Consensus in the District, but obstacles in the way of newly formed roads caucus

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Approximately two dozen legislators and County Commissioners at Wednesday’s proposed “roads caucus” meeting could at least come to this conclusion: something needs to change for the six counties who make up DOH District 4.

“Quality roads is not a partisan issue,” said Delegate John Williams (D-Monongalia, 51). “This is something I’ve worked across the aisle on. I’ve been a co-sponsor on some of Delegate (Joe) Statler’s bills dealing with roads. He’s been a co-sponsor on some of mine dealing with roads.”

Commissioners from Monongalia, Marion, Taylor, and Preston counties spearheaded the effort Tuesday night to drive their point home, but also to try and get some answers. How have the roads of District 4 fallen into such disrepair that Preston County Commissioners felt obligated to declare a a state of emergency last month?

“I don’t know that it’s a partisan issue, but I do think geography does play a part of it,” Williams added.

Geography might indeed explain part of the problem — in that Monongalia and the surrounding counties often get additional traffic due to sizable increases in population when WVU is in session. Additionally, Taylor County’s active coal mine, the Longview Power Plant in Monongalia County, and Greer Industries near the border of Monongalia and Preston counties are also part of the economic driver that leads to significant truck traffic on local roads.

“We start peeling this thing back, this onion apart one layer at a time to see where the issues are,” Joe Statler (R-Monongalia, 51) said. “We all have a thought process in our mind where we think it’s at, but we have to find where the actual problem is so that we can start addressing it.”

In a sense, Statler said the region is a victim of some of the very things that have driven its prosperity in recent years. And, because of that, it might take a little more money to keep District 4’s road conditions better managed.

“You’ve got 800 miles in one county and you get the same amount of funding as another county that has far less traffic and far less usage and all that,” he said. “That’s not taken into account.”

That prompted Statler to sponsor, and Williams to co-sponsor, a bill last session that would have altered a funding formula in use since the 1980’s. But H.B. 2340 didn’t have a long life after being filed for introduction Jan. 10.

“What can we do to make it work?” Statler said. “I don’t always have the perfect solution, but I’m willing to work with the (DOH) and find out what we can do to make that formula work. Because we know it’s not working now.”

The consensus is this: the roads in District 4 are a regional problem. There was also consensus in Wednesday’s meeting that District 4 needs additional revenue to catch up to other districts in the state and to then maintain those repairs once finished.

“In North Central West Virginia, we are doing pretty good,” Del. Williams said. “There is a lot of prosperity, but that doesn’t excuse state government from providing good adequate roads.”

That either means taking money from somewhere else — another district, county, or from somewhere else in the budget — to pay for repairs in District 4; or it means raising revenues.

“Historically, most legislators or a majority of them are against taxes,” said State Senator Randy Smith (R-Tucker, 14). “You mention tax increase and, you know, everyone’s against that.”

“I’m not a big tax person, but if we’re going to fix roads we are going to have to find a funding mechanism,” he added.

Smith said, in this case, there may not be much of a choice.

“If it was something guaranteed where that money had to go to roads, they’d be more receptive of it because the roads got so bad,” he said. “But they’re willing to do about anything to help solve the problem.”

The fear among several of the Commissioners, particularly in Monongalia and Preston counties, is that the economic improvements seen in recent years will become unsustainable as businesses decide to find homes with better surrounding infrastructure.

“Every county is under siege,” Tom Bloom said. “Economically, we cannot move forward unless we get this turned around.”

And Smith said he understands why commissioners like Bloom are using such apocalyptic language — he represents portions of a number of counties that are outside of District 4. The difference, he said, is in the phone calls.

“It’s not uncommon to get 30 complaints a day from Preston County and Mon County,” said Smith, who’s district includes a small portion of Monongalia County.

That’s compared, Smith said, to maybe 1 or 2 calls from constituents in other counties like Barbour, Grant, and Hardy.

That’s why Dels. Williams and Statler both are confident partisanship won’t be the prime road block. Williams believes there’s an honest sales pitch, regardless of what happens in the November election, that the newly dubbed caucus can bring to the wider legislative bodies.

“There are issues where myself and others come out and help Delegates from other parts of the state,” he said. “I think if we can stay on message, we can compel the people that we serve with to do the same for our area.”

Meanwhile, Tom Bloom is concerned that, even if the caucus can remain unified, legislators still have to grasp the full scope of the issue.

“I do not really believe the Delegates understand how far behind we are,” he said. “They see how bad it is, and we’re not even talking about slippage yet. We’re only now talking about repairing and repaving the roads.”

He suggested, at bare minimum, District 4 needed a five-year commitment of additional revenue. He cited Monongalia County as an example — saying it would cost $72 million to repave every road in the county at a time when money allocated yearly is a tiny fraction of that.

When DOH District Engineer Don Williams comes before the caucus at their next meeting in Marion County in June, Bloom is afraid that Williams — who was praised for his work often Wednesday night — will potentially diagnose the situation as even worse than Commissioners currently fear.

That brings the numerous questions offered to legislators back to the DOH funding formula — and how a formula can better take into account the problems on the roads in District 4.

“How are we going to be able to make it so (District 4) is treated like every other district and get the funding so we can get back to normalcy?” Bloom said, rhetorically.

“I think there’s a solution to the problem,” said Senator Smith. “But we’ve just got to stop doing things the way we’ve been doing them for the last 40 years.”





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