Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth is miffed over a decision to stage the historic meeting to raise tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike at the Charleston Civic Center, saying the facility was chosen to minimize a turnout by the opposition so the road’s governing board can vote more easily in lockstep with Gov. Joe Manchin’s mandate.

Many southern West Virginia residents view the meeting location as “a slap in the face and a disservice to them,” Caruth said in a statement Wednesday.

“It is disingenuous and demeaning for the Parkways Authority to claim it is necessary to move this meeting to the Civic Center in Charleston, when the real reason for this move is to make it as difficult as possible for the residents of the southeastern counties, who so adamantly object to turnpike tolls, to attend,” Caruth, R-Mercer, said.

Caruth charged the governor, as chairman of the authority, is forcing the unpopular fare increase on the board — a charge that Manchin promptly disputed.

“The authority must be aware that the move will significantly reduce the number of people who will be in attendance, allowing the individual members to more easily cast their vote as the governor, who is chairman of the authority, has directed,” said Caruth, a frequent critic of the impending toll increase.

Manchin told The Register-Herald the toll issue has been “a very open process” and one that has been “extensively researched.”

“I expect members of the authority to look independently at the facts before them,” he said.

“We have a responsibility and an obligation to maintain a safe highway at the least cost and we need to have it in the best shape we can so that the person who makes the decisions in 2019 will have that option.”

Under state law, the bonds are due to be retired that year and the tolls are supposed to come off.

Manchin said members of the Parkways Authority are “good members” capable of reaching responsible conclusions.

“We must give them the facts and let them make their decisions in a transparent manner, and they are doing that,” the governor said.

“I have believed and hoped that Sen. Caruth would rise above the political fray. Ignoring the challenges before the authority is not a solution. At some point, we have to make a decision based on the facts and I expect them to do that.”

Board members are poised to raise fares 60 percent across the board next Wednesday, saying it would generate an extra $20 million a year needed to meet debt service obligations on outstanding bonds and provide money to repair the crumbling highway.

“It’s too late to change it now,” turnpike manager Greg Barr said of the Civic Center locale, when asked about Caruth’s statement.

“If we tried to notice another meeting, it wouldn’t have been timely.”

Originally, the board planned to meet June 25 at Tamarack in Beckley, but ran into a conflict with a scheduled wedding. That date actually wasn’t acceptable even at the Charleston headquarters since the authority failed to get a notice to the public after forgetting that June 19, a Friday, was a state holiday.

Barr said the authority decided not to conduct its meeting at its offices in Charleston since they are too small and the parking lot inadequate to accommodate an expected huge turnout by the public and news media. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m.

“I hope everyone appreciates the ultimate irony of this insult, which is that residents from this region of the state who wish to attend the meeting and express an opinion will have to pay $7.50 and drive 90 miles to do so,” Caruth noted.

Others who “share the uncaring attitude” of the authority and live nearby will pay nothing to be there, the Republican leader said.

Caruth said he wasn’t surprised by the meeting arrangement, adding the authority led a public hearing May 22, the Friday before Memorial Day, in Mercer County, “guaranteeing a substantially reduced turnout by those who pay the entire toll to travel this interstate highway known as the West Virginia Turnpike.”

Asked if he plans to attend, Caruth added, “I can’t afford the tolls.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com