Police Chief Jim Layne and the Syracuse Town Council discussed options for getting semi-trucks and trailers in and out of the town’s industrial areas safely with minimal traffic disruption at the council’s monthly meeting Tuesday night.
The brainstorming session, without any official action, centered on the intersection of Brooklyn and Main streets, near the former Syracuse Elementary School building. There are homes on all four corners of the intersection, and an industrial park is on the west end of Brooklyn Street. The ball diamonds for Syracuse’s youth baseball and softball program are also in that area.
Brooklyn Street is offset on either side of Main; westbound traffic on Brooklyn has to cross Main at an angle to continue west. Brooklyn is one way from the former school site to Main.
Town Manager Henry DeJulia said the curb work at Brooklyn and Main had been rebuilt, worn down, redesigned and replaces and worn down again by trucks trying to turn on Main Street. The consensus was that even if there are only a couple of cars in the intersection, which is controlled by four-way stop signs, it becomes difficult for a semi driver to maneuver.
One suggestion was to take the former school site and build a road to Boston Street to improve access to Huntington Street (Ind. 13).
Layne and the council agreed to work with all the parties involved toward an eventual solution, but there’s not a lot that can be done in the short term to make the situation better.
