TUPPER LAKE -- State highway engineers designing a major realignment of downtown Tupper Lake say they are uncertain which plan they'll choose.

Whatever plan the state chooses, it could radically change the layout of the village that bills itself as "crossroads of the Adirondacks."

Robert Curtis, regional design engineer for the State Department of Transportation, said his agency is gathering public input from local leaders and residents before it settles on a design.

"I don't think we're going home with a clear direction of where we want to go," he told the roughly 50 members of the public gathered at the Goff-Nelson Memorial Library for a recent project meeting.

CHOICES

Several intersections -- including the convergence of state routes 3 and 30 -- fail state and federal highway standards for larger trucks. Longer tractor trailers often cannot make the turn without crossing into oncoming traffic, creating a hazard for motorists.

Engineers have drafted a plan to construct a roundabout-type intersection that would keep traffic flowing at a slow but constant speed at the junction of Park and Mill streets.

Alternatively, DOT has designed a large T-intersection controlled by traffic lights.

At a public meeting held in June, many residents opposed both plans and asked the state to consider rerouting traffic off Park Street and onto Lake Street. State engineers agreed to study that option and conducted surveys over the summer that showed about 60 percent of truck traffic already uses Lake Street.

BUSINESS REACTION

Curtis said DOT prefers the roundabout design because of its efficiency and the added green space of a traffic circle. But some business owners argued that it would discourage traffic from stopping in Tupper Lake.

"We need to have people stop in our community," said Dan McClelland, whose Tupper Lake Free Press newspaper office would lose some of its parking to an expanded intersection. "A roundabout will usher them efficiently and quietly through the community and out."

But that view isn't universal.

Dan Jenkins, who owns a storage business next to the newspaper, said the roundabout represents "forward thinking" and deserves consideration. He pointed to the success of the downtown traffic circle in Glens Falls.

UNCERTAIN