Since the announcement earlier this year that Amazon was planning to locate a new distribution center in the old Mercury Aircraft building, this writer has taken a great interest in following the development–and the possibilities that this could mean for our community. Imagine my puzzlement when one month turned into another, then another, and nothing seemed to happen. It seemed like all the approvals had been given and it was just a matter of prepping the building. They were even hiring several IT professionals to begin planning out the computer infrastructure.
On one of the trips driving through back in June, I was struck by the fact that there was no traffic signal at the intersection. It’s not hard to imagine what a problem that could be for traffic with cars coming and going and trucks leaving and entering State Road 54. Surely this matter would be resolved quickly so that Amazon could have a start by the holiday season. Nope…
Apparently, Amazon and the NYS Department of Transportation are playing a game of “Chicken” to see who gives in first. Amazon will not move here unless it has a traffic signal and turn lane; NYSDOT thinks that Amazon will locate and negotiate. Very wrong. Amazon comes with a position of power—and has a well-established reputation for getting what they want or moving on to where they do.
No one has yet defined what sort of ‘concerns’ the NYSDOT has over the light and a turn lane. Our Steuben County Industrial Development Authority (SCIDA) just this month committed $100K to the project. This funding comes to us locally through the American Recovery Plan Act.
We are informed that “Amazon is working through traffic concerns with DOT” by Jamie Johnson, director of SCIDA. We curiously are not hearing from our local assembly politicians as to how they can speed this process up. I reckon that they are busy rehearsing the speeches they will give to the media when things finally work out…
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