Sweet Springs: Fueling up for a new travel center – Marshall Democrat-News

By Whitney Barnes
Staff Writer

Sweet Springs is about to get even sweeter with the arrival of a new travel center and Wendy’s restaurant.

Saline County Northern District Commissioner Stephanie Gooden shared a letter from Road Ranger LLC Monday morning, Oct. 12, confirming that the construction of a new travel center in Sweet Springs is officially in the company’s plans. Road Ranger is an Illinois-based chain of travel centers, truck stops and convenience stores.

“This is great news for Saline County,” Gooden said. “Sweet Springs was notified by Road Ranger they wanted to come. After months of trying to work with MoDOT, with no success, I got involved along with Representative (Kurtis)Gregory.”

Gooden arranged a meeting at the site with the Road Ranger, Olseen Engineering, Sweet Springs City officials, MoDOT representatives, Southern District Commissioner Monte Fenner, and Gregory.

“We had everyone there to make it happen,” she said. “After this beneficial meeting, MoDOT still did not budge, so I made more calls to MoDOT, including Deputy Director and Chief Engineer Ed Hassinger, District Engineer Chris Redline, Governmental Relations Director Jay Wunderlich, and Gregory. Representative Gregory scheduled a meeting with the Governor and MoDOT.”

At that meeting, Gooden said she had the opportunity to discuss the issue and emphasize that the city, being a rural community, greatly required this development. However, the necessary road improvements required by MoDOT were beyond the city’s financial means, so they needed to explore alternative options.

“Finally, a cost share agreement was offered,” Gooden said. “I completed the paperwork, presented several times to the city of Sweet Springs, and got approval signatures for the cost share. Then I had to fill out the funding paperwork for funding and for the LPA process for Sweet Springs.”

The letter shared on Monday was a follow up on the memorandum of understanding signed by Road Ranger and the city of Sweet Springs on Oct. 26, 2023. This memorandum pertained to a cost-share agreement between the city of Sweet Springs and the Missouri Department of Transportation. It involves cooperation to make off-site road improvements, including lowering a hill on U.S. Highway 127 and expanding exit and entrance ramps on Interstate 70 at the U.S. Highway 127 northern ramps. These improvements aim to gain MoDOT’s approval for Road Ranger’s access driveway as submitted.

For the upcoming construction of the Road Rangers travel center, they are required to construct a lane for deceleration and right turns on U.S. Highway 127. This lane will connect their proposed driveway to the northbound traffic from Interstate 70.

“Engineering has started surveying the area for the necessary road improvements,” Gooden said.

Road Ranger confirmed in the letter that they plan to move forward with a travel center in Sweet Springs — which will include Wendy’s — at the northeast quadrant of the intersection.

“We are currently putting together our capital investment plans for 2025 and will know shortly whether we will start construction of the facility in 2025 or 2026,” the letter read. “Regardless of timing, Sweet Springs is in Road Ranger’s long-term plans for development.”

The letter mentioned that, as always, significant changes to the economy, changes in financing budgets or other unforeseen factors could impact these plans.

Road Ranger thanked the Saline County Commission’s strong leadership for making this project possible, noting that without their tireless efforts to work toward collaboration and mutual “wins,” the cost-share agreement between MoDOT, Saline County and the city of Sweet Springs would not have happened.

“Road Ranger looks forward to working with the city of Sweet Springs and Saline County on its travel center,” the letter concluded.

Gooden mentioned that this process has spanned approximately a year. She hopes residents recognize the effort the commission makes to serve the county and understand that meaningful progress takes time.

“This was a big process for the city to accomplish … on their own,” Gooden said. “I was honored to help and had the skills, knowledge, and connections to do so. I’m thankful for everyone involved and happy to be a part of great development for Saline County.”