Added traffic to Butts Road from GCASA project has Albion family considering a move

Editor:

The Town of Albion Planning Board and GCASA did not consider public safety when it approved a new recovery center for women on Butts Road. There will be the possibility of increased vehicle accidents, including the possibility of children being involved.

I went to the Town Planning Board meeting on Sept. 7 to bring up my concerns about GCASA’s plan. My mother and my fiancé were also in attendance. We discussed the way Butts Road is treated as a speed strip by people who do not obey traffic signs,  by speeding, or downright reckless driving. This goes from the canal to the corner of Butts Road and Route 31.

We also discussed the issues involving the railroad underpass and how people hit it by not paying attention. The town could change the signs or the speed zone.

We also brought up Clover Hill being vacant and could offer more bed space, better location for residents being close to village amenities

None of our concerns were addressed, and none of our concerns were even taken into consideration.

So my biggest concern now is for public safety, and to the possibilities of relapses in residents staying at this center. The easiest way to disappear would be taking off on the railroad tracks which would be 200 yards away from the center.

We were told by the Albion Planning Board president and the executive director of GCASA that traffic should be minimum from this center.  How can you keep traffic to a minimum when your adding vans, buses, semi-trucks, employee vehicles and construction equipment to a part of road that already has semi-trucks, garbage trucks and waste transport vehicles, school buses that transport special needs children home from school and residents that live on this road, coming and going?

How can traffic be kept to a minimum when just that one time a serious/fatal accident that could involve children occurs could have been avoided by simply changing the entrance to Route 31 because of the added and planned traffic?

I’m saddened to see how a local town planning board just simply can take a blind eye to concerns of people that live on the road, who witness the craziness that happens especially when it comes to public safety.

Now we have to look into the possibility of moving either somewhere else in Albion or out of the Albion entirely to provide a safe home for my family of 6.

Aaron Vosburgh

Albion