Somerset County must keep 'foot on the gas' in D.C. for U.S. Route 219 project, lobbyists say

Oct. 25—SOMERSET, Pa. — Continued payments by Somerset County commissioners to lobbyists pushing the U.S. Route 219 project has been attacked as "wasteful spending" by election year critics in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, it prompted those lobbyists to attend the board's meeting with an update — and a warning.

First, the county's decision to pay each firm $60,000 yearly has netted a $170 million return keeping the "once dead" Meyersdale-to-Maryland project on track for completion in 2031, said D.C.-based Senior Policy Adviser Ronald Klink.

And secondly, if someone isn't working Capitol Hill and Harrisburg to keep the highway project on the front burner, every dime promised for it could be easily "stolen" for another politician's project, he added.

Klink, who spent nearly a decade as a congressman before joining the firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, said he knows all too well how D.C. operates.

Since leaving Congress, he's joined a Constitution Avenue firm that sits just two blocks from the Capitol building.

Klink is working alongside Pendulum Strategies' Michael Frazier, whose background includes years spent in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Both men are Somerset County natives who said they want to guide the long-elusive Route 219 project across the finish line.

"Regardless of whether it's us or someone else, (lobbying) has to happen," Frazier said, noting that otherwise, it can quickly fall out of favor.

"You have to keep punching," Klink said, "or someone else will take that money."

The project's economic benefits are obvious and the county deserves to see the north-south highway complete — but neither of those factors matter when there's limited funding to go around and a nation full of "wishlists," Klink said.

"Just because it's on track doesn't mean it can't get (derailed)," Klink said, noting inflation has construction costs growing at an almost constant pace.

As it stands, the approximately $65 million needed to complete design, engineering and land acquisition costs is fully committed, he said. But even with more than $100 million secured for construction at the end of the decade, the total tab might have grown to $300 million to complete, he said.

And those who made those promises — whether it's Maryland and Pennsylvania governors, state and federal transportation officials or partners in Washington "continue to change," meaning new faces must constantly be updated and won over about the project, Klink added.

"Somerset County needs to keep the foot on the gas," he said.

President Commissioner Gerald Walker and Commissioners Colleen Walker and Pamela Tokar-Ickes took the step in 2020 to pay a combined $120,000 a year to the lobbying firms to push Somerset County transportation projects forward.

But Klink and Frazier spoke during Tuesday's commissioners meeting at a point Somerset County's commission itself will see change — and potentially all new faces in 2024.

Only Tokar-Ickes is on the fall ballot. Dawson and Walker were defeated by fellow Republicans Brian Fochtman and Irv Kimmel Jr., although Walker is attempting a write-in bid to return to the job.

Fochtman, Kimmel, and their supporters — including Somerset County Treasurer Anthony DeLuca — have accused the county of being too tight with its purse strings on wages for rank-and-file workers, while "wasting money" in other areas.

DeLuca has been vocal in recent weeks about the contracts with Pendulum and Nelson Mullins, alleging the county is paying each of them every month with nothing to show for it — other than vague descriptions of the work being done.

Over the past month, he requested monthly invoices, and said it appears only Klink was submitting regular reports.

"It's like they are double-dipping," said DeLuca, noting the pair are working together and producing the same work but are paid separately.

Klink said there's no question he and Frazier are working together as associates, but he's taken the lead on submitting written reports to the county because "it made no sense" to waste time duplicating those efforts.

He said he gets updates from Frazier and incorporates them into his report.

Despite working for separate companies, it's not uncommon for them to pursue projects together, Klink said.

Over the past three years, he said they turned to relationships they've built over decades. Klink said he has a "30-year friendship" with President Joe Biden and that he initially approached him about Route 219 before the 2020 election.

It also meant forging alliances. He said now-retired Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, of Alabama, had a similar goal of bolstering Appalachian Development Highway System dollars to complete rural roadway projects. It also required working with Pennsylvania and Maryland lawmakers to make Route 219 a priority.

Klink said there were times some Pennsylvania lawmakers in Harrisburg told him "don't even" mention Route 219 after the previous leg was completed five years ago.

There was also a period where Pennsylvania wasn't getting a dime in crucial Appalachian Development Highway System road dollars, despite being one of just 13 states entitled to the money.

Somerset's commissioners said the project continues moving forward through the design phase, with proposed routes for the Meyersdale to Maryland route narrowed down to two options.

Those will likely be among the updates discussed by PennDOT on Nov. 16 during an update meeting for the public.

The public forum, which is required for the planning process, will be held at 4:30 p.m. at Salisbury Fire Hall, Walker said.

He said county officials have a preferred route, but in the end, federal highway officials will make a final determination on which alignment is chosen.