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Legislators name roads, bridges for prominent residents

By DAVID BEARD

The Dominion Post

CHARLESTON, W.Va.  — Every session, legislators introduce resolutions to name roads and bridges in memory or in honor of prominent residents. Some succeed, some don’t.

Naming resolutions are always concurrent resolutions, which means both houses have to approve them. Those that pass don’t automatically result in a name change. The resolutions ask the Division of Highways to do the renaming, to which DOH invariably complies. Resolutions don’t go to the governor.

Here is a look at the fate of some local resolutions.

SCR 25 would rename the West Blacksville Bridge, carrying W.Va. 7 over Dunkard Creek, the Jeffrey Alan Clovis Memorial Bridge. Sen. Bob Beach, D-Monongalia, is lead sponsor, with Sens. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, and Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, co-sponsors.

Beach said on the Senate floor he wrote the resolution himself, and prefers to write them because he gets to know the person being remembered, and the person’s family.

Clovis was a Summers Towing driver who was killed last August, while responding to a breakdown on Interstate 79. A tractor-trailer hit Clovis, 48, a Wadestown native, from behind.

The resolution passed the Senate but was never taken up in the House.

In Clovis’ memory, Beach also sponsored SB 258, a one-line addition to code to allow tow trucks to bear flashing red warning lights. Beach said this could save lives. The bill was never taken up by Senate Transportation.

SCR 45 asks DOH to erect a sign along each side of Interstate 68 between mile markers 1 and 7 proclaiming, “Home of Anna Lindquist — 1996 NHPA Hall of Fame Inductee.” Lindquist, of Morgantown, established the Horseshoe Pitchers Association of West Virginia charter in 1947.

She competed in several world horseshoe pitching championships and won the title of Women’s World Champion Horseshoe Pitcher in 1948 and 1949. She passed away in 1968 and was inducted into the National Horseshoe Pitching Association Hall of Fame in 1996.

Beach is lead sponsor with Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, a co-sponsor. Passed both houses.

HCR 60 will name the Marion County 33 bridge over Piney Creek the William “Bill” R. VanGilder Memorial Bridge. Delegate Amy Summers, R-Taylor, is lead sponsor, with Delegates Guy Ward, R-Marion, and Mike Caputo and Linda Longstreth, both D-Marion, co-sponsors. It passed both houses.

HCR 67 would rename the Little Creek Road Overpass, carrying Interstate 79 over Marion County 76, the Pastor Robert L. “Bob” Barker Memorial Bridge. Caputo is lead sponsor, with Longstreth, Summers, Cindy Frich, R-Monongalia, and Ward, co-sponsors. It was never taken up by House Transportation.

HCR 82 will rename the Pentress Bridge, carrying W.Va. 7 over Dunkard Creek in Monongalia County, as the U.S. Marine Sergeant David Paul McCord Memorial Bridge. Delegate Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, is lead sponsor, with Summers, Frich, Barbara Evans Fleischauer, Rodney Pyles and Williams, all D-Monongalia, and Dave Pethtel, D-Wetzel, co-sponsors. It passed both houses.

HCR 83 will rename the West Blacksville Bridge, carrying W.Va. 7 over Dunkard Creek in Monongalia County, the U.S. Army SPC John R. Tennant Memorial Bridge. Statler is lead sponsor with Williams, co-sponsor. It passed both houses.

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