Several legislators are blasting Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz over the poor condition of some rural roads.
Standing just off of Springville-Boston Road, in Concord, on Tuesday - Legislature Chairman John Mills called it one of the worst roads in Erie County. Mills says it's in such bad shape that it could "cause death" to the motoring public.
"It's a liability issue for Erie County. And we're self-insured," Mills said.
Falling commodity prices saved the County about $800,000 on this year's road work. Legislator Ed Rath says, the extra money should go in to fixing more roads.
"There is months of work that could be done. And let's prioritize this and get it done because the money's there. The workers are there. The weather is cooperating," Rath said.
In response, Poloncarz said, that while $800,000 sounds like a lot of money it would pave about two miles of two-lane road. Poloncarz says, in order to claim they cut taxes the legislature cut the budget last year.
"When you've only got a finite amount money to spend on roads, and you're spending that...Remember we're talking over $30 million is what we had in the kitty at the begining of the year. And now we're down to $800,000 because we've spending it on road projects all across the county. Road projects are very expensive. If they want more road projects to be done then they need to give me more money to do it," Poloncarz said.
And like every year, he says, the road project list was approved by the Legislature.