The members of the Skaneateles Town Board have approved multiple resolutions urging the New York Department of Transportation to redesign and update I-81 while maintaining the highway’s current traffic route through Syracuse.
An influx of truck traffic through the Finger Lakes area has concerned Skaneateles residents and leaders for years, and town officials believe that constructing a boulevard in Downtown Syracuse that diverts I-81 traffic away from the city will push more truck traffic from I-81 to smaller routes along the Finger Lakes.
In June 2018, the Town Board approved a resolution noting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent decision to oppose a trash incinerator in Romulus over obvious environmental concerns. The resolution states: “Even without an incinerator looming, dirty trash- and hazardous waste-hauling trucks would still surge en masse through the Finger Lakes area if I-81 were to be downgraded to a street-level routing, otherwise known as the ‘community grid.'”
Read the Town of Skaneateles resolution here.
The community group Citizens to Preserve the Character of Skaneateles has also expressed concerns about the boulevard option being considered by transportation officials in Albany. In a letter to the Syracuse Common Council, Holland Gregg, executive director of CPCS, said that a boulevard would be a “huge setback for the Finger Lakes region.” Read the letter here.