By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

CARTERVILLE, Mo. — Carterville Mayor Dale Davenport’s patience is about to pay off. The high-speed interchange for Missouri Highway 249, the Range Line bypass, is to open today, marking the completion of the $78 million project that began in 1993.

“Oh, yeah, we’re ready for it,” Davenport said. “I think it’s going to open up all kinds of opportunities for business and manufacturing that we desperately need. We need the sales-tax revenue and the jobs.

“The people here will have to adjust. We’re a small town, and that’s what’s neat about our town, but change is coming.”

Davenport said it’s only a matter of time before Carterville will flourish.

“Now, it’s Carterville’s time,” he said. “The value of the property around the highway will go up, and we again will be a thriving community like it used to be. We want our town to grow and prosper. We used to be on top of a lead mine. Now, it’s a gold mine.”

Davenport and other mayors along the Highway 249 corridor know that someday Highway 249 will become Interstate 49, a four-lane, divided highway stretching from Baton Rouge, La., to Kansas City.

When Webb City Mayor John Biggs was asked how far away the town is from extending water and sewer services to Highway 249, he said: “It’s $2 million away. We want to extend water and sewer along the 17th Street corridor. We’re working on that.”

Biggs echoed Davenport’s belief that the economic potential for development is vast.

“That area will be great for manufacturing,” he said. “You can ship product from there to anywhere in the United States. It’s near the center of the country and two major arteries, Highway 71 and Interstate 44. There’s lots of land and lots of people to work. We have a low cost of living, and low cost of water and sewer. We’re in great shape to bring somebody in here who is involved in manufacturing or distribution.”

Webb City will seek the construction of an interchange for East 17th Street.

The bypass, Biggs said, will make it much easier and convenient for Webb City residents to get “to all points south, including Newman Road, the college, and to 32nd Street and all the good restaurants.”

Like Davenport, he said, “They built this high-speed interchange for one reason: to handle the traffic on what will be Interstate 49.”

Bob Nichols, a resident of Webb City, said a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency paid for the creation of a development plan for the Highway 249 corridor. Noting the presence of lead and zinc mining sites along the 6.2-mile corridor, the plan suggests that the land be developed for industrial and commercial purposes. Residential construction, Nichols said, would be on the fringe of the corridor and away from the mining sites.