Wright City officials were meeting with Missouri Department of Transportation officials to discuss the Improve I-70 project while also gathering support for a new exit at Stracks Church Road.
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, or you are a print subscriber who had access to our previous wesbite, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you have not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
If you are a current print subscriber and did not have a user account on our previous website, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
Wright City officials were planning to meet with officials from the Missouri Department of Transportation on Feb. 28 to discuss the Interstate 70 expansion in Warren County.
“The first reason we’re going is to have conversations about how we are going to make sure that Warren County is represented in this third lane of highway 70,” Mayor Michelle Heiliger said. “We will be spending time down there that afternoon, advocating for Wright City 100 percent. We have to get MoDOT to the table to talk about these storms and these issues on 70.”
Heiliger’s concerns came less than a week after a winter storm pummeled the region and caused multiple accidents, shutting down parts of Interstate 70 through Warren County for hours and leaving hundreds of drivers stranded.
“We just have to address it and figure out how to solve the problem,” Heiliger said. “It’s not about pointing fingers and telling them what they’re doing wrong because they already know that. But the conversation is ‘how do we fix it?’ So that’s what we will be going after on Wednesday next week.”
Wright City officials are also using the recent interstate closure to help boost their efforts to add an interchange at the current Stracks Church Road overpass.
An email from the city went out Feb. 21 to people in the community asking for letters of support as the city applies for a grant to help pay for the massive infrastructure project.
“Your endorsement would greatly strengthen our grant application and increase our chances of securing the necessary funding for this project,” the email read.
Letters were due back to City Hall by Feb. 26.
According to Wright City Clerk Abbie Ogborn, the city had previously agreed to apply for the grant and were in the process of working on the grant application prior to the storm.
“The letters of support request came out earlier this week from our grant writer and so an email was sent out in hopes community members and businesses would help support our application,” Ogborn said in an email to The Record. “The storm last week was a good example of one of the benefits to having the full interchange in this location, so I incorporated it in the letter.”
Ogborn also said Truesdale had reached out about the letter of support.
The city hopes that both the conversation with MoDOT and the letters of support will ensure Wright City and Warren County won’t be forgotten during the major interstate expansion.
“We have an obligation to these folks, whether they’re traveling through our town or they live here,” Heiliger said. “So we’ve got to figure it out.”
About the author: Jason Koch is the editor of The Warren County Record, and covers local news and government for the newspaper. He has won multiple awards from both the Indiana and Illinois APME and from the Illinois Press Association. He can be reached at 636-456-6397 or at jason@warrencountyrecord.com
