KIRKSVILLE, MO -- The following is a press release issued by Representative Brian Munzlinger:

I hope all the fathers had a wonderful Father’s Day!

The fair season is starting with the Scotland County fair.  I hope everyone is able to get out and enjoy their county fair.  Good luck to all the kids exhibiting this year at the fairs.

MoDOT District 3 sent 14 of our trucks to other districts last fall, just as we needed them for clearing the roads of snow and ice.  At the time, Kevin Keith, from the Jefferson City headquarters assured me that this was temporary until the trucks from the other districts got repaired.  He did say they were looking to replace them with tandem axle trucks for District 3.  I only know of one tandem axle truck from the other districts out of the 14 sent.

MoDOT is doing a good job in urban areas with 640 in St. Louis and other major projects, but the rural roads have suffered in the mean time.  Their intent was to hold rural roads to a stable degree, but that hasn’t happened, they are getting in dire need of repair.  This year they are patching the secondary roads, but truthfully these roads need to be resurfaced.

This is MoDOT’s construction season and they have a work zone safety survey on the webpage that you can go and fill out if you see things that need to be changed in a work zone or that MoDOT could do differently.  Remember to please be safe in work zones and to go to MoDOT’s website at www.modot.mo.gov/workzones/comments.htm to fill out the survey. 

Over the last two weeks I have attended the Highway 136 Corridor meetings held in Kahoka and Unionville.

While in Jefferson City this week I heard talk that the Governor might veto a lot of funding issues in House Bill 22.  This bill is the one that had a lot of capital improvement projects including the Greenly Research Center funding, the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia and the interoperable radio communication funding that provides funding for better radio communication for public service and emergency personnel.  This bill also includes funding for the ethanol incentive funds and, personally, I felt that every project in House Bill 22 were critical needs of the State of Missouri with most of these funds coming from the stimulus money to be used for such purposes.  The Governor finds capital investment needs important, but wants to veto some in House Bill 22 and wants to use bonding.  The state is looking at bonds allowing us to use the Build America Bond program, part of the stimulus package, to help with Missouri’s capital investments.

I have signed onto a resolution along with many other House members to recognize Pvt. William “Andy” Long of Arkansas.  He was the solider that was killed outside of the recruiting office in Little Rock.

I was informed this week that LaGrange has been awarded a Community Development Block Grant for the buyout of seven flood affected commercial properties.

As always, you can feel free to contact me for any reason.  I can be reached at (573) 751-7985 or at brian.munzlinger@house.mo.gov