MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – At the invitation of Mon County commissioner Tom Bloom, Democrat candidate for governor, Ben Salango visited to look at road conditions, answer questions and listen to voters.
“I called Ben Salango, and in 24-hours he came up because I wanted to show what the roads are like the problems we’re having with the road bond issue,”Bloom said,”We’ve asked for the governor to come up, but we can’t find him, he doesn’t come up here, it just feels like we’re the bastard child.”
Bloom and Salango say the Roads to Prosperity Program has not been effective. In fact, both says promises have not been kept and questions to the state continue to go unanswered.
“Two-point-eight billion dollars of Roads to Prosperity money, none of it being spent in Mon County,”Salango said,”None of it really being spent in north central West Virginia and it’s time for that to change.”
“According to the West Virginia Department of Transportation website, Roads to Prosperity has already completed nearly $42 million in road, highway, and bridge repairs in Monongalia County with another $165 million in projects in the pipeline for completion. Once again, polling shows Ben Salango is losing by 27 points, he is desperate and will say anything regardless of the truth,” said Clay Sutton, communications director for Governor Jim Justice’s campaign.
The press event Monday was held on Greenbag Road while cars and trucks rattled across pot holes nearby.
“There were promises made of where that money would go and the promises weren’t kept,”Salango said,”That money is not getting out and helping the people who need it most.”
Salango told residents infrastructure is a vital economic issue, but also a public safety issue. Salango toured roads in areas of Mon County, including Westover and Morgantown.
“If you’re taking a CEO from the airprt to a perspective jobsite and you’re dodging potholes and dodging road slips on the way, it kills business,”Salango said,”We’re going in the wrong direction, we have to focus on our infrastructure.”