Group hopes to overturn Unit Road System

By PHILLIP WILLIAMS

A Diana man has launched a petition drive for yet another election on whether Upshur County should retain its Unit Road System.

The drive, instigated by Charles Akin and supported by at least two county commissioners, seeks to put a proposition to discontinue the system on the November general election ballot.

The unit system is headed by an administrator, who is appointed by the Upshur County Commissioners Court.

Abolishing it would return maintenance of county roads to the four county commmissioners, which was the case before county voters approved converting to the Unit Road System in 2002.

Voters approved retaining the system by only three votes in a special 2005 election.

Pct. 1 Comm. James Crittenden, who supports the petition drive, discussed it Thursday at a luncheon of the Republican Women of Upshur County, held at the Wesley House assisted living center. He said many persons were unhappy with the unit system, and that he had gathered at least 60-75 signatures for the election petition thus far.

Akin meantime charged Thursday night in a phone interview that the current system “is not working” as “most of the people who live on a county road are not getting anything done” in the way of road repairs.

Most of the roads in question are oiltop rural roads.

“I’ve tried to get some work done on my road (Sego Lily), and it failed,” Akin said. He asserted that heading the unit system was “not a job for somebody like” Road and Bridge Administrator Gaston (Bubba) Pendarvis because Pendarvis isn’t an engineer.

Akin said he wanted roads maintained by “somebody we can hold responsible...vote for or against.” Referring to the fact Pendarvis is appointed, Akin said, “We can’t do that with somebody like Bubba,” although “I’m sure he’s a fine person.”

Akin also said “98 percent of the people (he talked to) are receptive to” the petition, and that copies have been circulated to stores, restaurants and individuals.

He said that he must obtain at least 950 signatures to put the matter on the ballot. By law, the number of signatures must equal 10 percent of the county’s voter turnout for the last governor’s election (in 2006), he said.

Akin also said he didn’t know how many signatures have been gathered, but the petition is “getting more and more every day.” The deadline to submit it is Aug. 26, he said.

Earlier Thursday, Crittenden told the GOP women’s luncheon that during his recent successful campaign for the Republican nomination for a second term, many persons told him they wouldn’t “vote for me because I did not get their road fixed.”

He said at least three members of the 5-member commissioners court must vote to make Pendarvis do anything, which “ties our hands as commissioners.”

Crittenden, who faces Democrat Curtis Hollis in the November general election, said “This (the unit road system) could be a decisive factor in my reelection because I’m speaking out against it.” (Hollis couldn’t be reached Friday for comment on the petition.)

The commissioner charged that the system has never been allowed to function as it was supposed to. He noted he voted against appointing Pendarvis, saying the court should have hired an engineer, and that three applied for the position at the time Pendarvis was hired.

However, Thursday night, Crittenden told The Mirror, “I don’t have a problem with Bubba. That’s not the issue here.” Pendarvis, contacted by The Mirror Thursday night concerning Akin’s comments, said, “I’m just not one to get into a whole bunch of stuff like that...We’ll just see what the public says.”

Crittenden meantime told the GOP women that the petition drive presented “an opportunity to put it (discontinuing the system) on the ballot in November at no expense to the taxpayers” (since elections for various offices are already on the ballot.) The 2005 election on discontinuing the system was a special election that had nothing else on the ballot.

Pct. 2 Comm. Joe (Buddy) Ferguson, a Democrat who headed the petition drive for the 2005 election, said Thursday night he favors holding another election and abolishing the unit system. However, he indicated he wouldn’t play a major role in the petition drive this time.

Mirror Photo
CATALPA ROAD in Upshur County is pictured after being closed during last June's flood-producing rainfall.

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