The proposed budget for the City of Lebanon, Missouri, would set aside $25,000 to maintain the iconic Munger Moss Motel sign along Route 66.
Gary Sosniecki, a longtime former newspaper editor and a member of the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society, flagged a one-sentence excerpt from a recent Laclede County Record report about a city work session.
The city council ultimately decides whether to proceed with the allocation for the Munger Moss sign for fiscal year 2026.
The Arkansas-based The Dels Corp. completed the buyout of the Munger Moss Motel in October.
During a conference call in January with members of the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society, Dels CEO Mark Bertel said he planned to donate the sign to the city so it could maintain it.
Bertel also said the motel’s general appearance would not change, and he would allocate 20% of its rooms for overnight guests. The rest would be for extended stays.
Ramona Lehman owned the Munger Moss for over 50 years until her death at age 85 in 2023. She and her late husband Bob bought the Route 66 motel in June 1971. Bob died in 2019.
The motel was built in 1946 on Lebanon’s east side along with a restaurant and gas station, both of which are long gone.
Its name came from a sandwich shop of the same name in nearby Devil’s Elbow, Missouri, built in the mid-1930s by Nellie Munger and her husband, Emmitt Moss.
(Image of the Munger Moss Motel sign at night in 2000 by John Hartnup via Flickr)