MORGANTOWN — The North Central West Virginia Roads Caucus is taking its gripes to Charleston.
Monongalia County Commission President Tom Bloom, who also serves as the spokesperson for the caucus, said a public forum to address road conditions will be held from 9 a.m.- 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the West Virginia House of Delegates Chamber of the West Virginia Capitol Building.
The caucus was formed to represent the six counties in West Virginia Division of Highways District 4 — Preston, Monongalia, Marion, Doddridge, Taylor and Harrison — after area road conditions prompted the Preston County Commission to declare a state of emergency last April.
Since that time, the caucus held a number of meetings, including one Jan. 2 during which 49th District Delegate Amy Summers, R-Taylor, said she would try to organize a public hearing with West Virginia Secretary of Transportation Tom Smith to air some of the district’s concerns.
Bloom said he was notified Wednesday evening the meeting was scheduled. He will present resolutions passed by each of
the six county commissions District 4 before handing off to
other speakers.
“I think it’s a big step for the North Central Roads Caucus because I think we’re now getting the people in the legislature to understand our problems,” Bloom said.
One of the issues the caucus
is pushing is legislative action that would allow the DOH to contract out core maintenance work, including patching, ditching and mowing.
Previous District 4 Engineer Donny Williams said District 4’s maintenance budget would need to be doubled to meet the DOH’s own base standards.
A recent DOH audit revealed District 4 wasn’t even able to spend the proper amount of its allocation on maintenance due to a number of issues, including manpower.
Further, despite the growth in Monongalia County and the district, District 4’s maintenance budget grew by 8.6 percent over a nine-year period, from 2009-’17. That’s a fraction of the 31.95 percent increase for District 5 and less than half of the
17.25 percent increase in District 9. The state average for the 10 districts was
14.22 percent.
Bloom said Summers is working on a bill that would allow maintenance work to be handled by contractors, possibly as a three or five-year pilot program.
An attempt to contact Summers Wednesday even-ing was unsuccessful.
