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That’s not even the worst it's been though, she said. “My family owns a historic hotel on Broadway that I run and there are trucks on Broadway, so I'm aware of what trucks are like, but you just cannot prepare yourself for this until you will live in a home here,” Israel said. “It's just relentless.

It's just nonstop and it’s loud.” Nearby neighbor Nick Fazioli, whose home abuts Van Dam Street, said he is woken up by trucks barreling down Van Dam Street or hitting their Jake brakes. For decades residents on Church and Van Dam Streets have been raising concerns about the large trucks traversing their historically designated neighborhood.



Gazette reports from the late 1980s talk about various efforts made to stymie the truck traffic. However, almost four decades later the issue persists. A recent effort by the city to limit trucks was shot down by the state and now the Van Dam and Church Neighborhood Association has hired a law firm, exploring legal action if nothing is done and contemplating forgoing the preservation process on their historic homes.

The state Department of Transportation designated Van Dam Street an access highway under federal guidelines in 1987 after International Paper made a request seeking the classification, according to a DOT letter to Mayor John Safford. In the letter, the DOT said it received no objections to the designation at the time. However, Fazioli said they could find no record showing the public was ever informed that the request h.

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