Muschany Was Wrong on 40, Resigns House Seat Amid Charges of Sexual Assault
Last December I attended a meeting downtown of a group attempting to halt the planned closing of highway 40 for reconstruction (see post). It was organized by a traffic engineer the predicted massive traffic problems as a result of shutting down the highway. One of the speakers was State Rep Scott Muschany (R-Huntleigh).
Muschany said on 12/17/07:
…Make no mistake about it, beginning January 3rd MoDOT is going to unleash the worst economic damage that this community could ever suffer, one of the worst public health crisis…
The highway involves hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payer money to support the auto culture. It has been a headache to those in the immediate vicinity of the construction and access across the road will be worse than before after completion but the dire predictions of all roads in the central part of the county becoming parking lots just never materialized. The economic crisis will come not from the inability to get around but from the inability of the feds to pay the state for their share of the costs. The federal highway trust fund is running out of money quickly.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s announcement Friday that it would curtail federal highway payments to the states could cause Missouri road and bridge projects to be delayed or even canceled, the state transportation department said. (source)
Today’s paper indicates Muschany has resigned his house seat. He has pleaded not-guilty on charges of sexual assault against a 14 year-old girl.
I’m not going to speak to the charges he faces as all I know is what was in the paper. I’m just glad he is out of office. Fighting the highway on the merits of curtailing such expenses and what it means to be so auto focused —- that is a point I could support. Good riddance Mr Muschany.
Hmmm… Feds not paying? Interesting that they are wrapping up the county portion first before they completely shut down the trust fund, and thus shut down the project. But I’m just a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
It is funny here in Milwaukee there at one time was a huge debate regarding the removal of a freeway spur, the Park East Freeway. Many people fought it and argued that congestion would become unreal. Well truth is we removed the freeway and all this congestion never happened. What often happens is drivers just find another route.
Hey, at least I got my interchange at Kingshighway. I could care less if they spend money on the useless project at this point. I am glad they are improving the 170 interchange, but is it really needed east of that area? I am not looking forward to the shut down. It will be a bigger impact to my family than the first half of the work. Good thing they are starting the design work on the new Mississippi River bridge. Just in time to rack up the design costs and then put the project on hold, just like the last one. After driving back yesterday afternoon across the Poplar and not experiencing any traffic until I had to make the corkscrew to get onto 55, the real issue is not the volume but the confusing interchange on each side of the river at the Poplar that causes a cascade effect with the traffic and the single lane access from 44 to the highway. If they wanted to improve anything- fix the interchange on the Missouri side so its easier to get across all of the existing bridges. If they go through with the new bridge they need to eliminate the depressed section downtown and make it a smaller connection at grade.
I was at that same meeting. Muschany’s comments about 40 were, in my mind, simply lip service. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop it at the 11th hour but his protests against the project made him look good to his constiuants who thought “at least he tried.”