Monroe, NY – Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt appears to have unsnagged plans for a major road project by securing $150,000 from the state to replace what would have been local contributions to the planning costs.
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The project is known as the Larkin Drive extension, and its goal is to ease traffic congestion in Monroe by turning what is now little more than a mall entrance into a thoroughfare that runs parallel to Route 17.
The state has set aside $750,000 for designs and an environmental study, but local governments had to pony up another 20 percent.
Planners had hoped to meet that requirement by collecting $37,500 each from Orange County, the Villages of Monroe and Kiryas Joel and the Town of Monroe.
All parties agreed to contribute this year except the Village of Monroe, whose leaders said they were strapped for cash and reluctant to pay for a solution to traffic caused by growth in surrounding communities.
Promoters enlisted the support of Rabbitt, who contacted Gov. George Pataki’s office and recently got what she says was an oral agreement to provide $150,000 from the state Department of Transportation to cover the entire local share.
Larkin Drive is the road leading to the Harriman Commons shopping center. The project would extend the road 1.5 miles westward and connect Routes 105 and 208, siphoning traffic off other Monroe roads and speeding access to Kiryas Joel and Harriman Commons.