Herbert P. Mather 01/18/13
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Monthly Archives: January 2013
Lenore (Barowsky) Kingsberg 01/17/13
Talking Transportation: The Five Biggest Lies About Highway Tolls
Like it or not, get ready to pay tolls on our Interstates and Parkways. Transportation officials in Hartford say there’s just no other way to raise badly needed money for over-due infrastructure repairs. Tolls may not be popular, but neither are collapsing bridges.
In the last decade’s debate on highway tolling, here are the five biggest lies that opponents have used to stall the return of highway tolls:
1) The Federal Government Won’t Let Us: Also known as “We’ll have to return millions in federal funding”. Not true, as US DOT officials told us at a SWRPA-sponsored meeting in Westport years ago. The federal government regularly allows tolls to be used as traffic mitigation and revenue raising tools.
2) Our Highways Should Be Free: So should ice cream and donuts. Nothing is free, including the cost of repairing I-95 and removing snow from the Merritt. Gasoline taxes come nowhere near to raising the needed revenue. Driving is a privilege, not a right. It should come with a cost.
3) Tolls Will Slow Traffic: It’s not 1965 anymore. Tolling doesn’t require highway-wide barriers with booths and gates. Just look at the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway, where barrier-free tolls using EZPass allow you to pay at 55 mph.
4) Tollbooths Cause Accidents: See #3 above. This happened once, 29 years ago, in Milford, and was used as an excuse to end tolling in the state. If toll barriers are unsafe, why don’t fiery truck crashes happen daily at the hundreds of other toll barriers around the US?
5) Highway Tolls Will Divert Traffic to Local Roads: This may be true, for about the first week. If people would rather drive for free on the Boston Post Road than pay 50 cents to save an hour by taking I-95, let ‘em. Few drivers are that cheap, or stupid.
Trust me, I know about tolls and toll booths. I spent three summers in college working as a toll collector on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Back then the toll was only 50 cents to cross the mighty Hudson, but people still didn’t like paying it. (Today the toll is $5).
Connecticut pioneered toll roads as early as the late 18th century. But today our state is facing billions in over-due bridge and highway repairs. And federal aid for transportation may be cut by a third. So why are we in this current mess? Who’s to blame? Us!
We’re the ones that stupidly pushed CT lawmakers to cut the gas tax 14 cents a gallon in 1997. And we’re the ones making it political suicide for legislators today to say they support tolls, even though they know tolls are inevitable.
Pick your poison: “free” driving on pothole-filled highways with collapsing bridges… or pay a few bucks for a safe, speedy ride.
I vote for the tolls.
JIM CAMERON has been a commuter out of Darien for 21 years. He is Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. Read his column on LymeLine every other Monday. You can reach him at CTRailCommuterCouncil@gmail.com orwww.trainweb.org/ct For a full collection of “Talking Transportation” columns, see www.talkingtransportation.blogspot.com
Lyme-Old Lyme Junior Women’s Club Announces 2013 Art Show Beneficiaries
The Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library is one of the beneficiaries of the LOLJWC 2013 Art Show.
Funds from sale to benefit local charities for 26th year
The Lyme-Old Lyme Junior Women’s Club (LOLJWC) has announced the organizations that have been chosen to receive funding from the proceeds of the club’s annual Art Show and Auction fundraising event for 2013.
The selection of recipients was determined by membership vote at the LOLJWC December meeting. The recipients for 2013 are: the Lyme Art Association (LAA), Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut, Safe Futures (formerly the Women’s Center of Southeastern CT), the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library and the Lyme Ambulance Association.
Exact dollar amount awards will be based on the overall proceeds from the sale and will be distributed to the organizations based on their original request.
This is the 26th year that the LOLJWC has been helping to fund organizations and projects in the region with the proceeds from the annual art show. Through the years, hundreds of thousands of dollars has been raised to benefit everything from local library computer programs, Lyme Youth Services Bureau, local fire and ambulance departments and various other service organizations.
The 26th annual LOLJWC Art Show will return to the LAA and be open to the public from Friday, April 26, through Sunday, June 9. An opening night reception will be held on April 26 and will feature live music and a silent auction.
This year, art from the LOLJWC show will remain on display for an extended period at the LAA, and art sold from this show will continue to generate funds to support the beneficiaries during this time.
The Lyme-Old Lyme Junior Women’s Club is celebrating 48 years as a not-for-profit service organization. The club’s objective is to bring together local women interested in community service, fellowship, and cultural, educational and civic advancement. New members are welcome and encouraged to join.
For more information on the LOLJWC and the 26th Annual Art Show, visit www.loljwc.com.
Lyme Art Association, incorporated in 1914 continues the tradition of presenting fine art exhibitions and sales by its artist members in the historic gallery. Exhibitions of Lyme Impressionists began in 1902 and were held at various locations every summer in Old Lyme until August 1921 when the present Lyme Art Association gallery opened.
The Lyme Art Association remains a vibrant art center with a gallery where professional as well as developing artists mount major exhibitions throughout the year.
Funding from LOLJWC will be used to establish a scholarship fund that will be available for individual students and adults to defray the cost of art lessons at the LAA. Scholarships will be both need and merit based.
The Child and Family Agency of SE CT focuses on the prevention and treatment of a variety of children’s behavioral and physical health issues as well as providing early childhood and after school programs. This is the largest non-profit service provider in SE CT. The involvement with the LOL community includes providing mental health resources and programs to address family counseling issues, the growing needs of substance use, juvenile issues, intensive home based counseling services for families and consultation services that address the prevention of child abuse, family violence, teen pregnancy, health care, parent education and children’s mental health services.
Funding from LOLJWC will be used for a furniture upgrade at the organization’s Essex Child Guidance Clinic.
Safe Futures (formerly the Women’s Center of Southeastern CT) saves lives, restores hope, and changes the future for those impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault throughout southeastern Connecticut. Each year, nearly 6,000 residents of New London County receive the agency’s free, confidential and life-saving counseling services. In addition, Safe Futures educates thousands of area school children in violence prevention by teaching skills to recognize and reduce violence. This past fall, the agency changed its name to be more inclusive and to reflect the importance of violence prevention and breaking the cycles of violence in the community as a whole.
Funding from LOLJWC will be used to enhance services and support provided by the agency’s Family Services Advocate to mothers and children in their emergency shelter, transitional living program and clients from the community who are victims of domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
The mission of the OLPGN Library is to serve as a free center of information and foster cultural enhancement and development of an informed and knowledgeable community. As an association library, support for the operating budget is derived from multiple sources including the town of Old Lyme which contributes 41% of the operating budget as well as endowment support, contributions from Friends of the Library, grants and donations.
Funding from LOLJWC will be used to run the Summer Reading Program effectively for patrons entering grades kindergarten through grade 12. The incentive based summer reading program uses awards and motivational tools to recognize summer reading efforts with prizes to encourage participation during the summer months. Funds will be used to purchase incentives, books to compliment the required and suggested summer reading lists created by the school district, and educational and enriching programming at the Library during the summer vacation period.
Established in 1976, Lyme Ambulance Association has provided emergency medical services to Lyme residents with a completely volunteer staff. The organization is the last EMS service east of the CT River to provide this service free to patients.
Funding from LOLJWC will help to install a backup camera in the second ambulance to assist the organization’s drivers to operate more safely.