SKANEATELES - Representatives from Truckers and Citizens United won't have to wait for a deadline they set of Tuesday to find out if local officials will meet their demands in order to call off a convoy protest scheduled for Friday, Nov. 28 in Skaneateles.

“In this day and age, they should know better than to try threats,” Owasco Supervisor John Klink said Thursday after a meeting of the Upstate Safety Task Force - which includes representatives of municipalities from Cayuga, Onondaga and Tompkins counties.

Also attending the meeting were local haulers, truck companies, the state Motor Trucking Association, and the Truckers and Citizens United.

Truckers and Citizens United is the national organization planning to roll hundreds of tractor-trailers through Skaneateles on Route 20 the day the village's Dickens' Christmas celebration begins.

Protest organizer Vincent Gramuglia told the task force he wanted to resolve the issue of what he called overzealous truck enforcement so he can call off the protest, but he also warned that the convoy would be disruptive and he implied that other trucks may stop making deliveries of goods to Skaneateles.

He demanded the village of Skaneateles, which has become the icon of this truck traffic issue even though towns and villages throughout the region are part of the task force, cease using the commercial vehicle enforcement truck the village bought in September with state grant money.

Secondly, Gramuglia told the task force to table the proposal the Department of Transportation drafted that would keep the trucks off a few rural roads, except when making local deliveries. The regulations are aimed at reducing the number of long-haul garbage trucks that are using rural roads as shortcuts while they're carrying loads to the Seneca Meadows landfill.

Task force President Barb Clary, a former Owasco town councilor, said her group and government leaders have worked too hard to find a solution to reduce the number of garbage trucks traveling through the Finger Lakes to stop their efforts now.

Skaneateles Village Mayor Bob Green agreed, and added that he supports the DOT's efforts to restrict trucking routes to larger roads and interstates.

“This community has been inundated with trucks shortcutting up through the Finger Lakes region, leaving the interstates and coming up through here. I know this truck protest that's going to happen on Black Friday is saying they will have 300 trucks,” Green said. “Well, we see that on a daily basis.”

According to Gramuglia, the demonstration will begin in the morning when the trucks plan to gather in a truck stop north of Skaneateles and roll their way down Route 20, which actually is not on the list of roads that would be off limits under the state regulations proposed.

Residents and visitors enjoying the kickoff of the Dickens' Christmas, which will begin at noon, Friday, Nov. 28, may hear more than the rumble of trucks. Truckers and Citizens United claims to have hired a country band from Nashville, Tenn., to perform from one of the semitrailers during the ride.

“I think this has been brewing for awhile,” Gramuglia said, referring to truckers' frustrations. “This is coming to a head.”

He told the task force that if its members don't work with trucking associations to stop the regulations they consider harmful and unfair, truckers could stop deliveries in the village altogether. He referred to Village Police Chief Lloyd Perkins as Sheriff Buford T. Justice, a bumbling character in the 1970s trucking movie “Smokey and the Bandit.”

“I want everyone to understand one thing,” he said. “Everything that is brought into this town - your water, your milk, the fuel for your home, your gasoline, including the gas you put in Sheriff Buford's car, is brought in by trucks. It can get ugly. We can have our fellow brothers just stop bringing supplies to this town.”

During the meeting, several task force members said they approve of the regulations drafted by the Department of Transportation. Because that state agency is the driving force behind the proposal that would make certain rural byways off limits to large trucks, task force members told the truckers that they need to address their concerns with that agency, not the task force.

The DOT's regulations will go before representatives from Gov. David Paterson's office. At that point, a 45-day comment period will begin. State officials will review comments, and make any changes they deem necessary. If there are only minor changes, it will become law at that point. If there are major changes, the process will have to be repeated with another public comment period.

“We've all worked very hard to find a solution and the DOT came up with these regulations, which look pretty good to us, so why we would retreat now just because they're going to have a one-day demonstration through the village of Skaneateles?” Clary asked hypothetically. “We don't want that to happen, but that's not the way to go about this.”

Paul O'Mare, chair of the New York State Motor Trucking Association, said the task force should not have involved state agencies. He said they should have sat down with representatives from the trucking industry, instead.

Restrictions will cause companies to pass on additional costs to consumers, he said. O'Mare was passionate while talking to the task force, often talking over people and frequently interrupting task force members.

“I understand (this) solves your problems,” O'Mare said. “It just pushes your problems to us, the trucking companies and the truckers in New York state.”