Corporate sponsorships are the norm now for sports stadiums and arenas, but the Iowa Department of Transportation says there’s been very little interest in them for state highway rest areas. The director of the D-O-T’s Highway Division, Mitch Dillavou, told the Transportation Commission last week that they tried to gain sponsorships after a federal rule change. “Four or five years ago we were given permission by the Federal Highway Administration to have a sponsorship program at our rest areas…which allowed people to pay for sponsorships and get their name on the sign. They could have some advertising on the sign and we could receive money to offset the cost of our rest area maintenance and upkeep,” Dillavou explains.

But he says they didn’t get a lot of response when they offered sponsorships for the 38 rest stops. “We had eight originally, the second time around we had none, zero — and the ones that had it didn’t show any interest in it,” Dillavou says. Dillavou says the sponsorships of the eight rest stops amounted to around 55-thousand dollars. He says the lack of interest in the sponsorships is due in part to the F-H-A’s restrictions of what can be placed on the signs by the sponsor. The commission discussed the issue as part of a review and update of its rules.

(Radio Iowa)