SKANEATELES - The battle over truck traffic in the Finger Lakes is coming down to two deadlines.
Both the Upstate Safety Task Force and the New York State Motor Truck Association have a deadline of Thursday to answer any questions from the Governor's Office of Regulatory Review and submit documents.
The task force met in Owasco last week to talk about what members want to send to GORR as it completes its analysis of rules restricting long-haul truck traffic from certain rural routes through the Finger Lakes region.
The agency is reviewing the truck traffic proposal for constitutionality and economic effects.
After GORR completes its review and approves the measure, a 45-day public comment period will start. A specific date has not been determined.
Chuck Murphy, a legislative aide to state Sen. John DeFrancisco, told the 10 people in attendance that a meeting he had with GORR representatives went well and he got a lot of positive feedback, especially with the arguments the task force uses.
“They could tell that we had done our homework on the subject,” Murphy said.
Specifically, the regional approach impressed them, he added.
“They didn't realize how it started in Skaneateles and built up to a regional thing and that's what impressed them the most, that it wasn't just one community, it was a group of communities that came together to form a task force,” Murphy said. “They really took that to heart.”
The task force consists of officials from Skaneateles, Owasco, Aurora, Ithaca, Tompkins County and Palmyra.
The Motor Truck Association disagreed with some figures included in the task force's statements, but Murphy asked the representatives to set a timeline so the advocate group can't stall the process.
Agency staff agreed and set the March 5 deadline, which applied to both the MTA and the safety collation.
The agency specifically asked the task force to put a dollar figure to the negative impact caused by the tractor-trailers.
The MTA also met with GORR and used figures to show how detrimental limiting
trucking routes would be to the trucking industry's coffers.
Murphy said the trucking advocates used calculations with higher gasoline prices, which may hurt the task force's argument
The coalition members have long argued about issues related to frequent truck traffic using narrow scenic byways. Among them are the wearing of infrastructure, safety concerns for pedestrians, possible environmental hazards specifically with the lakes, a decrease in tourism and quality of life concerns with homeowners who live along routes.
However, putting a figure to these concerns can be difficult.
Task force members talked about some ideas for quantifying the impact.
Skaneateles and Syracuse can provide estimates to building a filtration facility if the Environmental Protection Agency requires this. Currently, the EPA allows the communities to bypass filtering the water because of its pristine condition. If the EPA deems the area at risk, it could impose a filtration system on the two municipalities, Mayor Bob Green said.
According to a study completed in 1992, Skaneateles would pay $2.6 million and Syracuse would pay $60 million. Of course, those figures now are 17 years old.
Another figure Green plans to include to the joint package with GORR is $23,000 a Genesee Street building owner paid to replace his windows. A letter from the company that replaced the windows stated frequent truck traffic caused vibrations that cracked the windows.
Pamela Mackesey, a Tompkins County legislator, suggested the communities provide the amounts they spend on promoting the area, as well as how much revenue tourism brings to the region.
“It's not dollars or cents, but the long-term effect of (frequent garbage trucks) is inevitable (that) it's going to have an economic impact,” she said.
Owasco Supervisor John Klink said the task force also should show that this effort is a political push with community support.
“This is truly a grass roots organization from the bottom up,” he said. “If they see that, that might help us in the final analysis.”
The task force met in Owasco last week to talk about what members want to send to GORR as it completes its analysis of rules restricting long-haul truck traffic from certain rural routes through the Finger Lakes region.
The agency is reviewing the truck traffic proposal for constitutionality and economic effects.
After GORR completes its review and approves the measure, a 45-day public comment period will start. A specific date has not been determined.
Chuck Murphy, a legislative aide to state Sen. John DeFrancisco, told the 10 people in attendance that a meeting he had with GORR representatives went well and he got a lot of positive feedback, especially with the arguments the task force uses.
“They could tell that we had done our homework on the subject,” Murphy said.
Specifically, the regional approach impressed them, he added.
“They didn't realize how it started in Skaneateles and built up to a regional thing and that's what impressed them the most, that it wasn't just one community, it was a group of communities that came together to form a task force,” Murphy said. “They really took that to heart.”
The task force consists of officials from Skaneateles, Owasco, Aurora, Ithaca, Tompkins County and Palmyra.
The Motor Truck Association disagreed with some figures included in the task force's statements, but Murphy asked the representatives to set a timeline so the advocate group can't stall the process.
Agency staff agreed and set the March 5 deadline, which applied to both the MTA and the safety collation.
The agency specifically asked the task force to put a dollar figure to the negative impact caused by the tractor-trailers.
The MTA also met with GORR and used figures to show how detrimental limiting
trucking routes would be to the trucking industry's coffers.
Murphy said the trucking advocates used calculations with higher gasoline prices, which may hurt the task force's argument
The coalition members have long argued about issues related to frequent truck traffic using narrow scenic byways. Among them are the wearing of infrastructure, safety concerns for pedestrians, possible environmental hazards specifically with the lakes, a decrease in tourism and quality of life concerns with homeowners who live along routes.
However, putting a figure to these concerns can be difficult.
Task force members talked about some ideas for quantifying the impact.
Skaneateles and Syracuse can provide estimates to building a filtration facility if the Environmental Protection Agency requires this. Currently, the EPA allows the communities to bypass filtering the water because of its pristine condition. If the EPA deems the area at risk, it could impose a filtration system on the two municipalities, Mayor Bob Green said.
According to a study completed in 1992, Skaneateles would pay $2.6 million and Syracuse would pay $60 million. Of course, those figures now are 17 years old.
Another figure Green plans to include to the joint package with GORR is $23,000 a Genesee Street building owner paid to replace his windows. A letter from the company that replaced the windows stated frequent truck traffic caused vibrations that cracked the windows.
Pamela Mackesey, a Tompkins County legislator, suggested the communities provide the amounts they spend on promoting the area, as well as how much revenue tourism brings to the region.
“It's not dollars or cents, but the long-term effect of (frequent garbage trucks) is inevitable (that) it's going to have an economic impact,” she said.
Owasco Supervisor John Klink said the task force also should show that this effort is a political push with community support.
“This is truly a grass roots organization from the bottom up,” he said. “If they see that, that might help us in the final analysis.”
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drivebytrucker wrote on Mar 2, 2009 8:30 PM:
sOME of these special people who don't want you in their special town think it's ok fro them to drive over the speedlimit, yappng on the phone, slopping through stopsigns, behind the wheel of a SUV almost the size of a 18 wheeler. Thats ok. "
james_13021 wrote on Mar 2, 2009 12:29 PM:
Especially with the economy the way it is, do we really need to impose such hardship and restrictions on businesses/truckers???
This has gone on for way to long and it needs to end with the courts telling these communities (Skaneatles) to stop harassing people/businesses entering or passing through!!! "
northender wrote on Mar 2, 2009 4:23 AM: