Greetings from the fourth floor of your state Capitol. It has been a busy two weeks since I last communicated with you, but I think it has been very productive. I have had conversations with stakeholders and constituents regarding many issues of concern to all of us.
The Infrastructure Committee I serve on during our out-of-session time met with Missouri Department of Transportation Director Patrick McKenna. He gave us an update on the bridges around the state with most of the focus on the Rocheport Bridge. Earlier in the week, Missouri received notification we were going to be receiving $81 million in federal funds, which will trigger the governor’s bonding package of $300 million to begin repairs on Missouri’s worst bridges. The meeting was very informative, and McKenna is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Missouri’s roads and bridges. He has a way of explaining all the numbers and ways we are going to get things accomplished with the funds we have. The current situation with our bridges is deplorable, and many of these bridges are flat unsafe. With school starting soon, we have many school buses traveling across unsafe bridges putting our young students at risk, so it becomes a safety issue for all. I am proud our General Assembly addressed this issue this past session. While more work is yet to be done, we are moving in the right direction. Thank you, Director McKenna, for your leadership and the great work all the MoDOT employees are doing for our state.
Conversations are continuing with various groups concerning the recent flooding and how it affected our state employees as well as our community as a whole. City Councilman Rick Mihalevich and I met with State Emergency Management Agency Director Ron Walker along with Karen McHugh, who is the floodplain management section manager/NFIP coordinator, and several other members of their team. I talked about the flooding in the Millbottom area surrounding the Truman office building and the impact that had on our state employees and wanted to see what can be done to mitigate this in the future. They were very cordial and provided us with some great information about the floodplain and what can and cannot happen with regard to future building plans for the Millbottom area but could not offer us much help with mitigating the flooding on the state parking lots. So this issue is not resolved, but I have not given up.
That leads me to the next meeting with the Central Missouri Flood Group I helped form to continue these conversations on flood mitigation. This last meeting garnered the largest group yet. We had representatives from U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer’s office, fellow Rep. Sara Walsh, along with a many others from the city and Cole and Callaway counties to listen to a presentation from the Army Corps of Engineers about flooding in the lower Missouri River basin. John Grothaus, a lead engineer with the Corps, was able to give us more information on what the Corps can do to help. What impressed me most was his statement they were here to help find solutions to problems, but it has to be a collaborative effort from local stakeholders and the federal government. The federal government is not going to solve all of our problems, but it can be a resource. The meetings we are having have provided a great deal of information, and while we do not have a permanent solution, yet, we are still meeting and keeping this conversation going and not giving up. Our next meeting, we hope to meet with representatives from FEMA to see what our local participation needs to be and what they can do to help us in the short term as well as long term solutions. So stay tuned.
Finally, earlier this week, Rep. Rudy Veit and I traveled to Herculaneum to hear a presentation made by the Jefferson County Port Authority to Gov. Mike Parson and other invited legislators and local elected officials. The presentation highlighted the importance of utilizing our rivers as a means of transporting products like soybeans, corn and other agricultural products as well as a myriad of goods that can be an alternative delivery system. The Missouri and Mississippi rivers are underused assets and with the opportunity for Jefferson City in line to open its own port, we wanted to visit Herculaneum’s current port and listen to how it will expand moving forward. Seeing Jefferson City’s name on their master plan is exciting for a number of reasons, but the biggest is what this industry will bring to our city and surrounding area as a means to export our agricultural goods overseas and throughout the country. While we are a few years down the road for this to be completed, learning from those who have been there and adopting their best practices is very helpful for our future port.
As always, it is an honor to serve as your state representative and if you have any questions or concerns please reach out to my office.
State Rep. Dave Griffith, R-Jefferson City, represents the 60th District, and shares his perspective on statehouse issues twice a month.