WHEELING — West Virginia Sen. Charles Clements admits that bills pertaining to roads and highways have been detoured this legislative session as members have debated education matters.

But measures aimed at getting “the highway department out of neutral and in control of its problems” will get attention, according to Clements, R-Wetzel, who serves as chairman of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“Things will go from second to third gear soon,” he said.

On Friday, the committee passed out Senate Bill 522, which would create the Special Road Repair Fund for West Virginia’s roads. It next must get approval from the Senate Finance Committee before getting a vote in the full Senate.

The legislation calls for 2 percent of the state’s yield from severance taxes on coal, natural gas and oil production to go into this fund, as well as a one-time-only transfer of $200 million from West Virginia’s Rainy Day Fund.

Under the bill, the state Division of Highways also would be given the flexibility to contract out work such as mowing when it doesn’t have the time or manpower to do it.

An amendment added to the measure on Friday also would direct the DOH to make certain all ditches and culverts have been cleared alongside a road before any paving of the road takes place.

Such work is key to maintaining the condition and longevity of paved roads, according to Clements.

“When you don’t have ditches and culverts cleaned out , it’s a disaster for our roads,” he said. “We go through and pave a road … and first thing, the water is running out over the road and breaking the roads up. … It’s disastrous if roads and culverts are not taken care of. Water is our enemy.”

The DOH’s long-term scheduled for paving roads includes the cleaning of culverts and ditches once every three years.

“But sometimes they never get there,” Clements said.

A lack of road workers is an issue, and the state process for hiring is making it more difficult to find employees, he acknowledged.

“They (DOH) have a lot of work to do, and it may not get done this year. But they have to start,” he said. “Right now if someone showed up at state garage, they had a (commercial driver’s license) and were drug free, it would be 30 days before they could start because of red tape. By that time, they have another job in the oil and gas industry. Drivers are in demand.”

He said there are roads in Wetzel County where people are actually driving in the potholes, and the existing road is just “a bump” in that pothole.

Meanwhile, the Legislature continues its efforts to improve education in West Virginia.

“Roads are high on the Senate’s priority list,” he said. “Education is an issue we just have to deal with.”