MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Division of Highways District 4 engineer Don Williams sees the potential for a North Central West Virginia roads caucus as an opportunity.
“I’ll applaud this much, they’re trying to bring attention to it,” Williams said Friday on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “Looking at different tools, as I put it, into the tool box to try to look at some of these issues. We’re here to work with them the best we can.”
Williams, who’s name came up often in Wednesday’s first unofficial caucus meeting with legislators, said he’s well aware that District 4 has problems.
“I think it’s another attempt to look at the actual problems we’re having in our district,” he said. “We’re not sitting here as a district saying we don’t have some issues.”
In six of the most heavily traveled counties, that also feature some of the state’s top employers and contributors to road degradation through truck commerce, Williams said every single penny matters.
“We try to just maximize the resources we have,” he said. “My supervisor is very proactive to try to stay that path.”
That’s why they’re laser focused on the issues at hand — making sure the major thoroughfares are accounted for in the District 4 budget.
“We have to stay our course, because if we pull a crew off of Route 7 and working on paving or U.S. 19 working on potholes to fix a road that has 10 cars, now it effects thousands of people,” he said. “It’s hard to understand sometimes, but we have to stay the course with the philosophy — we’re trying to do the most with the resources that we have to do the greatest effect to the most people.”
“And we have to stick to that plan.”
Williams said the situation is difficult, and that his office is quite accustomed to angry phone calls.
“We get a huge amount of complaints, and I can understand that,” he said. “I get frustrated. I want to fix that.”
The North Central WV Roads caucus is an idea spearheaded by County Commissioners in Preston County to include the entirety of the six counties in District 4 — Monongalia, Marion, Taylor, Harrison, Doddridge, and Preston.
Another focus of the caucus has been on staffing levels at the DOH District Offices — and how legislation might encourage fuller staffing levels. That’s a reality that Williams lives daily.
“We take what the actual reality is and we try to maximize that to the most we can,” he said. “Are we struggling? Absolutely. You know, in Mon County, when we’re 15 to 20 employees down on a consistent basis, to try to maintain hundreds of miles of roads — it’s really hard.”
State Senator Bob Beach, one of about two dozen legislators in attendance last Wednesday, has suggested an audit of District 4 is the first step towards in any potential progress.
A meeting is scheduled for May 24 for interested stakeholders to meet with and here a presentation from the DOH District 4 team.
Williams will also present information at a June 13 meeting of the NCWV Roads Caucus in Marion County.