Call it a bribe or call it ransom, but don’t call it an “agreement.”
All right, maybe it does fit the concept of an “agreement” — an arrangement between parties on a course of action.
Yet, the Monongalia County Commission’s decision to pay up $200,000 to get Chaplin Hill Road repaired and repaved by the state is sweetening this arrangement.
Why should the county put up local tax dollars for which county taxpayers have already paid the state to meet its obligations to maintain local roads? If it’s not a sop, then is this a payoff to the state to stop holding Chaplin Hill Road hostage to a perpetual state of disrepair until we come up with the money?
In the commission’s defense, this payoff is the result of desperation. The state was not going to upgrade and repair this road, otherwise. Still, this desperation extends to residents and commuters along dozens of roads across the county.
Gov. Jim Justice even admitted as much among his apologies for road conditions in our county at last week’s announcement of this deal. “We know we’re behind. We know that, in all fairness. They know, right here in Mon County. We know we’re behind here, but we’ll catch up,” he said.
But rather than even signs of catching up, our county’s roads only seem to fall further behind by the day.
We understand the County Commission’s reasoning behind prioritizing Chaplin Hill Road in light of its route. It winds past several sites that offer a potential windfalll in revenues, jobs, development and growth.
But we get the impression from the governor and others the impetus for this “agreement” is the potential to attract Big 12 competition to the aquatic center or track for a weekend or two. Where was the concern for the scores of school buses arriving and departing from the district’s bus garage? Not to mention the staff and students at Mylan Park Elementary School and the residents and visitors who use Mylan Park’s other amenities.
Justice commented at the end of his remarks that if Monongalia County doesn’t watch out, its woeful infrastructure might choke off its growth. “If we don’t watch out, with all the goodness that’s happening, we’ll get in our own way. In this situation, we’re in our own way …” Someone needs to tell the governor we got in our own way more than 20 years ago and have struggled with lagging infrastructure since.
However, if it takes blackmail to leverage the state’s assistance, in addition to the revenue we already provide, to improve one vital road that’s a wrong turn.
Everyone makes them, but you just don’t keep going.
