Last public meeting on license plates set for next week

The last of four public meetings to gather comments on the state’s new commemorative license plates is scheduled for next week in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Anyone in Southeast Missouri who is interested in having a say about five possible plate designs will get the opportunity at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Three Rivers College’s Tinnin Fine Arts Center.

Mary Ellen Lohmann, strategic communications associate for the State Historical Society of Missouri, the organization spearheading the license-plate initiative, said anyone who isn’t able to attend the local meeting also will be able to comment through Dec. 1 at www.missouri2021.org.

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“The point behind the meetings is to make sure the community can ask questions and have a voice in the process,” she said.

All five plate designs have blue backgrounds with white lettering.

One of them must be chosen by Jan. 1 to replace the state’s bluebird plate design by Jan. 1, 2019.

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Because Missouri’s 200th anniversary coincided with the need to issue new plates, the available designs present the bicentennial in different ways.

Four of the five possible designs show the three stars of the bicentennial logo, which represents the state’s development over time, while three of them have the state seal ghosted in the background.

“(The stars are) a celebration of where we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going,” Lohmann said.

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Missouri became America’s 24th state in August 1821 after the Missouri Compromise issued the previous year authorized it to be admitted to the Union as a slave state.

At the same time, Maine was established as a free state in an attempt to help maintain the balance of power in Congress.

Lohmann said the plate designs are more minimalistic because state Department of Revenue regulations prevent certain parts of them from displaying content, and the blue-and-white format is supposed to make it easier for Missouri State Highway Patrol officers and other drivers to read the plate numbers.

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“It’s kind of a nod back to the vintage maroon style we (once) had,” she said.

Each plate produced using prison labor is expected to cost about $2, a fee that will be passed along to citizens when they register for new license plates in 2019.

About 17 million plates are expected to be produced in the lead-up to the reissuance, compared to the 13 million created when the bluebird-themed plates were issued in 2008.

The current plate designs and the four statewide meetings came about through the Bicentennial License Plate Committee, created by HB 2380.

Members include leaders from the historical society and the Missouri Department of Revenue as well as the highway patrol, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Transportation and the chairmen of the transportation committees in the state House and Senate.

Previous public comment meetings have been held throughout the fall in Springfield, Lee’s Summit and Town and Country, Missouri.

ljones@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3652

Pertinent address:

Tinnin Fine Arts Center, Poplar Bluff, Mo.