BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

CANTON — The town board has tabled any action on a local law to prohibit trucks, agricultural and commercial vehicles weighing more than five tons from traveling on town roads.

The board held a hearing prior to its meeting Wednesday, July 13 to hear comments from the public on the issue.

Several members of the local business and agribusiness community voiced opposition to passage of the law at the hearing. One of the main reasons for the opposition centered around the fact that local farmers operating tractors, or manure or feed haulers would be prevented from operating on the roads where they did business.

The law, which would also allow the town to regulate the stopping of traffic on town roads, would seek to regulate where trucks, commercial vehicles, tractors, tractor-trailer combinations and other heavy vehicles could travel in the town.

The town has seen a boom in commercial solar development. That type of construction, along with other development in the region like the state’s rebuild of the KV lines running from Massena south, have increased traffic of heavy trucking in Canton a great deal, say town officials.

That much extra weight on the roads is taking a toll on the structural condition of the highways.

Comments at the hearing were also critical of how the law would be enforced and the belief that local residents and farmers would end up being who is penalized by the law, not out of town contractors cutting through the town’s back roads on their way elsewhere.

During the public hearing Town Councilman Bob Washo said the town is open to suggestions of how to limit outside traffic and minimize the damage while still allowing local businesses to continue to utilize the roads.

At least one of the suggestions then offered centered around a permit system of some type for drivers to be able to operate. Whether or not the permit would involve a fee and be for outside contractors securing a building permit and needing to haul heavy equipment and materials into the town or if it would be more of a free driving pass for local farmers and businesses to use the road is still to be determined.

Later during the meeting which followed the public hearing, the town board agreed to table the matter further.

“The town board tabled taking any action on the proposed law after hearing from the public. It was decided to send it back to the highway committee and legal counsel to further discuss and possibly adjust the language,” said Town Supervisor Mary Ann Ashley.

“It was good public participation and that’s what hearings are for. We listened and are now going to reassess the issue,” she said.