Salango goes after Justice on roads

prior to tour of Monongalia County

by Ben Conley, The Dominion Post — September 21, 2020

MORGANTOWN — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Salango traveled a

selection of Monongalia County’s roads on Monday at the invite of Monongalia
County Commissioner Tom Bloom.

While the condition of the county’s roads was under the spotlight, Gov. Jim
Justice was also up for critique.

“We wanted to come out and see the roads, some of the roads I haven’t seen
before, and they’re in terrible condition,” Salango said, explaining the Roads to
Prosperity money doesn’t appear to be flowing in Monongalia County.  

“The governor used that Roads to Prosperity money to take care of his
businesses. He made sure he put his businesses and his interests first and the
people last, and that’s what we’re seeing all over West Virginia.”

Salango went on to say North Central West Virginia is not receiving what it needs
in terms of road infrastructure and maintenance.

Justice Campaign Communications Director Clay Sutton pointed to data

presented by the West Virginia Department of Transportation website showing
$42 million in completed Roads to Prosperity projects and another $165 million in
the pipeline.

“Once again, polling shows Ben Salango is losing by 27 points, he desperate and
will say anything regardless of the truth, ”Sutton said.

Salango, a Kanawha County Commissioner, met with a small group including

Delegates Barbara Evans Fleischauer, Evan Hansen, Rodney Pyles and  John
Williams, all D-Monongalia, to start the tour.

What is not up for debate, Hansen said, is that by the DOH’s own admission,
Monongalia County and the other five DOH District 4 counties were getting
shorted millions in annual maintenance dollars.

“Even though they kept saying they were using the formula, what they meant was
that they used it 15 years ago. Since then they’re just making small adjustment
county by county, because they don’t want to make the difficult decisions to put
the money where it’s needed most,” Hansen said, estimating the district was
underfunded by between $7 million and $8 million annually.

A bill put forward by Williams and Hansen that would have required the DOH to
follow an amended formula received widespread support but was ultimately
vetoed by Justice.

Williams said the end result of the current system is wildly inconsistent levels of
support from district to district.

“Tucker County, the DOH district that they reside in (8), they get $7,000 per state
road mile, compared to about $2,500 to $3,000 per state road mile here in
Monongalia County. They’re getting double, meanwhile they have significantly
less traffic than we do,” Williams explained.

Bloom said he appreciated  Salango making time to visit, and noted he’s been
waiting for Justice to do the same.

“He can’t even spell it. He keeps saying Monongahela County. I think he’s getting
lost looking for it,” Bloom said of Justice. “He needs to find Monongalia County,
which is the number one economic engine in the state. We’re not asking for
anything different than anyone else, but we have different problems.”
Asked about Bloom’s remarks, Sutton offered no additional comment.