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Local Residents Oppose VDOT Consolidation Plan

Lisa Watson McCarty
Publisher

It was the final meeting by transportation officials on a proposal to close several area headquarters throughout the state and local residents including lots of local politicians certainly let VDOT’s new commissioner know their feelings about the subject for more than 3 hours.

At a public meeting held last Tuesday in the Goodloe Center at Mountain Empire Community College, about 30 persons spoke in opposition to the proposed closing of 335 area maintenance headquarters throughout the state which includes locations in Nickelsville, Coeburn, Jonesville and eventually Moccasin Gap.

The crowd jumped to their feet after Second District Del. Bud Phillips asked those who opposed the consolidation plan to stand up. Phillips questioned the wisdom of closing facilities in Southwest Virginia when the safety of citizens should be paramount.

“Folks here tonight believe this is a step backward, not a step forward,” Phillips said. “There is no support in Southwest Virginia for the closure of these shops. This decision puts us in a quandary. Sometimes you have to step up and do the right thing. It’s not right to try to save money when the children need good roads for their future.”

Phillips said he would sponsor a bill and pre-file it to delay implementation of the consolidation plan of VDOT facilities.

This proposal is supposed to be about cost savings, he added, but it’s really about money.

“Either Virginia or VDOT needs to come up with some money to keep these facilities open,” Phillips remarked. “If the General Assembly needs to find it, then we need to do that.”

First District Del. Terry Kilgore agreed with Phillips’ position and explained the facilities needed to remain open because of the travel distance and topography of Southwest Virginia.

“I’m glad this isn’t a done deal because we need to keep these good paying jobs here in Southwest Virginia,” Kilgore said. “I am united with Phillips, Sen. William Wampler and other members of the Southwest Virginia legislative delegation and I am prepared to do what we have to do to make sure the money is there.”

Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner David Ekern assured the crowd their comments would be considered but a timely decision would be made. A final decision on the proposal is expected by Dec. 15.

Ekern and Gary Allen, VDOT’s chief of technology, research and innovation, pointed out that the decision to consolidate hadn’t been completed yet. As for the need to delay a decision, Ekern said VDOT’s aim was to avoid dragging the matter out over a number of years.

“This is not a political issue, it is a business issue,” Ekern added. “I assure you that the people you rely on every day are the people who will remain here to serve you.”

Transportation officials have stated that affected employees would be relocated to other facilities. But several VDOT employees publicly blasted the agency for hiring outside firms to do some of their maintenance work.

Randy Cox of Jonesville, who works out the Pattonsville Area Headquarters, said if VDOT wanted to save money then they could save bundle by not hiring hourly contractors.

The nine-year employee was visibly upset when he talked about having contractors perform sub-par work and many times not even showing up but still being paid to work.

“If you want to save money, then you need to talk to these men in the field,” Cox explained as he gestured to the large number of VDOT employees present. “We see it everyday when we have to re-do the work of a contractor. We hear about saving money every day at VDOT but many times you are paying for equipment that never shows up.”

Cox said a contractor recently resurfaced a road in Lee County as part of his contract. After most of the citizens living on the road complained to the Jonesville Residency, a VDOT-led crew was forced to go over the surface again. He added that contractors have nearly doubled their operator’s hourly costs since most of the contracts began in 1999.

“And it’s the taxpayers that are paying for it,” Cox concluded. “When it went to contractors, we look at work done wrong, pay for equipment that doesn’t show up and the jobs are sub-par. That’s where the problem is.”

Bobby Marshall of Nickelsville suggested that transportation officials get off the main roads and experience the lack of shoulders and high drop offs on those roadways.

“You need to look at the quality of the maintenance being done by private contractors,” he added. “You need to quit throwing money away on private contractors. Last year I saw a contractor mowing after snow had already fallen on the ground. You need to look at where the money is going and we need to get what we are paying for.”

Director of Transportation for Scott County Public Schools Jim Williams explained that four of the most dangerous roads in Southwest Virginia were located near the Nickelsville Area Headquarters and that the safety of children riding school buses should be more important than cost savings.

“You need to look at not just saving money but at saving the lives of children,” Williams said. “Ten minutes makes a difference – it’s a whole lot of time when you’re a bus driver with 70 kids on board.”

As the former principal at Twin Springs High School, Williams said he could call the Nickelsville AHQ and have road crews on the job within 5 minutes to clear debris or snow before buses left the school.

District 6 Supervisor Chad Hood called VDOT’s plan to outsource more maintenance work as “fleecing of taxpayers” and vowed to not let it happen. Under the consolidation proposal, the Bristol District took the hardest hit statewide in terms of the number of facilities and employees affected.

Hood said if the area headquarters were closed then VDOT would have a huge gap in their service area from Nickelsville to the High Point AHQ in Russell County. Increased travel time adds up to higher fuel costs and longer response time, he added, which wouldn’t reflect a cost savings.

“Del. Kilgore assured me there is a $1 billion transportation reserve,” Hood noted. “If there is why not use it? Why do we act like we don’t have a pot to piss in?”

Approximately 700 miles of secondary roads exist in Scott County with 296 of them unpaved, Hood said, and now you want to give all of those roads back to the counties to maintain.

“It hasn’t happened yet but rest assured, it’s in the works to give secondary roads back to us,” he added.

Hood also questioned why VDOT equipment was sold to private contractors at discounted prices rather than at fair market value and the wisdom of building a new facility in Speers Ferry when the plan was to close other VDOT facilities.

“All we hear about is cost savings but it doesn’t make sense to close old facilities and then turn around and build a new one,” Hood concluded. “I’m not pleased with this plan. You have good employees, who are working on a skeleton budget to do the best they can.”

Leland Branham, former VDOT Resident Engineer in Wise and a current Wise County Supervisor, explained the new power plant in Virginia City demanded the area have roads maintained at high standards.

If facilities in Nickelsville, High Point, Moccasin Gap and Coeburn are eliminated as proposed, Branham said, the community where the plant is to be built will be located in a large area without a functioning VDOT area headquarters.

District 3 School Board Member Joe Meade added the Nickelsville Area Headquarters was important to the area and the school system. From what I’ve seen, outsourcing of jobs is costing us through the nose, he said.

District 3 Supervisor Danny Parks had another suggestion for the transportation commissioner. He recommended the commissioner and other officials drive to Dungannon by way of Twin Springs High School and see for themselves the types of roads buses travel on every day.

“I am concerned about the safety of children,” Parks recounted when he said sometimes it snowed in Nickelsville but not in Gate City or other parts of the county, forcing schools to close abruptly. “What I see with contractors is moving in the wrong direction.”

He relayed a story about watching contract workers spraying for kudzu a week before the frost.

Mike Carter, Maintenance Supervisor for the Pattonsville Area Headquarters, defended some of the contractors from some of the harsh criticism hurled at them during the meeting. He added the plan to privatize VDOT began a long time ago when quantity became more important than quality.

“We can’t compete with private industry in maintenance costs,” Carter explained. “And they can’t compete with us on quality.”

We need contractors doing the big paving jobs, guard rail installation, the things they do so well, he said, because they don’t specialize in production. But for customer service, maintenance must be provided by VDOT, Carter commented, telling about working on a 100-mile stretch of road to fix potholes.

“This is a question of quantity versus quality,” he added, “but we need contractors.”

VDOT employees have always been accountable to the local people, whether at church, the grocery store or courthouse, he explained, but contractors aren’t accountable in the local communities.

Ekern stated at the end of the meeting, he had heard lots of good public input over the past two days spent in Southwest Virginia and that all comments would be considered in the final decision.

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