6:00: Morning News

Lawmakers in DOH’s District 6 asking for more road funding

WHEELING, W.Va. — Legislative leaders and commissioners from counties down the Ohio River from Hancock to Tyler are coming together to form a Northern Panhandle caucus to try and have a greater say in Charleston. The first concern is funding for roads.

More than a dozen representatives from the Northern Panhandle counties, which makes up the state Division of Highway’s District 6, met recently in Wheeling to discuss thoughts and concerns when it comes to area roadways.

MetroNews spoke with state Senator Bill Ihlenfeld (D-Ohio) and Marshall County Commissioner Mike Ferro about the meetings and both reference the secondary roads being in bad shape partly because of traffic from the oil and natural gas industry.

Sen. Bill Ihlenfeld

“We are all facing similar challenges and opportunities when it comes to energy production,” Ihlenfeld said. “There are benefits to that production but also the wear and tear that that kind of production places on our infrastructure.”

A recent release by the West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (ONGA) showed that four of the six counties in District 6 are in the Top 5 in the state in oil production, while three of six are in the Top 5 in natural gas. District 6 consists of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, and Tyler counties.

Ihlenfeld would like to see the DOH’s formula change when it comes to funding road maintenance for districts and counties, putting more emphasis on truck density. Traffic density, amount of snow and ice removal, costs of asphalt and stone have also been indicated as factors in allocations for core maintenance.

Water trucks, sand trucks and chemical trucks run 24 hours a day on Northern Panhandle counties’ roads with the drilling boom, according to Ihlenfeld.

“We know all of these things are going to happen and we want the state to start thinking about not only the revenue that will be generated through this way but also the wear and tear on our roads,” he said.” We ask that we are given more consideration when it comes to that.”

A legislative audit of years 2012-2018 done earlier this year found District 6 received the second-lowest of allocations in 2018 of the 10 districts, totaling just over $20 million given for core maintenance functions such as pothole repair, ditching, mowing, and snow removal.

DOH and ONGA officials have discussed the oil and gas industry’s impact on the roads in recent months. ONGA leaders have been on record defending the industry and discussing their programs in place that ‘essentially pay for road use.’

The road conditions have led several of District 6’s counties to declare a state of emergency on the roads including Ferro’s. He told MetroNews that there were 700 slips in the county at one point in the past year.

Mike Ferro

“A lot of our secondary roads are in deplorable conditions,” Ferro said. “Some counties are worse than others. In Marshall County and Wetzel County, they are worse than Ohio County because it’s a smaller county. In Marshall County, we are taking a pounding.”

“Even though the counties are not responsible for roads, we still think about the public safety involved. With our residents, our EMTs, our firemen, our police, and with ourselves.”

Ferro understands there are more factors than funding that caused the poor conditions including years of neglect and lack of equipment and manpower.

The DOH in District 6 is understaffed, according to data from Ihlenfeld provided through the DOH that shows the district 50 workers short of the quota.

“Our local guys are working extremely hard, working diligently. I want to commend our local DOH workers but its a very difficult job to try and catch up,” Ferro said.

The Department of Transportation recently rolled out an interactive map that shows road work around the state. It shows dozens of projects being worked on in all counties of District 6.

Randy Swartzmiller

The caucus, led Ihlenfeld and Delegate Randy Swartzmiller (D-Hancock) plans to meet quarterly with the next meeting scheduled for September during interim meetings in Charleston. The group will meet once more before the 2020 regular legislative session begins, one meeting during the session and then one next summer.

As of right now, he said the group’s goal is to present a different way of looking at things to state officials, ask they reconsider the formula used when allocating road dollars by remaining forward-looking with predictive analytics as the natural gas industry continues to boom in District 6.

“Every county has issues, and I am sure that is the issue throughout the state,” Ihlenfeld said.

“We are not the only county that has projects that need to be done. In the end, we would like to see more resources sent this way.”





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