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JEFFERSON CITY, MO --
The highly anticipated decision of the Macon MoDOT District Office was made in Jefferson City Wednesday by the state Highways and Transportation Commission.
    
After presentations by MoDOT Director Kevin Keith and numerous stakeholders in the matter, it was time for the commission to vote on whether or not to adopt MoDOT’S “Bolder Five Year Plan.”
 
Emotions were running high in the central MoDOT office where dozens of people urged the commission to delay the vote.

With only about a month to get used to the idea and look over the plan, area city officials and lawmakers asked for a 90 day extension to read over and modify the five year plan.
    
But after numerous heartfelt presentations on the economic impact of closing the district offices in Macon, Willow Springs, and Joplin, the commissioners voted unanimously to move forward with the five year plan. They felt it was in the best interest of the state as a whole to close the three district offices.
    
MoDot Director Kevin Keith says you just can't ignore the proposed $512 million savings by cutting 1200 MoDOT employees statewide, as well as fleet and facility closures.

The Macon and Kirksville area were well represented today, but are left disheartened after the commission’s decision.

“Really it's a sad day not only for Macon and Willow Springs, for those communities, but I hope I'm wrong, but I think we'll see that it might be a sad day for the MoDOT transportation company because I'm afraid we're started down a road that's not going to lead to where they want to go, and once you start down this hill there's no way that you're going to come back to where we are at this point in time,” said Allan Muncy, MoDOT City Administrator.

“This is a huge hit for us. Our local economy is going to feel the effects, from our schools to our hospital, our newly expanded hospital, our tax base, our housing market, we're gonna feel it, there's no question about it,” said Denise Bennett, Macon County Director of Economic Development.
  
The next step is for Macon officials to meet with MoDOT Director Kevin Keith and try to mitigate the damage that the plan will cause to the Macon area.
    
Muncy says they will fight to save every job they can. He says MoDOT has already somewhat committed to keeping 90 to 110 jobs in the area.
    
But that means as many as 70 jobs could still be lost. The time for MoDOT staffing changes was extended three months to April of 2013 to help reduce the number of layoffs statewide.

Commission adopts plan to make MoDOT smaller