Smithtown, Huntington at odds on road sign

Last fall, members of the Commack Community Association decided something had to be done about trucks speeding along Townline Road -- home to two schools and the de facto border between Huntington and Smithtown.

In September, the group's lobbying paid off when the Smithtown Town Board voted to change code and place signs prohibiting commercial trucks of more than 5,000 pounds between Jericho Turnpike and Pulaski Road.

But Huntington has refused to go along, leaving one side of the road with signs, the other without signs, and trucks barreling up and down the thoroughfare.

"I don't understand the lack of interest in a child safety issue," said Bob Semprini, the association's safety and environmental chair. "I hope they never have to deal with any repercussions."

The east side of Townline Road is in Smithtown, while the west side is in Huntington. Commack High School and North Ridge Primary School sit on the Smithtown side. Trucks, including 18-wheelers, use Townline Road to go to an industrial park and the towns' resource recovery center north of the schools.

Semprini said that besides the speeding problem, the road is not engineered to handle such loaded trucks and deteriorates with each passing, creating a safety hazard.

Smithtown town board member Bob Creighton said he agrees with Semprini, who asked Huntington's board in October to change the signs on its side to be in sync with those on the Smithtown side.

But Huntington spokesman A.J. Carter said town officials believe the real issue is enforcement of the speed limit.

"That's a police issue that we will work with the Second Precinct on," Carter said.

Carter said commercial traffic on that road is already limited between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. and that it does not make sense to enact a sign change that is not going to have an impact.

"Our assessment is that what Smithtown was doing was not going to be effective because you can't ban local delivery," Carter said. "The trucks during daytime hours are all local delivery on Townline Road, including the resource recovery plant."

Creighton said he hopes Huntington officials will reconsider.

"You can't enforce the 5,000-pound limit when only one town participates," he said. "Right now the signs mean nothing."

Semprini and Creighton have identified an alternate route for trucks traveling north to the industrial parks and resource recovery center: from Jericho Turnpike, turn north on Indian Head Road, then left on Old Northport Road. All three roads are constructed for heavy-duty trucks. Old Northport Road intersects Townline Road near the industrial parks and resource recovery center.

"We just need the cooperation from the Huntington side," Semprini said. "As a community organization we were hoping to try to forge some type of relationship with them not to be controversial but address quality-of-life issues, and that's not happening."