Families no longer have to pay for highway memorials for fallen first responders and service people

      Memorials for fallen veterans, police officers, and firefighters, and for those missing in action, will no longer be paid for by the families of those individuals, under legislation that became law this year.

LCPL Jared Schmitz (Photo courtesy of Mark Schmitz)

      It’s called the “FA Paul Akers, Junior, and LCPL Jared Schmitz Memorial Sign Funding Act,” and it stemmed from the efforts to memorialize those two men, both of whom died while serving their country.  When legislators learned that their families were billed for the signs honoring them, they proposed the language that would have those costs paid for by the Department of Transportation.

      “Most people in Missouri didn’t like the idea, just like I didn’t … that once we honor a fallen hero, we didn’t realize the paper trail behind the scenes was to send these invoices to their family members,” said Representative Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville)

FA Paul Akers, Junior

      Representative Don Mayhew (R-Crocker) said what was happening was “a shock to, in fact, everyone who’s ever gotten a memorial sign done.  A lot of times what they have to do is they go around and they get donations from the VFW and other places in order to pay for the sign because, many of them, they don’t have $3,000 laying around for a memorial sign for the highway.”

      Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, of St. Charles, was among 13 U.S. Service Members and more than 100 others killed in a suicide bombing at a Kabul airport during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.  His family wanted to honor him with signs to designate an overpass on I-70 in Wentzville as a memorial bridge bearing his name. 

      His father, Mark Schmitz, said the family got a bill for those signs.

      “That’s when I started pushing back.  How the hell can you charge any grieving parent or person who lost a loved one who died in the line of duty, whether it be police or fire or paramedic or military?  I said that just doesn’t seem right.  So I reached out to some of the [parents of the other 12 U.S. service members who died in that same bombing] and three of them in California never had to pay for their signs either, so I’m like, this is kind of disgusting.”

      Schmitz, who lives in Byrnes’ district, said he supported her legislation not so much due to his family’s experience (donations covered their $3,200 cost in a matter of hours after an online fundraising effort was launched). 

Representative Tricia Byrnes (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “I was thinking about the wife of a fallen police officer or the widow of a soldier or marine that’s killed, and maybe [the family doesn’t] embrace trying to honor them so quickly.  Maybe they take three, four, five years to finally get past that grieving point where they want to do something like that, and then the state’s going to bill them for $3,200.  They would have a very difficult time trying to raise that kind of money.  Certainly I think it’s really gross or disgusting for them to have to pay the bill themselves,” said Schmitz.

      Schmitz said the passage of this legislation is, for him, in honor of his son.

      “There will be no first responder who is killed in the line of duty whose family or loved one will have to pay that bill again moving forward, which is a total victory.  I think that’s the right thing to do.  It’s the least that they can do when somebody has literally given everything they have for this country, in the case of the military; or for their town, if they’re a police officer, fireman, paramedic.”

      Mayhew’s experience with the issue began with an effort to honor Fireman Apprentice Paul Akers, Junior, who was killed in the January, 1969 explosion and fire on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, CVAN-65, off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.  Akers was also from Crocker. 

      “I was nine years old at the time and they had the funeral in the high school, and I remember it like it was yesterday.  The entire gym was full, completely full, and that might not sound like much but pretty much everybody in town was at that funeral and the memories are very vivid,” said Mayhew.  “I’ve known the family my entire life and so I’m very proud to not only be a part of getting the [memorial sign with his name] put up but also a part of making sure that families in the future don’t have to go through this ever again.”

      Mayhew is just glad the proposal finally became law.

      “I also want to apologize to those families who have lost loved ones in service to our nation and our state who had to pay for these signs over the years.  I hope that they can take solace in the fact that no other family will have to suffer from the cost of these signs ever again,” said Mayhew.  “These Gold Star families have already given all in service to the country.  The least we could do is pay for a memorial sign.”

Representative Don Mayhew (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Byrnes said the legislation was the subject of very little opposition, and for good reason.

      “There was a moment on the House floor where somebody said that MODOT’s budget is already pretty tight enough.  Do we really want to force MODOT, and I was like, yes because I’m really not going to support selling signs to family members so that we can charge them for grass cutting along the highway.”

      The family of LCPL Schmitz isn’t finished honoring him.  His father said they are now working to raise money for a series of 100-acre recreational retreat camps, one in each state, for veterans and their families to use for free.  Each will have 13 available houses, one for each of the U.S. service people killed in the attack in which his son died. 

      “[We want to get a] lot of bonding going on, that’s kind of our mission here, is to get a bunch of veterans together that served in different times, different conflicts, different branches, just get them comingling again and have them be around guys like themselves,” said Schmitz. 

      Advocates who deal with veteran suicide and mental health issues say one of the best outlets for veterans, especially those who have experienced combat, is other veterans. 

      Byrnes and Mayhew sponsored identical bills.  When Byrnes’ version, House Bill 882, came to a House vote, it passed 153-0.  The language later became law as part of Senate Bills 139 and 127.

Bills would have MODOT, not families, cover cost for highway memorial signs

      The families of fallen veterans, police officers, and firefighters, and of those missing in action, would no longer have to foot the bill for highway or bridge memorial signs honoring those loved ones under a bill approved by a House committee.

Representative Tricia Byrnes (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Legislation sponsored by Representatives Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville) and Don Mayhew (R-Crocker) would require the Department of Transportation to cover those costs. 

“Keep in mind, folks, these are the folks who gave all to represent our country … if we’re going to have honorary signs, the very least that we can do is pay for it,” said Mayhew when presenting the legislation to the House Committee on Transportation Accountability, which he chairs. 

Byrnes joined Mayhew in proposing this change in response to the effort to honor Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, a Wentzville native, who was one of 13 U.S. military members who died in a 2021 bombing at an airport in Kabul, in Afghanistan.  She learned that when Corporal Schmitz’s family wanted to have a section of highway named for him they received an invoice from the Department of Transportation for more than $3,000.

“If we have people that are dying for our country and dying for our communities the least that we can do is not hand them an invoice, because in my opinion that’s just selling signs to people who sacrificed their life for us,” said Byrnes.

Corporal Schmitz’ father, Mark, told the committee, “Being a Gold Star father, everyone knows, you die twice.  The last thing I want is for my son to be forgotten.  To be on I-70, to be visible to so many people every day would be tremendous.  So, we went through the state … I think it was $3,200 to be exact … they sent us an invoice that once we raised this money they’ll go ahead and proceed with it.  You can imagine, after the sacrifice that he made, to then have to figure out how you’re going to pay for it.  I think it was ludicrous and shameful.”

Schmitz said he talked to the families of the other 12 personnel who died at the same time as his son.  None of them had to pay the cost of having a memorial sign placed in honor of their loved on, on a highway in their respective states.

“I don’t want to see any fallen [police officer’s, fireman’s, or other veteran’s] family have to go through that.  Luckily we have tremendous support from our community … we were able to raise the money in about 24-hours, thank God, but I don’t think people [should] have to go through that,” Schmitz told the Committee.

      The Department of Transportation did not oppose the legislation but offered information on how the system currently operates.  Chief Safety and Operations Manager Becky Allmeroth said the Department has to consider other signage. 

Representative Don Mayhew (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “This new signage would not aid drivers in navigating the highways.  Placing new signs necessary for safe travel would also become more difficult with fewer locations available.  This is especially true in our St. Louis and our Kansas City regions of the state right now.  It’s a very awkward situation when you’re designing a new interchange and you have to make decisions on those signs that actually guide motorists up through an exit versus a memorial signs that’s already in place and where we can fit all those signs to make sure that we’re keeping our motorists safe.”

      Allmeroth told legislators, “We have 830 memorial designations across the state highway system.  The number is expected, with this bill, to increase exponentially if the current participation fee is removed.”

      Most committee members voiced support for making the change in policy. 

      “Personally I don’t care about the costs.  I just think we need to do this.  I don’t think the family should pay,” said Republican Bob Bromley (Carl Junction)“If we’re making the Slim Pickens Highway or Mark Twain Highway at Hannibal I understand having a fee.  If we’re doing it for fallen soldiers I think [having a fee is] ridiculous.”

      The committee voted unanimously in favor of the bills, House Bill 882 (Byrnes) and 518 (Mayhew), advancing them to another committee for consideration.