No to trucks

At it’s meeting Monday, Columbia Borough Council passed a resolution not to allow trucks on any streets in town, except Route 462 and 441.
While it won’t take care of the major problem of eliminating major truck traffic, the move will curtail what streets those big trucks can travel on.

Monday’s move limits truck traffic on the remainder of the borough’s streets, except if they are making local deliveries. The reason for the move, council said was simple. Because of congestion caused by the big rigs, the trucks were looking for shorter routes around Columbia, often times using other streets not designed for trucks, to avoid congestion in the center of town.

While that move might seem like a minor one, council continues to dig in for a major fight as it attempts to secure funding for the relocation of Route 441 around Columbia.

Currently, the $12 million project is on life support.

The borough and Mayor Leo Lutz have spent much of the last three weeks, since it was announced the project might be in trouble, contacting county, state and federal government officials and legislators.
The borough is again circulating petitions throughout the community, asking residents to sign to showing support for the alternate truck route.

“We need to show county, state and federal government officials that this is essential,” Lutz said.

“We want to leave no stone unturned. We’ve been contacting everybody to plead our case,” Lutz said.

This week, Lutz said he plans to speak to a representative from Sen. Arlen Specter’s office and attend a meeting of the Lancaster County Transportation Advisory Committee. He also said there is the possibility of yard sign being purchased and placed throughout the borough.

The mayor said he had to talk residents out of protesting plans to pull the finances for the project by laying in streets in an attempt to block trucks.

For more, read this week's Columbia Ledger.