The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Heavy trucks OK to travel Sherrill Rd.
SHERRILL, N.Y. » Aproposed travel ban on heavy trucks on city streets has been amended to allow use of Sherrill Road.
Sherrill officials arrived at the compromise after negotiations with several local truck drivers.
“It’s a good thing, a real good deal,” David Greene of Greene Acres Backhoe Services said. “One street was all we wanted and it worked out.”
The original ordinance stated “...no person, firm, corporation or other type of entity shall operate or permit to be driven or operated any trucks, tractors, tractor-trailer combinations or other vehicles or combinations of vehicles identified on any street, or thoroughfares except those numbered New York State highway routes through the City of Sherrill as permit such driving or operation of said vehicles.”
The amendment added to Ordinance 29 now states “however, this exclusion from the driving or operation of said vehicles shall not apply to Sherrill Road.”
The city has a long history of trucks using Sherrill Road, especially ones belonging to Oneida Limited, but Mayor Bill Vineall said the ban was aimed at logging trucks that have no business being there.
“It’s quicker to cut through the back roads than take the state highways,” Vineall said of the need for the ban. “And it’s our infrastructure that takes a whipping. We have to preserve the roads we have.”
To several local businesses, the ban meant their truck drivers would have to travel through the
congested Route 5 and 46 intersection, said Tim Janes of CT Express. That would result in increased mileage and fees, damaging their business in the long run.
The ordinance will not prevent local deliveries to businesses residing on side streets or emergency vehicles from entering Sherrill roads.
The ordinance takes effect Jan. 1, 2018.