Town mulls truck ban

Borough Council wants to ban vehicles over 4 tons from driving on Hooker Street.

By: Leon Tovey
   JAMESBURG — Residents of Hooker Street may see some relief in the near future from the truck traffic that has been the bane of their existence for years; borough officials say they plan to make the street a light-traffic area.
   Councilman Otto Kostbar said Thursday that the Borough Council wants to ban vehicles over 4 tons from driving on the street.
   "We’ve gotten some complaints recently and have been looking into it and we’ve decided that the street there just is not wide enough for the kind of traffic it’s been getting," Mr. Kostbar said.
   He added that the council may ask for state approval to lower the speed limit on Hooker Street from 30 mph to 25 mph.
   Hooker Street, which runs northeast from East Railroad Avenue parallel to Lincoln Avenue, extends for two-and-a-half blocks before it bends to the north and turns into Helmetta Road. More than two-dozen single-family houses line the street — among them the house of Rory Barrett and his wife, Stacey.
   Mr. Barrett, who said he bought his house in Jamesburg two years ago because the borough reminds him of the working-class villages of his native Ireland, has been a main source of the complaints the council has received recently, and he said he plans to keep complaining until the situation is fixed.
   "There are a lot of families with small children on my street," he told officials during an April 13 Borough Council meeting. "And we see a lot of trucks that are too big, moving too fast, and we want to see something done about it."
   Mr. Barrett, who works rotating shifts for PSE&G, said Tuesday that the traffic is worst on weekdays between 5:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. He said trucks passing through the borough use Hooker Street as a detour to avoid the notorious intersection of Lincoln, Gatzmer, and East and West Railroad avenues.
   Mayor Tony LaMantia said Wednesday that borough officials have long been aware of the fact that truckers use Hooker Street as a detour, but it has gotten worse in recent years as more people have moved into the area.
   He said it is also similar to the borough’s other traffic issues in that the borough can’t address it on its own.
   In order to close Hooker Street to trucks entering the borough from the north, the borough will have to force trucks onto Lincoln Avenue by closing the two-block stretch of Helmetta Road between Lincoln and the bend where Helmetta Road becomes Hooker Street, Mayor LaMantia said.
   "And that section of Helmetta Road is under county control, so we’ve got to get approval from the county to do that," he said.
   Mayor LaMantia said he has spoken with state Department of Transportation officials about the council’s plan and plans to discuss it with county officials in the near future. He said he doesn’t know when the borough might be able to introduce an ordinance making the change.
   He also said plans are under review for a traffic light or series of lights at the Lincoln-Gatzmer-Railroad intersection would help assuage the problem by alleviating congestion on Lincoln Avenue, but county officials have said it will be at least two years before work is completed.
   For his part, Mr. Barrett said he thinks a light-traffic zone would be a step in the right direction and that he plans to keep bringing the issue up at Borough Council meetings until the change is implemented
   "I’m not going to let this drop," he said. "I work 15 days a month, so I have plenty of time to be a thorn in (the council’s) side."