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Parksville rides highs and lows of I-86

By CATHY LOMBARDI

PARKSVILLE -- Plans for Interstate 86 through Parksville will probably not be finalized before the fall of 2001 and the whole project, through construction, will take eight or nine years to complete. Not knowing if they will be able to maintain their businesses at their current locations and worried they could see their investments die a slow death, the hamlet's business owners are riding an emotional yo-yo.

On Tuesday, May 18, at one of a series of meetings that the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) will hold throughout the planning process, members of the Parksville business community expressed their concerns. Speaking for them, Michele Caltabellotta (Dead End Cafe) said, "We'd prefer the road staying where it is, but we don't know if we could survive the construction period. A split roadway alignment is acceptable, with reservations, if it keeps everyone in business and keeps the intersection visible." Business owners pressed hard to convey how important a forked high-speed exit with large, descriptive signage would be if a split highway was constructed.

After a meeting in December of 1998, DOT made available in March a set of schematics outlining 15 possible options. At last week's meeting, comments were offered on several of the options, but the general feeling among the businesspeople was that the schematics were too vague to allow for any real assessment.

Matthew Stiles of New York State DOT acknowledged that at this stage the sketches are very inexact and questions remain about what can actually be engineered. DOT estimates that a consulting engineer for the project should be under contract by the fall of 1999. Throughout the preliminary design stage, engineering feasibilities, costs, business relocations, and other elements of the project will be evaluated. An Environmental Impact Statement will need to address all pertinent issues for each alternative design. Stiles anticipates that better drawings on a limited number of options should be available next year, and he assured the business owners that exact drawings and pictures from various angles of what the roadway will look like will be available as this design stage winds down. A public hearing on the official design would be scheduled about six months prior to the target date for final approval, presently set for October of 2001.

Chairing the meeting for DOT, David Ligeikis offered to go back to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which must approve any final design plan, to discuss both direct connection and the signage issues raised by the Parksville businesses. His discussions would aim at determining what FHWA would more firmly be willing to accept.