WAYLAND, Mo. -- A large crowd was on hand at the 10:30 a.m. Tuesday of the Flying J Inc. opened a new truckstop off Highway 27 in Wayland, Mo. last week with a ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony, reported the Keokuk Gate City Daily.
The 24-hour facility features Shell gasoline and diesel fuel, a Country Market Restaurant and Buffet, truck scales and a convenience store with Krispy Kreme donuts, pizza, fountain drinks, gift items and more.
We're so excited to bring this to Wayland, Bob Smith, economic development leader [image-nocss] for the Wayland area, told the newspaper. This means more than 100 jobs. It's getting traffic off the highway and bringing people into the community to spend money. This creates a strong possibility for a bank or a hotel or two to locate here. This is the best site between St. Louis and St. Paul. Maybe we even have a shot at an industry locating here or at least another commercial enterprise.
Jon Wadsworth, district manager from Nashville, Tenn., told the paper: We found a great place here. The community has been very receptive. We've hired 120 employees.
Associate store manager Heather Fry is a new hire, said the report. We trained for eight weeks in Illinois how to set up the new store, she said, prior to the ribbon cutting. This company is great about training. We're ready to open the store. Food server Jonann LeMaster said she spent several weeks training for her job at Keokuk's Holiday Inn Express and a week on site at the Flying J. Flying J employees from Davenport to Canada, Illinois to Utah have been in the area to help train the local workforce. Peggy Vigen is the night shift convenience store manager. She trained for five weeks prior to Tuesday's opening. Matt Pflug, also of Keokuk, is manager of the c-store.
Smith said, This is a great day for Wayland, he said. It's the biggest thing to happen around here in 30 years or so.
State Representative Brian Munzlinger called it a great day for Northeast Missouri. This is just the start, he said. There should be many more groundbreakings coming. I've always said we should raise the tax base, not raise taxes. This is a welcome raise to the tax base.
Flying J received tax incremental financing (TIF) from the city of Wayland for 22 years for water and sewer infrastructure, said the report.
Also in Missouri, in Kingdom City, Gasper'soriginally a truckstophas evolved into a travel center, reported The Fulton Sun. Owner Ron Atkinson said the change was needed to keep up with today's business practices and personal lifestyles.
The travel center had a quiet re-opening in mid-July as employees prepared to begin servicing customers 24 hours a day.
Portions of the truck plaza shut down last November in order to redesign the site, according to the report. Four additional fueling stations have been added, along with a c-store offering a greater variety of products, including samples of mid-Missouri goods.
Atkinson also has worked hard to create space between the 18-wheelers and the cars that enter his station. Additional curbing and trees are a new buffer he hopes will make a difference. The trucking industry has changed, he told the paper. We're no longer a player in that market.
Four showers still invite truckers to stop for a spell, but the days of reserving special restaurant booths for them is over. Atkinson said trucking fleets now fill up at national fueling chains because of discount deals, and the path of an independent truckstop station owner has become more difficult. The old way of doing business just doesn't work anymore, he said.
Atkinson hopes to bring a sitdown restaurant back to his property, and he said preparations may begin this fall. The original restaurant closed in 2004 because it wasn't profitable. The new site features a Arby's fast-food restaurant. But my dream is to have a travel malla sitdown restaurant with available space next to it for specialty shops, he added.
And Pilot Travel Centers LLC, Knoxville, Tenn., said it wants to raze Johnny's Truck Stop in Union Township, N.J., and spend $4 million to build a more modern roadside stop with a Subway restaurant, c-store, arcade, showers and laundry facilities. The plan calls for a smaller building, but more parking spaces for both trucks and cars.
An estimated 150 people crammed into the township's Municipal Building in July to hear the first round of testimony by Pilot representatives, said the Bridgewater Courier News. Much of the opposition to Pilot's planincluding the formation of a citizens' group called Safety Today Oppose Pilot (STOP)comes from the facility's proximity to a school. Critics of Pilot's plan say the travel center will bring more traffic to an already congested intersection, increasing the risk of accidents and possibly delaying buses or emergency vehicles.
According to one study, Pilot expects a 60% increase of truck traffic, a 107% increase of car traffic during morning rush hour and a 360% increase of car traffic during the evening. According to the study, Pilot expects about 1,500 patrons per day, the report said. With the traffic, critics said, will also come more noise and emissions pollution, as well as a higher probability of runoff into the Mulhockaway Creek. In April, the township's Environmental Commission urged the Planning Board to reject Pilot's application, the report added.
Bill Mulligan, Pilot's vice president of development, said Pilot would help traffic flow at the truckstop by reorganizing the way trucks enter and exit. Also, he said, Pilot would upgrade the existing building, its lighting, landscaping, fencing and septic system.
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