Area resident Brandon Duncan says he will continue to lobby the Gasconade County R-2 School District administration and policymakers to support a turn lane on Highway 19 as it runs along the district’s campus.

His efforts are being encouraged by the Gasconade County Commission, which also supports the addition of a turn lane on 19 from its intersection with Highway 28 northward to include the multiple entrances to the R-2 campus. It’s a position also supported by Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) Regional Engineer Preston Kramer, who calls the project an ideal candidate for the state’s cost-share program.

Duncan was at the Commission session Thursday morning at Owensville City Hall to hear county administrators’ thinking on the issue, noting that he has contacted State Sen. Ben Brown’s office about the possibility of adding a turn lane.

The project was a priority transportation project of the county for some time, but with a change of administrations in the R-2 District the effort fell out of favor — even though county and state transportation officials continued to feel it to be a worthwhile improvement.

“Is it really going to take somebody coming in and stepping on the school board’s toes to get something done?” Duncan asked.

“It was on the (county Transportation Improvement Plan) list,” said Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann. “It was pooh-poohed because the school district didn’t want it,” he added.

It remains a priority project for the county and state, setting at Number 3 on the county’s Transportation Improvement Plan that was adopted last month.

“The school has a different opinion of safety than MoDOT has,” added Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville.

“That was addressed in 2014 and it was moved up the ladder (of projects),” said Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann. “Three or four years ago, it was due to move up to (the) planning (stage)” by MoDOT, he said.

“They know what’s right here,” Schulte said, “but if the school doesn’t want it…”

Duncan said he would keep lobbying for the improvement.

“You have our support on it,” Lairmore said, adding that the school district still could consider supporting the project. “It still could move forward, but that’s their choice. I’m not going to force the school to do something it doesn’t want to do,” he said. “In all fairness to them, they might have reasons,” he noted.

“Maybe they have a reason that I don’t know about or the state doesn’t know about,” Lairmore said, suggesting Duncan continue his conversation with school officials about a turn lane.

Schulte, a former director of the Gasconade County R-1 School District, suggested Duncan take his plea straight to the board. “I’d get on the school board agenda” and talk directly to the board members, he said.

Owensville city officials support the project, also, and there’s a chance it could move forward, depending on available financing, at least from intersection to northward to include Highway 19’s junctions with Industrial Drive and Springfield to avoid traffic bottlenecks at those intersections.

Under the cost-share program, the expense of the project would be split between the state and the local entities benefiting from the improvement, such as the City of Owensville and possibly the county, and, if it chooses to participate, the R-2 District.