NORWICH – He said he may be called “radical,” but Chenango County Planning Board member Bruce Beadle said he would like to see state Route 12 leading into Norwich packed solid with tractors, trucks and cars when state transportation officials drive here for a public hearing next week.
“The key word out there, it seems, is forget about Chenango County because they don’t make enough noise,” Beadle said at a meeting of the board Tuesday morning. The Norwich real estate agent said he and other public officials had been pushing for 20 years to improve transportation along the Chenango River corridor to Norwich.
“We’ve had our chance in the past,” said Beadle. “We were passed over for 81 going through Norwich and then Interstate 88. We shouldn’t sit back and see what they’ll give us. We need to put pressure on our legislators. You can’t get to Norwich. We shouldn’t have to accept the answer that it costs too much to build a four-lane highway.”
A public hearing on phase two of a state and locally funded study of Route 12 begun in 2000 will be held at 7 p.m. on Sept. 20 at Norwich High School. Town supervisors and other public officials are invited to meet at 5 p.m. According to the study, travel within the City of Norwich is one of the most prominent sources for causing traffic delays from Binghamton to Utica.
Planning Board member and City of Norwich Supervisor Linda E. Natoli said she believed it was up to the state’s transportation department to match federal dollars set aside for the highway project. “I think New York Senator Charles Schumer, (when visiting area in early August), said we have two years to use the $32 million he’s appropriated for this before the federal dollars go away,” she said.
During an Aug. 8 visit to Commerce Chenango in Norwich, Schumer said he has secured funding for improving state Route 12. “You’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do with it,” he told county business and government representatives.
NYSDOT Project Developer John J. Fitzgerald said at a previous meeting in Norwich this summer that the DOT has committed almost $17 million toward phase one recommendations planned between now and 2013. Phase one, finished in 2002 by private consultants Barton & Loguidice PC of Syracuse for $100,000, suggested $35 million worth of short-term, safety-related improvements.
NYSDOT Regional Director Jack Williams said the estimated $700 million price tag for a four lane interstate was cost prohibitive.
Beadle said he has a business client interested in moving to the area, but a lack of efficient transportation into and out of Norwich along with the high price of energy have kept him away.
“He’d like to relocate, but he can’t get past those two issues,” he said. “These are the big deterrents to moving here.”
At Tuesday’s planning board meeting, City of Norwich Planner and Community Development Specialist Todd Dreyer said rural central New York has been getting “the short shrift” for a long time. “This type of upgrade was the political campaign slogan of both sides of the political spectrum. I so far don’t see any plans for us,” he said.
“We shouldn’t accept no to a four-lane highway. We need some good news here,” Beadle said.