MoDOT Has Officially Killed Missouri's Adopt-a-Highway Program

Say goodbye to the signs that once flourished along Missouri highways, announcing that civic groups or grieving family members were cleaning up the nearby litter: The Missouri Department of Transportation has scrapped its Adopt-a-Highway program.

The state agency's decision follows its suspension of the 37-year-old program last May — which came about after family members adopted a section of I-44 in the memory of a man convicted of killing a Kirkwood police officer. Missouri's Adopt-a-Highway survived a legal battle that allowed the Ku Klux Klan to adopt a portion of highway, but it apparently couldn't survive adoption by the family of Kevin Johnson.

Johnson, of course, killed Kirkwood police officer William McEntee in 2005, when he was 19 years old. Despite appeals noting his young age when he committed the crime, the way race seemed to factor into his prosecution and Johnson's state of mind at the time (his beloved younger brother had suffered a seizure earlier that same day and soon perished), Governor Mike Parson called McEntee's execution "cold-blooded" and denied Johnson's request for clemency. The state of Missouri executed Johnson, then 37, in November 2022.

Under the rules of the Adopt-a-Highway program, no one found guilty of a violent crime can be honored through it until 10 years have passed after the completion of their sentence. Johnson's sentence presumably wasn't complete until his execution, so it's not clear how his family's application slipped through the cracks — but it led to a swift reaction by both administrators (in suspending the program) and lawmakers (state Representative Justin Sparks [R-Wildwood] introduced a bill making it illegal to designate a highway “for any person who has been convicted of the killing of, or the attempted killing of, a law enforcement officer").

But according to a spokeswoman for MoDOT, it was actually the comprehensive analysis of the program triggered by the controversy around the sign honoring Johnson that proved its death knell.

Assistant Communications Director Taylor H. Brune writes, "The detailed review showed the costs and safety risks outweighed the program benefits. The analysis showed the average cost per bag of litter collected through the Adopt-A-Highway program is $42 per bag compared to the MoDOT staff pickup cost per bag of $18. Adopt-A-Highway costs account for MoDOT staff administration of the program, the signs and sign installation and the added costs for staff to pick up the bags left by the volunteers."

At a meeting of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission earlier this month, MoDOT Chief Safety and Operations Officer Becky Allmeroth explained that many states are reconsidering their Adopt-a-Highway programs. In Missouri, for example, the program costs $1.2 million a year because of the difficulties of administering volunteer groups, with a benefit of only $540,000 or so in trash pickup.

She also noted that, while Missouri's 5,300 adopters promise to pick up trash four times a year in exchange for the highway sign, the department's analysis showed that on average, they only went once — and the average bags per trip sat at eight. "Not a whole lot of litter was being picked up," she said.

Because of that, she said that Missouri is shifting to a new program based on one in Utah.

"This program, very similar to Utah's, called Keeping Missouri Beautiful, will be our opportunity to transition our litter pick-up coordination to more community litter pick-up events," she told the commissioners. Having more coordinated events will also allow MoDOT to address some safety concerns they'd witnessed with volunteers in the adoption program, she said, and save staff time.

"A lot of time, just the going around and randomly picking up the bags, we have to go to those sites anyway," she said. "When we have these more organized events, we can provide that resource, even on the weekend" — since staffers can take the bags with them when they leave rather than volunteers leaving them by the side of the road for days for later pickup.

Interestingly, Allmeroth noted that when volunteering with the Boy Scouts for its Adopt-a-Highway site 10 to 15 years ago, "the biggest hazard we'd have would be a jug of something nasty someone had thrown out the window" or maybe a dirty magazine.

Now the trash is getting trashier: "Five to ten years ago, we started seeing mobile meth labs. Our crews, when they're out there picking, have come across dead bodies. When my group was picking, we came across a loaded gun on the side of the road."

And that's not all. "But now, the distracted driving is just scary, to have those volunteers that aren't trained professionals out there picking," Allmeroth said. "I don't sleep well at night knowing we have Boy Scout troops and different individuals and church groups putting themselves in that harm's way for our benefit."

And so the program ends. With new applications already suspended, MoDOT said it will be phasing out existing Adopt-a-Highway groups when their terms end over the next two years, so the dedicated adopters who are out there picking up trash can keep doing so until 2026.

For info on the department's new community pickup event, see MoDOT's website. Worth noting that this application form not only doesn't screen out KKK membership, it also says nothing about being convicted of murder — so whatever your status, you have no excuse not to sign up.


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