WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – The Watertown city council will consider Monday night whether to spend $4.6 million to create a second entrance to the city’s industrial park.
The proposal is to extend the main road in the City Center Industrial Park – Waterman Drive – so that it runs further west behind houses and businesses on the south side of Arsenal Street and eventually empties into what is now the parking lot for the Raymour & Flanigan plaza.
Traffic would then pass through a signal light at the entrance to the plaza, and back onto Arsenal Street.
If the council decides to go with the plan, it would pre-empt a separate effort underway by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, (MPO), which has been studying the possibility of connecting Waterman Drive to South Massey Street.
A second entrance is necessary because of increased truck traffic to businesses in the park. The trucks now have only one entrance and exit, on Bellew Avenue.
“That creates a problem, an issue for some of the businesses expanding down there such as Renzi Brothers, with all the increased truck traffic,” Watertown mayor Jeff Smith said Friday.
The other issue with having one entrance is public safety – the Watertown Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office are located in the park, and if the one entrance is tied up by an accident or slow moving traffic, it could delay response to a crime or an accident.
Smith, who also is a member of the MPO, said building a second entrance connecting the industrial park to South Massey Street is problematic. For one, a second bridge would have to be built over the train tracks off Arsenal Street to get to South Massey Street.
And, Smith said, “I don’t think that would be the best way to have a second entrance, is to empty all of that traffic into a residential neighborhood.”
On the other hand, Jefferson County legislator John Peck, who chairs the MPO, said sending truck traffic back onto Arsenal Street is “not going to be a long term improvement.”
“You’re not improving flow, or traffic mobility,” Peck said Friday.
He said he plans to attend Monday’s meeting and encourage council members to wait for the MPO to finish its study.
“Why rush into a decision?” he said.
Part of the reason for hurrying a decision may be Renzi Brothers. Smith said the company now has warehouse space in Syracuse it could use, rather than continuing to expand in Watertown. A representative from Renzi’s is expected at Monday’s meeting.
According to the agenda for Monday night’s work session, the city would pay for the project with a 15 year bond.
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