Willow Springs unveils welcome sign design

Five years in the making, Willow Springs is getting a welcome sign directing traffic at the South Junction to the downtown area. Initially proposed during a board of aldermen meeting in 2021, a masonry design was announced at a May 2025 meeting. This design never came to fruition.

 

“When checking with MODOT, I realized that constructing it with the initial masonry plan, the welcome sign became a ‘monument’ rather than just a sign by MODOT definitions and was proposing to be a difficult challenge getting approved by them in a timely manner, if at all. As these things came to light, Kim Frederick called me with the bank sponsorship opportunity. Therefore, this is when I decided we might need to go another direction, keep it more simple, and construct it as a sign definable by MODOT,” explained City Administrator Beverly Hicks in a Monday email to Howell County News.

 

Hicks told the board that the new sign has been ordered and should be installed in four-to-five weeks. As previously reported by the News, this sign is funded by a $12,000 donation from West Plains Bank and Trust Company. The sign itself, and installation, will cost $8,000. The word is to be performed by Scout & Forge, LLC, of Thayer. Hicks plans to use the remaining $4,000 for landscaping and lighting. 

 

The project is pending required permits from the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). 

 

“We’re moving on like we’ve got that approval,” Hicks told the board last week. 

 

The sign will be placed on the northwest side of the three-way intersection of Industrial and Main Streets at the South Junction near Love’s Truck Stop and McIntosh Trucking. The board took no action. 

 

In other matters, Hicks gave a summary of budget priorities for the 2027 municipal budget, including balancing competitive salaries with flat or declining sales tax revenue, redesigning the utility rate tier structure, and investing in the water and sewer departments. The water and sewer departments are supposed to be self-funding. According to Hicks, they are not. 

 

“I don’t talk a lot about raising rates because I know how we all live here, but if we’re going to make it into the future long after I am gone, we have to start making small investments in capital improvements with an eye on inflation,” she told the board. 

 

The utility rate tier update should be revenue-neutral, Hicks said, but would look more transparent because its calculation would rely more on a higher base rate and less on a purchase price adjustment (PPA) to adjust for higher-demand wholesale costs. 

 

In other actions:

-The board gave first and second reading to an ordinance that would update city election ordinances to comply with new state law effective August 28 but did not perform a final vote due to a typographical error. 

-Mayor Adam Webb read a proclamation declaring October Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Willow Springs. 

-Passed an ordinance approving participation in a cost share project of paving shoulders on Highway 137 when MoDOT repaves the same stretch of road next year.

-Scheduled a budget work session for Monday, November 2 at 3:30 pm. This work session is open to the public.