MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two more Monongalia County delegates are on the record in offering support for the Roads to Prosperity Constitutional Amendment.
Republican Delegate Joe Statler and Democrat John Williams will both vote yes to issuing $1.6 billion in road bonds to fund numerous projects throughout the state, including a projected $230 million for eight projects in Monongalia County.
“Monongalia County is growing, and everybody knows that,” Statler said. “It’s the Mecca right now that’s driving a lot of the forces in the state, and we need to do something to improve the transportation and make the movement around this town better; to get more jobs in [and] to get folks to invest in this area as well as across the state.”
Williams said the prospect of 48,000 new jobs was one that he simply couldn’t vote against.
“I say we do it now,” Williams said. “We go all in and see if we can’t make a run at it in the next few years.”
Statler said nothing in life is perfect, calling this the “best opportunity Monongalia County has had in a long time.”
“Is there things in there I would like to see that was different? Absolutely,” he said. “We all can pick and choose projects in there and where it’s going to be spent and how it’s going to be spent.”
Williams said voters hesitant about taking on new debt should remember that the revenues in question to fund the bond have already been raised.
“The easiest for me to get across is that, when you go and vote yes, you are not levying any new taxes,” he said.
Statler also responded to controversy that has erupted in regard to the northern I-79 connector in Monongalia County and the question his Republican colleague Cindy Frich raised about homes being seized in Bakers Ridge.
“Am I going to say that there possibly couldn’t be some homes that would be taken?” he said. “No. I can’t say that, but I do not believe in any shape or form that it will take out Bakers Ridge.”
Monongalia County hosted five separate forums this week allowing for public comment and Q&A sessions.
Early voting ends Oct. 4. Election day is Oct. 7.