Safe and well-maintained roads should be a bigger priority for County Legislature

Editor:

This is my third letter of which I believe is a very critical and important issue for this county: our roads and bridges.

More important than Rural broadband, more important than many projects that the county is doing, is our road and bridge infrastructure.

You can’t transport goods and services or get big heavy farm equipment through an Internet cable. You can’t move heavy trucks, farm equipment and your family on crumbling substandard roads.

While I give the county credit for the bridge repairs and replacements it has done and what it will be doing to keep some of the bridges from getting red flagged over the next three years, there are still bridges that have been closed for decades.

If I am elected I will use the money I am paid to make trips to Albany to try get these lift bridges repaired and these closed bridges replaced. Albany steals our tax dollars. I will go and try to steal some of it back – for us and our county. I will try and cut some sort of deal to get the Parkway fixed.

The county is pouring your tax dollars into the Marine Park. The gate way to that park is the Lake Ontario Parkway. That parkway looks and rides like the series “Life after People.” It’s a disgrace.

No one from out of town using that to come here will ever want to come back, especially if they are towing a boat or trailer. Those of us that live here that use it deserve better. I said we deserve better for our tax dollars. I will work with the Legislature and they will want to work with me to try get this done. Our farmers, our businesses, our families and our visitors all depend on this.

In November I hope those of you in Yates, Ridgeway and part of Shelby will consider me when you go to the polls to cast your vote. I will serve my district but work for the betterment of all of Orleans County.

Paul Lauricella Jr.
Lyndonville