Nathan Gunn, of DeWitt, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the New York state Department of Transportation seeking to halt the Interstate 81 project.
You will recall that a number of local petitioners took the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) to court and challenged their flawed plan to remove Interstate 81 from Syracuse. The result was a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in February that denied DOT permission to remove the highway from the city unless and until further environmental analyses were undertaken.
That was very good news for our community. However, the court allowed work to proceed on two interchanges to the north and south of the city. As a result, Renew 81 For All, the citizens group that initiated the challenge, appealed the interchange construction to the state Supreme Court Appellate Division. The state then appealed, as well. Oral arguments were heard last week in Rochester.
At those oral arguments, representatives for the state continued to push false information regarding its own conduct.
Let there be no misunderstanding: At stake is the literal air that the children of our communities, especially Syracuse’s South Side, may soon be breathing.
When Justice Donald Greenwood asked the state if the plaintiffs had offered “expert” opinion to counter the DOT’s claims, the DOT attorney answered that no “experts” had been put forth by the plaintiffs. That, of course, was a false statement.
The town of DeWitt is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and Ed Michalenko, the town Supervisor, is an environmental scientist. Not only has Michalenko been lauded by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as an environmental expert., but Michalenko has published a very detailed environmental review in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement record, as well as a part of the lawsuit. Greenwood lives in DeWitt, so I expect he heard the DOT attorney’s responses as willful misstatements.
Even more disturbing was the sheer fallacy of the state’s…
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