Legislators in DOH’s District 4 need to meet on plan for improvements

We know, we know. Enough about the DOH already, please.
But the Division of Highways is only indirectly related to the premise of this argument.
Last week, we applauded county commissioners, who caucused on road conditions, from five of the six counties in the DOH’s District 4.
As an aside we noted that that’s more than our state legislators whose House and Senate districts fall within District 4’s borders.
Unofficially some of these legislators met with DOH representatives, and sometimes en masse. However, we suspect the 17 delegates and eight senators whose districts are bounded by District 4 never spoke with one voice to the DOH.
For that matter, they probably never caucused as one about road conditions in our area. Nor decried the abysmal funding for District 4.
Or sought to address the continual job vacancies here because of a marginal DOH pay scale.
Such meetings of these 25 lawmakers, or others nearby, representing portions of District 4 may have happened informally.
But we know of no official caucus of these legislators on road conditions in our area.
We single out District 4 and the legislative districts within it and others that border it for good reason. One of course, is this is our readership area, and we call it home.
But, more importantly, as a Preston County delegate noted last week, this area — alongside the Eastern Panhandle — “is without a doubt the economic driver for the state right now.”
In other words, we are in the best position to keep our state on the road to recovery from recession and facilitating an economy in transition.
That’s why it’s imperative that elected state officials work together publicly, not behind the scenes, to lobby for the DOH’s District 4.
It’s also obvious that these legislators are in a much better position to do so than county commissioners. That’s not to suggest they supplant the counties’ caucus. But rather take a leadership role and work in tandem with them.
Obviously, no one should expect these officials to caucus on every policy issue. Even getting them in the same room is no easy matter because of party difference and personal ones.
However, improving road conditions may be the only bipartisan issue left on everyone’s agenda.
There’s an election tomorrow. Whatever the outcome we urge the winners to signal it’s time to take a new direction on road conditions.
And support a lot more of everything for District 4.