About 8 years ago, there were several accidents involving employees of La-Z-Boy Manufacturing as they tried to merge from Highway F onto what was then Highway 71 while the traffic was travelling at 65 MPH. I was employed at La-Z-Boy at the time and some of the accidents involved friends of mine. Some of the injuries were very serious. We at La-Z-Boy asked the city of Neosho to create a speed zone and then supported the changing of the speed zone to 45 MPH. In order to make traffic to indeed slow down, we also asked the Neosho Police to strictly enforce the speed zone. Although it was a frustration to some motorists used to travelling at 65 MPH, the horrible accidents stopped. Over a 1200 employees were afforded a greater degree of safety while going home.