MARYVILLE, Mo. — The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission discussed in April
a shift in the Department of Transportation’s Adopt-a-Highway program, ending it as it has been for nearly 37 years and signs are beginning to be removed.
The decision to transition was discussed publicly during an April 3 meeting of the commission. During that meeting, Becky Allmeroth, MoDOT chief safety and operations officer, told the commission that the changes in the program initially came from a specific incident involving a
controversial adoption.
“It caused us to put a pause on our Adopt-A-Highway program and look at the entire process and the entire program from the bottom all the way to the top and vice-versa,” Allmeroth said in April.
About a year ago, the adoption of a portion of Interstate 44 near Kirkwood in honor of Kevin “Rockhead” Johnson prompted Ed
Hassinger, deputy director of MoDOT, to immediately take down the sign and suspend the program.
According to the Missouri Independent, a motorist recognized the name as a man executed by the state in November 2022 for the killing of Kirkwood Police Sgt. William McEntee in 2005.
Under the rules governing the program at the time, no one can adopt a highway who was convicted of
a violent crime until 10 years after they complete their sentence and any organization that includes such a person cannot adopt a highway.
While that incident prompted a review, it wasn’t the reason for the program being shut down. Instead, during the review, the department found that costs and safety risks outweighed the program benefits. The department’s analysis showed that the average group picked up their adopted portion of
highway one time per year and filled eight bags. The average cost per bag of litter collected through the Adopt-a-Highway program was $42 per bag compared to the MoDOT staff pickup cost per bag of $18.
“I can tell you that the outcome of this was a little surprising to me,” Allmeroth said. “... Not a whole lot of litter was being picked up. The big thing that we really saw was the cost of this program.”
To administer the program, the annual cost was $1.2 million, which included staff hours and the cost to contact groups and organizations to remind them of their contracted four times of pickup per year. Allmeroth said that the largest part of the difference in bag cost is the signs that the department erects.
“It was a lot of individual groups that were picking up and we would come back after the
weekend and our maintenance crews would need to jump to a lot of different locations to pick up those bags,” Allmeroth said. “As opposed to an event where we could have a little more coordination. … These community events can be more organized.”
She suggested this will allow the opportunity to help with safety equipment as well and have the equipment available the day of the event to take the bags.
She said another aspect is growing safety concern. While cleaning highways with a Boy Scout troop that she was a leader of 10 to 15 years ago, the biggest hazards they saw at the time included a jug of something nasty thrown out the window or occasionally an inappropriate magazine on the side of a road.
Now, she said, volunteer cleaning crews have run into equipment from mobile meth labs, dead bodies, guns and more difficult-to-handle materials. And she said distracted driving continues to be a concern for safety on the road.
“I don’t sleep well at night knowing that we have Boy Scout troops and different individuals and church groups out there putting themselves in harm’s way for our benefit,” Allmeroth said.
In 2022, 108 pedestrians were struck by vehicles while they were on the roadway, and 15 struck by vehicles while they were off the roadway. Three others were struck by vehicles while walking on sidewalks. She said some of them were involved in litter cleanups. One cleaner in specific was struck by a wheel and tire that came off a truck pulling a trailer.
“The results of that study
and the analysis, the costs and the safety risks just outweigh the program benefits that we were getting from that,” Allmeroth said.
She said MoDOT knows that there are a lot of dedicated adopters out there, so the phase-out will finish in 2026 after all the contracted agreements have concluded.
Of the 5,300 adopters, about 2,200 of them are
in memory of someone who has died. Those signs will be made available for family members who wish to keep them. MoDOT has sent letters to adopters.
“I think we found a really, really good solution,” Allmeroth said.
Allmeroth said MoDOT has set up another program called Keeping Missouri Beautiful, which focuses on community litter pickup events that are coordinated with MoDOT,
rather than year-round highway adoption. If anyone is interested in holding a community litter pickup event, they can contact MoDOT.
“I’m just so glad that we’re finding another avenue that those people that are dedicated will still have the opportunity,” said Terry Ecker, of Elmo, who was chairman of the commission in April, but is no longer on the board. “... It’s fantastic that there’s gonna be an opportunity for them because I
think that they’ll participate.”