By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A huge capital improvement package died in the last days of the regular Missouri legislative session and lawmakers failed to revive it in the special session.
Still, the projects St. Joseph counted on could still be resurrected.
That, according to St. Joseph state Rep. Brenda Shields, who pushed for $7 million to establish a UMKC dental school on the Missouri Western campus and $2.8 million to make improvements to the Chiefs Training Camp.
“And I don’t think those issues are dead,” Shields tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “I think that they will come back. We will continue to raise money on the private side for the dental school, because the $7 million never was going to pay for it all. So, we will continue our fundraising drive on the private sector. And we still might be able to swing some money, somehow, to Missouri Western for the Chiefs Training Camp or for the dental school.”
Those expenditures as well as money for Mosaic to expand ER service to treat mental health and to repair the roof at the Pony Express Museum got the ax when the House Budget Committee chair refused to allow the full House to vote on a $513 million capital improvement package.
Though the projects failed during the legislative session, Shields says she keeps beating the drum for them.
“Trust me, I am in the governor’s ear about these projects all the time and he is learning about every other day the importance of these to our community,” Shields says.
Shields says private fundraising is ongoing to bring the UMKC dental school to St. Joseph.
“I think that UMKC is committed to providing a dental school in St. Joseph so that they can provide dental care to all of north Missouri,” Shields says.
Shields expects the issue to come before the legislature again, especially since UMKC has had success establishing a medical school at Mosaic.
“We are training the future rural doctors, not only for Missouri but for the United States,” according to Shields. “That is the real dream with this dental school as well is that we would be training for future rural dentists for not only Missouri, but we would be the premiere location for rural dentists across the nation.”
A ribbon cutting for the medical schools, built across from Mosaic Life Care, is planned soon.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ