Published: September 16, 2006 12:13 am         

Circuit clerk walking to Charleston

Area official wants to personally deliver petitions supporting Coalfields Expressway

Wyoming County Circuit Clerk David “Bugs” Stover plans to walk from Welch to Charleston next week to personally deliver petitions supporting the Coalfields Expressway to Gov. Joe Manchin.

“This is not anything against the governor or the state (Division) of Highways, but we need this road to be completed,” Stover said.

Stover plans to use his vacation time to walk from Welch through Pineville, Mullens and Beckley before eventually ending up in Charleston to present postcard-size petitions to Manchin.

“The petitions are currently being passed out everywhere and I will be collecting them along the route to Charleston,” he said.

Stover said petitions will continue to be passed out today and Sunday. Monday he will begin his walk, collecting them as he goes along.

“I am hoping to leave Beckley for Charleston by Wednesday,” he said. “Once in Charleston, I hope to have a meeting with the governor to personally deliver the petitions.”

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Stover, 51, is a large man, but said he was not worried about his physical condition. He said he had been running daily to get in shape for the approximately 119-mile walk.

“I am down to 230 pounds,” he said. “I was at 275.”

Stover said he had experience with long distance walks.

“I once participated in a march to Washington, D.C., regarding coal issues,” he said.

Stover said he calculates he will walk at a rate of approximately 2 miles per hour while collecting petitions, but then will increase the speed to about 3 miles per hour from Beckley to Charles-ton, along Paint Creek Road.

“You can’t walk on the turnpike, so I will be walking along Paint Creek Road to get there,” he said.

He estimates his total walking time to be about 53 hours.

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Last year, the four-lane highway project received a $16.76 million earmark over five years in the federal highway bill. Coupled with a 20 percent match from the state, the total amount will be just over $20 million.

“Twenty million dollars will only build a mile of highway,” Mike Goode, chairman of the Coalfields Expressway Authority, said last year after the funding was announced. “That’s not much in five years.”

The expressway, the first four-lane highway for Wyoming and McDowell counties, is vital for the area, according to Stover.

“The new federal medium-security prison proposed for McDowell County’s industrial park, which would create approximately 330 jobs, may be re-examined if we can’t get the expressway completed,” he said. “Plus, with the Coalfields Expressway, there could be hundreds more jobs that are more diversified.”

However, Stover said the petitions were meant to challenge the state to come up with more funding for the road.

“This road, or any other road in southern West Virginia, is not on the state’s six-year plan,” he said. “We just don’t understand or agree. We hope the governor will work with us to get this road on the plan or come up with some other way to fund it.”

The six-year plan is the state’s transportation improvement program.

The state will provide $4 million in matching funds, according to Paul Mattox, state highways commissioner. However, the state will not provide any additional money for the road.

“I was really stunned to hear that no roads in the southern part of the state are on the six-year plan,” Stover said.

Stover said his planned walk is not a political ploy to attract voters.

“I’m not running for office again for at least four-and-a-half more years,” he said. “This road is about the future of Wyoming, McDowell and Raleigh counties and the rest of southern West Virginia. It’s time this part of the state receives its fair share when it comes to road funds.”

Stover said he hoped the federal prison would accelerate federal funding and construction of the road, but felt the state had to contribute more.

“We want the governor to add this road to the state’s six-year plan,” he said.

Construction has begun in both Raleigh and McDowell counties. The expressway will intersect with the King Coal Highway at the site of the new prison in McDowell County, just across the Wyoming County line.

The total estimated cost to construct the Coalfields Expressway is $920 million, excluding the cost of acquiring the land needed for right-of-way.

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