Infrastructure leads advocacy effort in Jeff City
By Marcus Clem
The Great Northwest Days event, in which community leaders travel to the state capitol, is underway with a multi-tiered list of policy priorities for lawmakers to consider.
The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce is one small part of the 19-county effort that undergirds the Great Northwest Days Priorities Committee, which defined housing, child care, broadband internet access and education as the top subjects lawmakers should address before they wrap up their session in May.
However, the local chamber can testify to how great success has been realized — largely because of funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — in spreading broadband throughout the city. That mission is now to continue in rural Missouri, Chamber President and CEO Natalie Hawn explained. State funding will make that possible.
“Having the ability to provide the whole community (with) fiber, we’ve really made some tremendous strides, and we couldn’t have done that without some lawmakers committed to getting that infrastructure,” Hawn said.
Joe Hegeman, a leader in the Priorities Committee, also serves as director of community relations for United Fiber, one of the fastest-growing service providers in the region.
“The state has been great for supporting expansion of broadband in rural Northwest Missouri,” he said. “The next investment that we’re working through is with the Office of Broadband of the State of Missouri, which will help us get the majority of Missouri filled in for broadband expansion.”
Another infrastructure need concerns Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 36. When the Missouri Department of Transportation gets to work on adding a lane in both directions on the main east-west artery that is I-70, it is a certainty that drivers will be looking for alternative routes that run across the breadth of the state.
The Priorities Committee has not defined a dollar amount to be spent here, but lawmakers are being asked to be aware of what the extra traffic will cause to traffic flows in the region.
“If that’s going to impact us, and we’re going to have a great deal of new traffic, you know, what do we need to be looking at to make sure (Highway) 36 is sustainable for that? That we’re able to keep the traffic flowing for our residents and the people coming to our part of the state,” Hawn said.
How much will ultimately be spent will be a key decision for lawmakers to make before they are done with their business in May. At the same time, legislation often dies for lack of a decisive vote in Jefferson City. There’s just not enough time to come to an agreement. This makes advocacy all the more important. The conversation starts with events like Great Northwest Days. Events continue into Wednesday in the state capital city.
