Sometimes when you feel as if you have been wronged in life, it is often difficult to let the ill feelings go away.
Such could be the case for folks all across southern West Virginia, who are still being required to shell out a whopping $12 for a round trip to Charleston and back on the West Virginia Turnpike. It just doesn’t seem fair. Why should folks in the four counties that touch the 88-mile turnpike be penalized like this. The greatest burden of the four counties of Mercer, Raleigh, Fayette and Kanawha falls upon folks in Mercer County. That’s because the citizens of Mercer must pay $12 for a round trip to Charleston and back.
Folks in Beckley who travel to Bluefield for shopping — especially during the Christmas season — don’t have to pay the full $12. But they do have to pay a chunk of change to drive just a short distance down the road to Bluefield. That’s not fair to everyone in Beckley, and probably discourages a lot of the good folks in Raleigh County from making the short drive to Princeton and Bluefield.
In terms of Kanawha County, I don’t hear of too many folks from Charleston making the drive to Bluefield or Princeton to go shopping. I guess they don’t want to pay the $12 in tolls. That’s unfortunate for the folks in Kanawha County. They are missing out on some of the best kept secrets in the Mountain State that can be found in scenic southern West Virginia — and Mercer County in particular.
The whole turnpike debate flared up again last week in Charleston when Senate Majority Leader H. Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, successfully amended a Parkways reorganization bill that would have cut the cost per toll booth in half for motorists living in the four counties that touch the 88-mile turnpike. The measure passed the Senate Finance Committee on a 9-7 vote.
Chafin’s measure was a move that would have helped folks in the deep south counties. However, less than 24 hours later, officials with the Parkways Authority reported the amendment was unconstitutional.
Go figure. It’s OK for everyone in Mercer County to shell out $12 every time we make the drive to Charleston and back. But try and give the folks in Mercer — and Kanawha, Raleigh and Fayette counties, for that matter — a break by rolling back the tolls, and it’s unconstitutional.
Chafin was, of course, forced to scrap the plan, but not before he successfully passed another amendment that essentially requires the Parkways Authority to give away a thousand free E-ZPass transponders each year — 250 per each of the four counties — during informational public hearings that will be held in each of the four counties.
Chafin said 250 of the transponders will be distributed to the public at each of the four meetings, including a meeting in Mercer County. With the electronic transponder system, motorists would only pay $1.33 per toll booth barrier as opposed to $2 per toll booth barrier.
So far, no one with the Parkways Authority has argued that this plan is unconstitutional. As a result, it looks like if 250 people show up at the yet to be scheduled meeting in Mercer County, all 250 will receive a free transponder. If 350 or 400 people show up, we could have a problem.
Remember the Cabbage Patch Dolls back in the early 1980s. There was an extremely limited supply of those, which led to fights breaking out at shopping centers and malls. How exactly does the Parkways Authority plan to distribute the 250 transponders?
If 251 people show up at the meeting in Mercer County, what will they say to that one person who will be denied a transponder? Will security be on hand if a fight breaks out?
In all reality, most folks would have preferred Chafin’s original plan. A flat $1 fee per toll booth barrier. Not everyone wants to fool with the hassle of an electronic transponder system that must be attached to one’s vehicle. And not everyone can afford an electronic transponder system as well. So I suspect we could see a large line of people at the meeting.
Parkways Authority General Manager Greg Barr proclaimed last week that the freebies weren’t limited to folks in just Mercer, Fayette, Raleigh and Kanawha counties. He said if people from Butte, Mont., Amarillo, Texas or Tuscaloosa, Ala. show up at one of the four meetings, they, too, will receive a free transponder.
By making those comments Barr has essentially opened the door to anyone within a two-to-three hour driving distance to Mercer County to show up and receive a free transponder when, in fact, it is the folks in Mercer County who deserve the freebies.
Whether lawmakers in Charleston and Parkway Authority members like it or not, the turnpike tolls are still a sore issue with people in Mercer County, and other parts of southern West Virginia. It really boils down to an issue of fairness. Why must only four counties be forced to pay a toll road when the rest of the state doesn’t.
Charles Owens is the Daily Telegraph’s City Editor.
Columns
March 10, 2010
Free transponders rekindle heated topic of turnpike tolls in southern W.Va.
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