To the Editor:

Why not back I98 and Rt. 11? To date monies raised have been spent locally and are generating jobs and income, why just on road upgrade. Some facts that the Rt. 11 supports seem to be leaving out is back in 2005 to 2008 the New York State Legislature passed laws allowing for heavier loads to be carried on State marked roads.

The lack of true policing of all roads, we have seen these heavier loads mostly by logging companies and now freight companies moving demolished plants like the former GM site in Massena tracked across county lines to recycling plants.

So would a highway bring more traffic to the North Country or would it allow people who travel thruough the rural areas to bypass the small communities? No one has an answer, just opinions. Would larger companies bring new plants to the North Country because of the highway? Most likely not, due to geographic location, unless the U.S. and Canada can reach a trade agreement allowing border town Trade zone status and tax exemptions, creating a real free industrial zones along the us-Canadian border.

Then a highway would be needed to transport goods and materials easier and faster to the lower states. But we seem to forget that a train system owned by the state and not CSX run on fuels like Natural gas and with ability to haul ten times more product than many truck could on any road structure.

But we are simple people with simple ideas in the North Country and our elected officials stay true to down state decision makers or local party leaders are more worried about their hold on power than stepping up and out and leading the drive for out of the box thinking.

No matter what happens in the end down state will tell us what best for us.

Jack R Sauve Jr., Massena