July 19, 2006
 
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: No Lavish Improvements to Governor's Mansion
 
Editor: I do not understand why Governor Manchin has decided that the Governor's Mansion needs four marble bath tubs, 12 flat screen TVs, poker tables, copper ceilings, gold leafing or any other excess.
 
The Governor's Mansion should be made safe from potential future water and fire damage. Those repairs may be necessary, but further enhancements of the mansion come at the expense of making other buildings such as the capitol building safe from water and fire damage.
 
There are legislative members' offices where safe escape from a fire is questionable and water damage exists. There are legislative members' offices that are very inaccessible to the handicapped public or senior citizens due to a tall flight of rickety stairs.
 
The extravagant redecorating by Governor Manchin is inexcusable when there are House of Delegates members' offices that the public can not access.
 
When I was a freshman delegate, my office was atop the towering stairs. People fell trying to visit me.
 
Now I am on the lower level of the same office space, but I myself have fallen and hurt myself on the way to my own office. I am a relatively young lady.
 
My current office remains inaccessible unless a senior with mobility challenges or handicapped person goes all the way around the capitol outside and then they don't t have a key to come in through the governor's drive to my office space.
 
The legislative session is during the winter when it can be cold or snowy. This inaccessibility is the case for several legislators who the public might want to visit.
 
The funds that the governor is using to embellish the mansion could be better spent allowing for accessibility of the public to their elected public servants. But the governor is making the decisions about the mansion, not me.
 
Sincerely,
 
Cindy Frich
WV House of Delegates, 44th
Morgantown, WV
www.cindyfrich.net