Road conditions boil
down to unreliable DOH
Exit 7 off Interstate -68 to W.Va. 857/U.S. 119 to Easton Hill is a heavily traveled road that has major potholes with exposed rebar. Some have been patched. This should be a red flag to Division of Highways’ supervisors and engineers that repairs, temporary fixes or more appropriately permanent fixes are past due. Where do all the taxes go that are generated by the tsunami of vehicles that flow through this area daily consuming thousands of gallons of fuel?
I realize that after all the articles that have been written ad nauseam the answer to this question should be available to the taxpayers and not a secret.
The dirty little secret is that elected officials and DOH officials are guilty of infinite dereliction with no solutions. and in the past year their egregious negligence has been exposed, and when they do decide to meet and discuss the situation it is analogous to a circular firing squad. There are many examples of negligence. W.Va. 26 through Brandonville is riddled with potholes and the DOH garage is practically in eyesight, less than two miles. Do the supervisors inspect the roads periodically or drive through with blinders on?
The recent paving project on Glades Farm Road is less than six months old and is already deteriorating due to the lack of preparation before paving and applying less black top at the direction of the DOH. There was adequate ditching prior to paving.
There is no excuse to expose taxpayers to such reprehensible road conditions while traveling to work or worse yet expecting emergency vehicles to avoid potholes with critically ill patients on board going to the emergency room when seconds count. It can be a life or death situation. I know, I’ve been one of those patients.
Blue Horizon Drive is another example. Potholes have been neglected and the canopy over the road near the state line is ridiculous. Large trees hanging over the road and on telephone cables are not all the fault of the DOH, but the utility companies are guilty of negligence as well. Clearing right of ways appears to be a lost art.
Gene Lemley
Bruceton Mills
Want to know the real
person? Give them power
One Democratic Party candidate recently said that she would be the perfect candidate to take on the president in 2020 because she was a former court prosecutor.
After observing numerous congressional hearings on CSPAN, I noticed that there are a number of former prosecutors on the House Judiciary Committee that interrogate presidential appointees for confirmation to our courts and Cabinet positions.
Cross examination by prosecutors can be exceptionally brutal by the opposing political party as demonstrated by the confirmations of two U.S. Supreme Court justices. Any citizen that attends court trials knows that each person accused of breaking a law can hire or is appointed a defense attorney and will face a prosecuting attorney assigned by the court.
A prosecutor is trained to prove the charged person is guilty by whatever means available. They sometimes testify in their summation to a jury their hypothesis of the evidence to prove a person’s guilt. To a prosecutor everyone is guilty until proven innocent.
This mentality bothers me when an ex-prosecutor is elected to an office that contains more power than one might realize. My dad use to tell me, “If you want to know the true personality of a person, give them power.”
The editorial in Monday’s newspaper outlined the importance of voting and urged voters to register to vote during National Voters Registration Month. It’s equally important to me to know the character, knowledge, and leadership of the person elected to be the president of the United States.
I encourage voters to watch all the debates between the candidates (Democrats and Republicans). It certainly will be interesting to watch the next Democratic debate to find out why a prosecutor will make a good president. The next debate is scheduled for Sept. 12. It’s your country and future that they are debating about, make sure that you are part of the process.
William R. Woodall
Waldorf, Md.
