Editor, the News-Herald:

If the city of Suffolk takes over road maintenance from VDOT, they will be responsible for maintaining approximately 1,400 miles of roads in former Nansemond County.

A very large percentage of that is still rural.

VDOT is spending $6.5 million to maintain roads in former Nansemond County and they are offering Suffolk $15 million to do the same job. They will fund all of our rural roads as if they were city streets.

How is this fair to all the counties in the state with similar road systems?

What about Virginia taxpayers that will be paying Suffolk as extra $8.5 million to do the same job VDOT is doing now?

I live on White Marsh Road, which is rural and well-maintained.

What is the city going to do different from VDOT with almost 2 1/2 times the money (sidewalks and landscaping?)

Charles Brown was quoted in the News-Herald saying the city can do a better job. No one has given any examples of where VDOT is doing a poor job.

Our mayor was quoted as saying we are leaving money on the table.

I disagree.

We will be wasting Virginia tax money and leave less money available to cities that actually have urban road systems.

The system we have now, which is called outdated or antiquated by city officials, works in every county in this state.

Nansemond County may have changed it’s name and form of government but physically and geographically it’s still a county with a county road system.

I am afraid all this extra maintenance money will end up downtown.

This deal is not fair to Virginia taxpayers in other cities and counties across the state.

All our city government sees is a way to get free extra tax revenue.

An investigation needs to be done as to why VDOT wants to spend $15 million to let Suffolk do a job they do for $6.5 million.

This is more VDOT mismanagement.

If Suffolk takes over the road maintenance, what is to stop VDOT from changing the funding formula in the future and reduce the money Suffolk gets?

William Pendleton

Suffolk