The New York State Department of Transportation (NYS DOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) held an open house about Exit 114 on Wednesday, November 20, and if that sounds like it would be a public brawl, you’d find yourself – hopefully – pleasantly surprised.

DOT and FHWA held a very amicable event at the Emma Chase Elementary School showcasing maps and boards of possibilities for the exit. There was serious critique of the plans, but it was delivered in a surprisingly calm atmosphere.

The issue stems from the project of converting State Route 17 into Interstate 86, thus connecting into the federal highway system and federal regulation. The project has been going on since 1998. The problem, DOT Supervising Engineer Mark Kruk explained, is "exit 114 does not meet the minimum federal standards for an interstate interchange.”

That's for a few reasons: the deceleration lane is too short with too sharp a curve radius, and the exit only allows access to Mamakating Road from westbound Route 17 – there is no on-access to the westbound 17 and no on- or off-ramps at all on the eastbound side.

The feds like their interchanges to go both ways and require good reasons for one with only partial access. So, their instinct was to simply close the exit. But the people of Mamakating have serious concerns about the impact of such a closure on their businesses and on their access to emergency services, and have been making those concerns heard. Now, the FHWA and DOT are presenting six possible futures for exit 114.

The first option is to build a full interchange at the current location of exit 114 allowing on and off access in both directions. This might sound like the best option but the construction would be difficult, expensive, and lengthy.

“Do you ever look at the other side of the road? It's all rock and trees,” Wurtsboro resident John White said of this option. “So that's a huge endeavor. It's a mountain. So, you're going to be blasting and cutting… How long is that project going to take?”

He said that as a hunter, he had another concern about so much construction. “How," he asked, "is that helping the environment?”

The second and third options are to move exit 114 further east and hook into existing roads – either by using the existing Mamakating Road bridge as part of the interchange, or by combining exits 114 and 115.

The fourth option is a partial upgrade of exit 114 at its current location. Essentially, the westbound exit would be rebuilt to bring the deceleration lane and curve to federal standards, and an on-ramp would be added. This would be the least expensive and time-consuming option while still preserving public use of the exit.

This option had some public support. Kelly DeGuzman, who arrived at the event with a group of women all wearing the same green “KEEP EXIT 114 OPEN” t-shirts, is the vice president of the Wurtsboro Board of Trade. “Right now,” she said, “it looks like we are in favor of the partial interchange. It addresses our economic concerns; it addresses a lot of the safety concerns for emergency response vehicles. I think it's probably the least environmentally intrusive and probably the most cost-effective.”

The problem is, this work would still not add any eastbound access, which means it would be harder to get federal approval. The DOT said it's not impossible, but they could very well deny the request for an exemption.

The fifth and sixth options were the most alarming to residents. These are to close the current exit 114 to all but emergency vehicles, or to completely eliminate the exit outright. Over a hundred people showed up at the event, and not one person this reporter spoke to wanted either the full removal of the exit or even the one for emergency vehicles only.

White pointed out the gentleman seated next to him. He said that man owns a taxi company, and the drivers get $2.50 a mile. If the exit was eliminated, and the driver had to go to the next one, “that’s at least 2 miles longer, and the fare would be more, and customers would not be happy.”

The biggest fear of the residents is that the bevy of stores on Sullivan Street would lose all the business with the loss of through traffic. “Look what happened to Parksville!” was a common refrain.

Parksville is a town off of Route 17, between Liberty and Livingston Manor, and a 2011-2012 DOT upgrade to bring the stretch of highway to federal standards rerouted traffic away from the business district.

“They built the highway around Parksville,” explained Wurtsboro resident Eric Crane. “It’s dead. All the business has closed up.”

“It's wrong,” concluded Dennis Wood. “There's a lot of developments around here in Sullivan County, it's starting to thrive here.”

“The few [Wurtsboro] storefronts are open because they have worked so hard to get them filled and have different businesses, and they depend on that traffic coming down through the town,” said Kathy Walker. “I asked the [Wurtsboro Board of Trade] to present to the state as to how it really financially impacts. Because whining isn't really the same as getting your numbers and your data on that.”

Mamakating Town Supervisor Michael Robbins was on hand. He said he was happy with the turn out of the event, but “really wish it was more. Because we had, how many petitions? We had like 2,000… So, it would have been nice to have 1,000.”

Numbers, data, and petitioners aside, DOT engineer Barrett LaGrave was clear on who makes the call. “In the end, it's FHWA's decision.”

Kruk explained a little of the process. “We prepared a draft environmental impact statement. It goes to the New York Division, FHWA. They look at it. They pass it along to Washington, D.C., FHWA.” And it is Washington who makes the final decision.

The DOT’s role, LaGrave said, is mostly to listen and advise the federal administration. “Nothing is decided. We're still getting input…We are also not even at an idea where we have a preferred alternative yet… We're not recommending anything to the feds at this point.”

And there’s another wrinkle as a new presidential administration enters the fray in January. Kruk calls this a “big question…Because every time an administration changes, they change the regulations. Or they pull the funding or they give you funding.”

But, for the next steps, Kruk said, the money is there and the progress is happening. “The billion dollars for this [entire project to convert the Route 17 corridor in Orange and Sullivan Counties] was actually in [Governor] Hochul's 2022 budget. So, that money is sitting there waiting to be spent.”

In the end, there remain two competing perspectives trying to meet somewhere in the middle.

Kruk: “FHWA has wanted this exit closed for twenty years.”

Crane: “We just don't want our town killed.”

One thing is clear – the exit will NOT stay in its current configuration.

For more information on the plan, email Rt17MobilityAccess@dot.ny.gov.