Archived Articles

Here is the link to our July edition of the Mid-MO Current which is our quarterly newsletter that highlights how the Mid-Missouri Regional Planning Commission staff is assisting our communities. 

The Mid-Missouri Regional Planning Commission’s Board of Directors held its quarterly meeting on Wednesday, June 27. The meeting included the approval of the fiscal year 2019 work program and budget.

The Work Program includes grant administration services on six currently funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) projects, three additional CDBG projects that are anticipated to be funded in the coming fiscal year, and allows Mid-MO RPC staff to continue to develop new community and economic development projects for the current and future fiscal years. Highlights of the transportation portion of the Work Program include updates to the Mid-MO RPC Regional Transportation Plan (including the annual update to our Regional Transportation Needs List), performing traffic counts as requested by communities using the RPC’s new traffic counters, and continued work on Mid-MO RPC’s mobility management initiative. The Work Program also includes administrative and procurement support for the Area F Regional Homeland Security Oversight Committee (RHSOC).
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Lincoln Brown will be taking on the role of Grant Administrator and Regional Planner. He will initially be tackling our CDBG grant projects, updating our Regional Transportation Plan, and conducting a review of best practices by surveying other RPC’s across the state. Lincoln has undergraduate degrees in Political Science and English from Truman State University and recently graduated with high honors in May 2018, earning his Master’s from the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Michael Franke is currently a student at the University of Missouri studying Geography, focusing on GIS, and anticipates to graduate in December of 2018. Professional interests include urban/regional planning, along with geographic information applications. While with the Mid-MO RPC, I will be assisting staff members with any GIS related material for projects such as map updates.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development has announced a second round of funding in 2018 for the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) and will be accepting applications in the following funding categories: General Infrastructure, Community Facilities, and Demolition. Applications are due to the CDBG office by close of business on October 1, 2018.
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Corey ten Bensel, Director of Member Care at Co-Mo Electric, and Lori Hoelscher, Customer Relationship Manager at Ameren, gave presentations on Missouri’s electric utility structure and partnerships, including breakdowns on energy resources, pricing, and efficiency programs.

Mr. Bensel spoke about the rural electric grid and how the Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI), which serves about 875,000 member-customers, is owned by 6 generation and transmission cooperatives (or G&Ts) that provide electricity to numerous local cooperatives for distribution across Missouri. Ms. Hoelscher highlighted that Missouri had passed legislation that will expand Ameren’s infrastructure spending in the state. She also discussed the need for economic developers to be familiar with the lingo surrounding energy generation and usage when talking to prospective businesses. And both Ms. Hoelscher and Mr Bensel spoke about the importance of the efficiency programs that AECI partners and Ameren offer to customers.

Mr. Bensel and Ms. Hoelscher described that most of the energy in Missouri is produced by coal, natural gas, and nuclear generation, and that Missouri’s energy costs are lower than the national average. However, they also both highlighted the growing importance many businesses looking to expand or locate in Missouri place on the availability of renewable and clean energy sources. Mr. Bensel outlined the expansion of cost-competitive wind generation in Northwest Missouri, while Ms. Hoelscher spoke about the expansion of Ameren’s solar and wind generation capacity.

Doris Boeckman is the Missouri Rural Health Association Rides to Wellness Director. Boeckman runs the program, HealthTran, which started as a pilot program in West Plains and continues with remarkable success. HealthTran is designed to build seamless transportation infrastructure in rural Missouri by expanding local transportation by connecting existing transportation services and volunteer drivers. Rides to Wellness has recently updated and expanded their model to serve St. Joseph, Missouri. 
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The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) encourage people throughout Missouri to help “bash trash” during their 16^th annual No MOre Trash! Bash April 15 through May 15.

The event focuses on “spring cleaning” the outdoors by asking people to pick up litter across Missouri from roadsides, parks, neighborhoods, rivers, streams, trails, and other places. Trash Bash activities also include various educational efforts in schools, community events, and Earth Day celebrations around the state.

For 16 years, the No MOre Trash! Bash has encouraged Missourians to help Missouri become a litter-free state. Adopt-A-Highway volunteers are a big part of the effort, collecting more than 43,000 bags last year and saving the state more than $1 million in litter removal.

Volunteers are needed across the state this year to participate in litter cleanup activities. Participants can report their cleanup efforts and will receive a No MOre Trash! thank-you pin. For more information, visit nomoretrash.org , or call 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (275-6636).

April 16, 2018 – Cheryl Ball, MoDOT Waterways and Freight Administrator, was the guest presenter at Mid-MO RPC’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. Ms. Ball presented on the Freight Enhancement Program (FRE) and current freight trends including ports and trucking.

MoDOT is currently accepting proposals for Freight Enhancement Program (FRE) funding. FRE funds are available for capital projects such as the construction of improvements or purchase of equipment that address one of the following four goals: safety, connectivity and mobility, economic development, and major maintenance. Maximum available funding for an individual project is $500,000. Applications for FRE funding are due to MoDOT by May 10th. An additional round of FRE funding may also be available in Fall 2018. Here is a link to the full FRE funding announcement from MoDOT.

Ms. Ball also discussed an innovative program that MoDOT has implemented to turn rest areas into truck parking. A lack of available parking for trucks has become an issue for the trucking industry. At the same time, existing rest areas are aging and becoming too expensive for the state to maintain in the current form. By converting these aging rest areas to truck parking, MoDOT has been able to meet trucking industry demand for parking while saving the state of Missouri millions of dollars.

April 9-13 is the 2018 National Work Zone Awareness Week.

Every spring, the Missouri Department of Transportation prepares for a busy summer season of construction and maintenance work across the state.

Motorists are reminded to slow down, put their phone down and pay attention as they drive past work zones. Not all work zones look alike. Work zones can be moving operations, such as striping, patching or mowing. They can also be short term, temporary lane closures to make quick repairs or remove debris from the roadway.
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