MACON, MO -- Update: 6/8/11- 3:45 p.m.-
The Missouri Transportation Commission has voted to close MODOT district offices in Macon, Willow Springs and Joplin. The vote was unanimous.
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It's getting down to the wire on the fate of about 70 Heartland jobs. City, county and state officials will present their final cases to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission in Jefferson City Wednesday starting at 9 a.m.
The commission will vote on whether or not to close the MoDOT District 2 Headquarters in Macon.
“I just hope they use their wisdom and listen to us and work with us on some modification of it if they're going to pass it, at least help us modify the plan where its less painful to rural Missouri, not only in Macon but in Willow Springs and the Joplin area also,” said Allan Muncy, Macon City Administrator.
With only about a 30 day process from the announcement to the vote, Muncy says there's a lot of information in the five year plan that hasn't been discussed.
If the vote passes, the new district office would be located in Hannibal.
The City of Macon and Missouri Farm Bureau, along with other entities, have asked the commission for a 90-day extension so they can have more time to look at and understand MoDOT’s five year plan.
“A lot of the information we asked for, we finally had to submit a request under the sunshine law and obtain that. I finally got that towards, about seven to 10 days ago. I did receive over 6,000 pages of documents that we've had to sit down and try to look through,” Muncy said.
Muncy says they need more time to look over a plan as big as MoDOT’s. He says there's devil in the detail, and MoDOT will be rely on outsourcing to private industry if the plan is implemented.
He says that once the plan is in place, there won't be any going back, and the rural districts will take the biggest hit over the next few years, losing as many as 500 jobs.
Is Macon making some noise with MoDOT?
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