Saugus board to discuss potential truck route ban

SAUGUS – Saugus selectmen will look to ban heavy trucking on Bristow Street at next week’s meeting.Selectmen Chairman Michael Serino said it’s been an ongoing problem in the area as trucks will often use Eastern Avenue and Bristow Street as cut-throughs to avoid the light at Ballard Street and Route 107.”A lot of the neighbors have been complaining,” said Serino. “There’s a playground down there and the road is pretty tight with a lot of people parking on the street. A Town Meeting member down there and some of the neighbors requested that we put (signs) back up.”Serino said there used to be “no trucking” signs in the area, but they were put up illegally and taken down “a few years ago.””They were put up because of a plant that used to be down there, we had trucks in and out,” said Serino. “We have to have a public hearing according to our traffic rules and regulations, and the Police Department recommended it. Anything we do like that we send out to the Police Department for a recommendation.”Selectmen meet on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall auditorium.Serino said the potential ban doesn’t have anything to do with the proposal by the Department of Conservation and Recreation to remove sand from the old I-95 roadbed to restore Winthrop Beach.”They’re not even using our streets, they’re going out to Route 107,” he said.Serino said town lawyers are still reviewing the 1989 care and control agreement between the town and the state to see if Saugus has any standing. He said the Conservation Commission will meet on the project again on March 27.”We should definitely know by the 27th,” he said.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].