom, but the impacts will be seen in surrounding areas — including Maryville. From June 16 through July 11, this international soccer tournament will bring teams and fans from across the globe to this city. Over the many years and venues by which the World Cup has been hosted, Kansas City is the smallest yet to be awarded the opportunity. However, the preparation is not lacking in size. Public Information Officer for the Kansas City Aviation Department Jackson Overstreet said the Kansas City International Airport is expecting to welcome approximately 62,000 additional passengers this June, compared to last year, which will account for about a 4.6% increase. He said to compensate, there will be an additional 312 flights that month. Overstreet said while these two months will be busy, the airport staff feels prepared to take it on. “I mean, this is such a big deal for the U.S. to be hosting the World Cup — for Kansas City to have six games, be the smallest city of the 16 host cities — and we have a lot of pride in that, so there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of wanting to show the world what we can do,” Overstreet said. To prepare, he said the airport is working to ensure the departments are in working order. He said a large portion of the preparation is creating a game plan for the busy days. For example, making sure the baggage handling system is ready. “Vanderlande, the company that runs our baggage handling system inside the terminal, they spent most of February testing our baggage handling system,” Overstreet said. “So that was — it’s kind of two different tracks on either end of the terminal — and so it’d be shutting down one and putting all the baggage through the other one to test that kind of increased amount of baggage and how their staff handles it. It would be checking for maintenance issues ahead of time, seeing what can be fixed before the World Cup travel season and what can be patched up and saved for after.”
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NATHAN NODA PHOTO EDITOR
Maryville resident Cody Oshel discusses his goals of becoming Missouri’s 6th District congressman during an interview April 10. Congressman Sam Graves announced his retirement will be Jan. 3, 2027 after serving for 26 years in March.
Community member runs for Missouri congressional position A
ANNA BAILEY News Editor | @AmBailey16
Maryville local is in the running for the Missouri 6th District congressman position. He is a first-time candidate looking to take over for the predecessor, Congressman Sam Graves. Graves announced his retirement in March after 26 years in Congress. He will finish out this congressional session, which ends Jan. 3, 2027. This has brought forward the race for a new Missouri 6th District representative, Maryville resident Cody Oshel-R, is one of these candidates. Ten candidates are running for this position: three are Democrats, six are Republicans and a Libertarian. The Missouri 6th District congressman position will be seen on the Missouri Primary Elections ballot Aug. 4. Oshel said he decided to run because of the political environment. “I decided to run for Congress because there’s a lot of noise going on,” Oshel said. “I think over the last 10-15 years, people stopped having conversations face-to-face, and when we stop talking to each other, we start talking about each other, which creates a toxic culture. So, my goal is to travel across our district and to meet people where they are and connect with them — farmers, teachers, hospital employees — the people who are crucial to be able to help this district remain viable.” Oshel works as a senior specialist of strategic growth partnerships with Thrivent Fi-
nancial, a financial services company that provides financial advice throughout the U.S. Oshel works remotely, which he said allows him to enjoy Maryville and its community. He said he travels across the country with Thrivent to lead brand partnerships. While he travels often, northwest Missouri is still Oshel’s home. He said he grew up in Trenton, Missouri, and has since moved around multiple times to surrounding areas. He said he ended up in Maryville when he and his wife decided to raise their family.
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So, my goal is to travel across our district and to meet people where they are and connect with them — farmers, teachers, hospital employees — the people who are crucial to be able to help this district remain viable.”
CODY OSHEL CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE
“She went to Northwest, so when I was in Stanberry, she was here,” Oshel said. “We loved Maryville. It’s equal distance to
University to implement biweekly payroll in summer ANNA BAILEY News Editor | @AmBailey16
The monthly payroll cycle all Northwest employees use — staff, faculty and students — is changing, and with it, is the amount of money some employees may earn in a given month. Northwest is transitioning to a biweekly payroll cycle. Vice President of Finance and Administration Stacy Carrick said the new system will cause some months to see less pay and others more; however, the total salary of each individual will remain the same. Carrick said there is a salary calculator on the payroll office page of Northwest’s website; employees can use this to see what the change will look like individually. “If we had an employee that made, let’s just say, $36,000 a year, and we plug that in, it’s going to tell us today we’re getting $3,000 a month, and we’re going to go to a biweekly payment of $1,385, and then it
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shows you, here’s the monthly comparison prior…in the new biweekly, you’ll see that it’s (the total) slightly less,” Carrick said “Then two months of the year, there will be three paychecks…so it will actually bump up and be $4,154, compared to the $3,000. You do have the months prior that are all slightly lower…you’ll see the totals are the same, but the cash flow changes.” Employees will begin using the biweekly cycle in July, and the first pay date will be July 17. Carrick said there will be no change in the way employees log their hours, other than it being more frequent. Moving to a biweekly cycle was made possible because of Northwest’s transition from Banner to Workday, which has been in progress throughout this academic year. Workday did not bring the biweekly cycle with it; rather, Carrick said, Workday made the transition possible. “So Banner to Workday has allowed us the opportunity; Banner was much more manual and a lot more cumbersome from the payroll processing side, we
weren’t able to make some of the changes that we wanted to make, and so we’re taking advantage of the opportunity with a more modern technology to get more current with our pay practices,” Carrick said. “So it’s not because of Workday, but Workday allowed us to make the transition.” While using a monthly system, there are 12 payments received throughout the year; with an every-other-week cycle, 26 payments are sent. Carrick said she hopes this new cycle will be beneficial in the long run, regardless of if the change takes some adjustment. She said some faculty and staff said they think this change will make specific parts of life simpler; for example, Carrick said one employee has told her this will make paying her babysitter easier, because that is a weekly payment, and in months with five weeks, this can become more challenging.
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