BY PAUL MITCHELLNorth Country This Week

CANTON – The Village of Canton is continuing their push to reduce the speed limit on a stretch of Rt. 11 east of the village.

The village board’s monthly meeting, a resolution was unanimously endorsed seeking to lower the speed limit from 55 miles an hour to 40 miles per hour from just outside the village limits to the entrance to the St. Lawrence health’s medical complex off Rt. 11.

The Home Rule request will again be forwarded to Senator Dan Stec and Assemblyman Scott Gray who in turn will introduce the village’s request to committee.

“We will carry it again to our elected representatives who will do what they can,” said Mayor Michael Dalton. 

In recent years, numerous accidents, including a fatal crash have occurred within this designated stretch of roadway.

This designated portion of East Main Street is also part of US and State Highway 11 and therefore home rule requests addressed to the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate are required before the Village may pass a local law or other ordinance, order, rule or regulation to enact said speed limit, the resolution reads.

This is the third home rule request made by the village board. Previous requests directed to the New York State Department of Transportation have been denied.

Exiting the village of Canton and heading to Potsdam, the speed limit shifts from 40 mph to 55 mph just before the Parkway Express, 5994 Rt. 11. where numerous vehicles make the right turn into the convenience store, gas station and Tim Horton’s eatery. Across the street is Poulin Grain 6005 Rt. 11, with vehicles, including tractor trailers making a left turn into the business. In a few hundred yards, motorists encounter a curve under an overpass and just down the road is the entrance to the medical complex that involves a left-hand turn and a narrow area with guard rails for vehicles to pass on the right.