By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
news@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — A trip to Washington, D.C., by a Kansas delegation may have netted an unexpected $1 million toward the Highway 69 corridor project in Southeast Kansas.
The project has seen a series of ups and downs when it comes to funding, and this week was no different.
Jim AuBuchon, Highway 69 Association executive director; Ken Brock, association president; Marty Beezley, Pittsburg city commissioner; Blake Benson, Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce president; and delegates from Fort Scott and Overland Park met with members of Congress to request that $4.5 million be appropriated next year.
The money, if approved, would be put toward the extension of Highway 69 as a four-lane road from Fort Scott south to Interstate 44.
The delegation was informed that similar lobbying efforts last year may have paid off: An omnibus bill that was expected to earn House approval this week and approval by the Senate next week includes $950,000 to be used on the segment of Highway 69 between Fort Scott and Arma.
“It wound up being a million-dollar trip,” AuBuchon said. “That was money well spent.”
The delegation shared the news with members of the Highway 69 Association at its meeting Wednesday afternoon in Pittsburg.
Kansas is expected to receive $348 million in the federal stimulus package to be used for highways and bridges. While the Southeast Kansas portion of Highway 69 did not receive anything, primarily because it was not “shovel ready,” AuBuchon said there is a bright spot: Two northern portions of the highway did.
“One, $90 million will go toward a project that is shovel ready in Overland Park, and two, $300,000 will be put to use on the Missouri side north of the river,” he said.
Several association members expressed disappointment in not receiving federal stimulus dollars.
“With no more highway funds available in the foreseeable future, that just pushes us back so much further than I wanted us to be,” said Dean Mann, of Fort Scott.
But Brock, the association president, said he sees the silver lining: “Funding other projects means Highway 69 now moves closer to the top of the list.”
Benson, the chamber president, said there’s a reason that the projects funded by the federal stimulus package are in the metropolitan areas of Wichita and Kansas City, but he added that should be an incentive for Southeast Kansas to “put our best face forward.”
“Those are the areas that are economic generators for the state,” he said. “We as an area need to make a little more effort to show we’re doing OK as it is, with sales-tax collections up, and with a little bit of help, we too can become one of those economic generators.”
Fort Scott section
The section of Highway 69 from Louisburg to Fort Scott is scheduled to be complete in August. The price tag is $98 million.
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