Floyd County’s Board of Supervisors is not a confrontational government entity. The five members of the board seldom get in anyone’s face.

But months of sustained abuse of the county by the re-aligned Virginia Department of Transportation has some members of the board breathing fire and even the county’s mild-mannered County Administrator is fed up.

Ever since VDoT closed the Hillsville residency office and transferred Floyd County over to the Christainsburg operation, the agency treats the county as if it doesn’t exist. Requests to fix problems with roads are ignored, road projects appear to stop at the county line and the county can’t even get a VDoT representative to show up at board meetings on a regular basis.

Other rural counties complain of the same lack of attention from VDoT.  Pulaski County Supervisors recently circulated a resolution demanding more action from the highway department.

So when Floyd County came up with its annual “wish list” for presentation to the Virginia General Assembly, it unleashed some strong language on VDoT.

The statement, written by Campbell, says:

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors contends that VDoT is not properly maintaining public roads and bridges within and throughout the county. VDoT’s provision of service has dropped well below a level deemed to be acceptable to the board and citizens of the county. The board is concerned that the safety and welfare of citizens and motorists have been significantly diminished. The Commonwealth’s leadership must initiate steps capable of restoring VDoT to a level where it is functionally capable of maintaining and improving the roads within Floyd County and the state.

Strong words from a government not known for confronting other agencies.

But Campbell told the board he toned town the language from a first draft where he said he used works like “incompetent.”

It would have been interesting to read Campbell’s first draft.

But even when toned down in mostly polite language, the county board is telling VDoT that is is doing a piss-poor job and needs to get its act together before someone kicks them in the ass.

Related articles

• VDOT is AWOL (blueridgemuse.com)