Marine mayor, trustees pen letter to IDOT in support of proposed truck stop
By Charles Bolinger
Editor • In a letter to Carrie Nelsen, one of IDOT’s regional engineers in Collinsville, Marine Mayor Darren Apken and the village trustees wrote in support of a proposed Jack Flash truck stop at the northwestern corner of Route 4 and Interstate 70.
The letter, dated June 5, opens with:
“We, the Village of Marine Board, have made a unanimous decision to do what we can to help the ‘Jack Flash’ organization proceed to a successful installation of the proposed project.
“This intersection has been dangerous for at least 20 years. Your records and previous studies, including the most recent one, prove this point. Not acting on this information helps no one.”
Within the past 30 days, there have been three accidents on Route 4 near Marine, two of them at the I-70 interchange. One involved a Jeep and a tractor-trailer while the other one involved a BMW Motorcycle and another-tractor trailer. The motorcyclist, a 70-year-old man from Kansas, died. The third involved a pedestrian who wore dark-colored clothing with no reflectivity and walked down the road’s center line before sunrise one morning and was struck by an oncoming vehicle.
“If we drag our feet on finding a resolution to the problem, we will only increase the cost of the project and, at some point, lose the opportunity that has been made available to us. The village needs the availability of the services that Jack Flash will provide. They are projecting $10 million in sales and can document this. Madison County will receive a huge amount of tax revenue from this.”
The three nearest Jack Flash locations to Marine are Greenville and Vandalia on I-70 and Farmersville on I-55.
“We feel that because these people want to bring much needed progress to the area that the State of Illinois should not force the burden of the essential road repair onto Jack Flash exclusively. The fact of the matter is that this intersection is and will continue to be an unsafe situation that is solely the responsibility of IDOT to correct at some point. The opportunity at hand can prove to generate revenue for Madison County and job opportunities for local residents and justify the tax dollars spent on the hazardous road conditions. We ask that there be more consideration determining who is responsible to cover the road construction costs for the intersection of Route 4 and I-70.”
