KINGWOOD — The State Division of Highways has agreed to take ownership of Hospital Hall, in Kingwood.
As previously reported, the Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department closed the road in February 2019 after the DOH said it wasn’t responsible for it. The road, actually the end of South Price Street, is partly inside Kingwood city limits. The fire department owns the land and road.
The DOH said it only maintained the road the previous 40-plus years because it was an access route to Preston Memorial Hospital. The new hospital is along W.Va. 26.
On Wednesday, Preston Commission President Samantha Stone received a copy of an order signed by Deputy State Department of Transportation Commissioner Jimmy Wriston, dated July 29.
It says the DOT commissioner, District 4 engineer, director of the Strategic Performance Management Division, the director of the Management Division and state highway engineer concurred on the order.
The order adds the 0.237-mile section of road to the state local service system.
“It was a huge, huge, issue,” Stone said. “I kept saying how important it was and how it was needed.”
Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department President David Brown said former KVFD President Tom Robinson worked tirelessly with the DOH on the road. The DOH met with them on several occasions and stayed in touch by phone, Brown said.
“They were very good to work with, and we are very appreciative that they took it into the road system,” Brown said Thursday.
The reopening, “will not happen immediately, because [the DOH] is so down in staff,” Stone said. “He’s asking the fire department to leave the barriers up until it is ditched and repaired, and then it will be opened up to the general public.”
Some school buses going to Kingwood Elementary had to be rerouted through town after the closure. Stone, a school bus driver, said that wasn’t an easy thing.
“It was a huge, huge issue,” for lines of buses passing and making turns on sometimes narrow city streets, Stone said.
Preston School Superintendent Steve Wotring said Thursday reopening the road would greatly improve traffic flow at the school, particularly when students are being dropped off and picked up.
Kingwood Mayor Jean Guillot said Thursday it was good news for the town. The Kingwood City Pool, tennis courts and playground, all on South Price; Kingwood Elementary and even businesses on Price Street will benefit from the road reopening, he said.
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