Meeting convened at 4:05 pm by Robert Juravich.

Comment: Against regional government "without representation"; noted how much population has declined in this region; lost industry; new highway if it bypasses small towns will kill businesses in those towns

Question: Design/nature of highway?

Response: Best example is Rt. 17/Southern Tier Expressway in terms of evolution of highway. Ultimately want to limit access and have a freeway-type facility. Use existing ROW as much as possible.

Question: Why not go down to Otter Creek and join up with the 4-lane north of Utica?

Response: That might be an eventual extension of the corridor – we’re focused now on east-west movement.

Question: How does rail service fit into this? (Clarify)

Response: Strategic investments in key rail facilities in addition to highway project is a need for improving this area.

Comment: Do not believe there are major traffic problems right now in the corridor. More impact from making power rates more competitive with rest of nation. Road issue is not really a big deal.

Question: Consideration of crash rate on Rt. 11?

Response: Yes, it was one of key aspects of study – accident rate savings from improvements.

Question: Tourism access considerations? (Particularly north of I-81 into Thousand Islands area/byway area.)

Response: If we can move some of higher-speed unsafe traffic off of unsafe roads, opens up options for using roads for bikes and walking.

Question: What goes into environmental considerations?

Response: EIS process involves many different categories of "environmental impacts."

Question: Would centralizing schools, etc. into county-level settings make most sense for region?

Response: This is a transportation study, although these are complementary issues.

Question: How will bypass designs be determined?

Response: This is a series of projects, so these decisions will be made on a case by case basis.

Comment: Economic development has a lot of building blocks, including transportation.