FELLOWSVILLE — Wesley Wolfe’s neighbors call him the state road man.
Not because he works for the State Division of Highways (DOH) but because for the past 10 years he has maintained a mile of Grape Run Road, off U.S. 50.
“I normally took care of all the potholes and have come and pulled all the dirt into the ditch with my tractor,” he said, as he drove on the gravel road recently. At times he even used a shovel to clear the ditches.
He gave the state a right-of-way so it could widen a section of the road and cut the trees along the banks to make it easier. No widening has taken place. The road remains narrow and steep in that section.
When he moved back here 10 years ago, the brush was so far out in the road at places it was one-lane. He and a neighbor cut it back along their properties.
“I’m so disgusted with this bunch,” he said, pointing where water runs into the road instead of the ditches, rolling mud ridges in the road that require four-wheel-drive to get over and places where the road is undermined by water.
It’s not a main thoroughfare or even paved, but people here in these rolling hills of farmland maintain their property and would like the DOH to do the same.
Wolfe grew up in southern Preston County, where he learned about hard work at a young age. He took that knowledge to the military and then to a career as a supervisor over 83 people for AT&T in Virginia.
After retirement he and his wife joined another couple to run a restaurant. Then they lived in Florida, where he volunteered full-time at his church and was president of a homeowner’s association.
When they moved to West Virginia, he took on the road. For years, under two different Fellowsville DOH supervisors, the DOH would load his pickup with gravel that he spread on the road. The DOH checked on his work and, “only once during that time did they use a grader and put very little gravel down other than what I used.”
Wolfe voted for the Roads to Prosperity. But the road isn’t any better, and like many West Virginians, he wonders why?
Last year, the DOH quit giving him stone, saying it had to be accounted for. “I don’t have any problem with an accounting,” Wolfe said. “I’m not going to steal it.”
In May 2018, he wrote Gov. Jim Justice about the “deplorable” condition of the road. He said “culvert grating, which fills with leaves and debris, causes the water to run across the highway, washing out the berm on the opposite side, making it icy in winter,” and suggested using millings to fill berms on secondary roads and using Bobcats rather than “antique” graders.
And, “If I had a volunteer willing to help, I would give him whatever assistance he needed,” Wolfe wrote.
Transportation Secretary Thomas Smith wrote back that crews had done routine maintenance on Grape Run in March 2018 and would continue to do so, “in accordance with our current Core Maintenance Plan and its priority.”
Smith said the DOH couldn’t give stone to the public because of liability issues. The millings are stockpiled and used for patching, he said.
Wolfe acknowledged the DOH put down about 5 tons of “57” stone but said it wasn’t enough and was too large to fill potholes.
He wrote the governor again to clear up the matter, adding, “I am sorry that you were given misleading information, but as you know, not many employees want to be criticized and take blame.”
The whole situation makes Wolfe shake his head. He’s offered to drive Smith around and told Justice he’d like to speak with him, if he’s ever in the area.
He just wants one thing: “I pay more taxes now than I ever paid in my life. Give me something for my money,” Wolfe said.
