MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Despite concerns about one project in her area, Monongalia County Republican Delegate Cindy Frich said she isn’t campaigning against the $1.6 billion road bond that faces an October referendum.
“I’m not telling people how to vote,” she told WAJR in Morgantown. “I’m just concerned more people aren’t aware that this is happening.”
Frich claims citizens in the Baker’s Ridge area have not been properly informed of a potential $100-million I-79 connector providing additional access to the interstate. Those claims have been disputed by a number of local officials who say the project has been in the public eye since late 2015.
“It has yet to be designed,” said Bill Austin of the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization this week.
That fact alone is why Austin, the executive director on the MPO’s policy board, remains baffled by the criticism from Frich.
“When we did the modeling on it, we were thinking of it as a boulevard, which would access on it,” he said. “When we were doing the planning study on it, it would not be an interstate of any sort. It would be comparable to a four-lane with a median in some places, but there would be access allowed to it.”
He claims he never told Frich it would be a limited-access four-lane expressway.
“I was hoping for better information out there to folks before they voted,” Frich said. “And there are groups that know and are being spoken to.”
However, a number of local officials claim there isn’t information to reveal because no environmental impact studies have started. The proposed access project — dubbed colloquially by roads officials as the “West Run Expressway” — remains years away from breaking ground.
“Where we are with it is an environmental impact statement needs to be performed for the study,” Austin said. “It would look at potential corridors. The lines on the map we have are simply placeholders to give people an idea of the vicinity where it might be.”
The project has been the subject of several public meetings by the MPO dating back to 2015.
“People up here, most of them don’t know anything about it,” Frich said. “They don’t even know what an MPO is.”
Frich is in the process of attempting to create public meetings that would include DOT Secretary Thomas Smith and DOH District Engineer Don Williams. She sent a hand-written letter to residents last week suggesting this project could lead to the seizure of homes and the devaluation of property — a claim Austin refuted.
“To say that any one person’s home would be taken is not really true,” Austin said. “That’s not to say that homes couldn’t be taken, but they would seek to minimize the impact to the neighborhood and homes.”
Public forums will be held in Monongalia County on Tuesday and Thursday that will feature the DOT’s Smith and the DOH’s Williams.
Early voting begins Friday on the $1.6 billion dollar road bond.