Avenue of Saints reaps economic, safety benefits

Tonya and Bennie Teasley know location has a lot to do with success.
When they decided to open Prairie’s Edge garden center and restaurant last year, they chose a prime site at the edge of Bowling Green,
“It was a good location because we were on the highway near the overpass,” Tonya Teasley said. “We wanted to draw traffic from more than just Bowling Green. We wanted to be seen.”
The Teasleys are among many business people and community leaders who give part of the credit for increased economic opportunity to the four-lane Avenue of the Saints, a 520-mile stretch of multiple roads that connects St. Paul to St. Louis.
An Avenue of the Saints reception is planned for 6:30 tonight at the Lewis Street Playhouse in Canton, with a dedication ceremony at 9 a.m. Friday at the U.S. 61/Mo. 27 interchange near Running Fox Elementary School south of Wayland.
Additional “whistle stops” are scheduled Friday in LaGrange, Palmyra, Hannibal, New London, Bowling Green, Troy, Moscow Mills and Chesterfield.
The Avenue is “going to benefit all of us,” said Marisa Brown of the Missouri Department of Transportation. “It will continue to promote economic prosperity in the region.”
Teasley already has noticed the difference because business has “continually gotten better.”
Motorists from Hannibal, Quincy and St. Louis get curious when they see the center’s large sign and barn-shaped building.
“There’s a lot of traffic going up and down,” Teasley said. “Four lane speeds up getting anywhere.”
Equally important to the economic benefits, all say, will be the increased safety of a four-lane highway.
Dan Steinbeck, editor of the Canton Press-News Journal weekly newspaper, kept track of accidents along U.S. 61 in Lewis and Clark counties for 27 years.
In that time, 45 people died in 38 fatality crashes. One of the deaths, that of Kristin Hendrickson in 2000, prompted young people in Canton to form Students of Missouri Assisting Rural Transportation.
The group, which went by the acronym SMART, is given much of the credit for speeding completion of the Northeast Missouri part of the Avenue by more than a decade.
Since U.S. 61 opened to four lanes between Canton and LaGrange in 2004, Steinbeck said there has been a reduction in the number of crashes.
“Four lanes are not a guarantee that we’re not going to have accidents,” Steinbeck cautions. “What four lanes do is give you more room. Four lanes give you an extra measure of prevention.”
Steinbeck and Brown said dozens of government officials, community leaders, businesses and local residents share credit for the determination that has led to this week’s ceremonies.
“The excitement is not just about the event,” Brown said. “It’s about years and years of hard work to make this happen.”
Following is a schedule of Friday’s whistle stops, which are open to the public:
11 a.m.: LaGrange, City Hall parking lot.
12:30 p.m.: Palmyra, Dent Drive off Main Cross near Hardees.
1:15 p.m.: Hannibal, Middle School parking lot.
2 p.m.: New London, Ralls County Courthouse lawn.
2:45 p.m.: Bowling Green, west outer road near city welcome sign.
4 p.m.: Troy, Lincoln County Chourthouse lawn.
4:35 p.m.: Moscow Mills, Bank of Old Monroe.
6 p.m.: Chesterfield, Spirit of St. Louis Airport.