http://www.pressrepublican.com/apps/...NEWS/604040302

Essex County opposes new Border Patrol checkpoint
County says plan is too dangerous
By: Lohr McKinstry
Staff Writer
April 04, 2006
ELIZABETHTOWN — Essex County officials took a stand Monday against a proposed permanent U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 87 at North Hudson.

The new four-lane checkpoint would require all southbound traffic to pull off the Adirondack Northway for inspection at Border Patrol booths. (emphasis mine-this stop will be required of American citizens. A poster on another group, a NYS resident, says they are already experimenting by making people stop and answer questions.)

Critics have said it duplicates the improved border crossing 98 miles north at the Champlain border. Proponents contend the stop would catch terrorists and drug-runners.

The Essex County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to oppose the Border Patrol stop as dangerous to motorists and unnecessary.

The county has no legal authority to halt plans for a permanent checkpoint but will inform federal authorities and state and federal elected officials of its opposition.

DUPLICATION
Supervisor Daniel Connell (D-Westport) said the Champlain border station is being rebuilt for greater security and capacity.

"It makes no sense to me that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent at the Champlain crossing, then we're going to have a four-lanes secondary stop in our country.

"They can't handle what's at the border, eight or 10 lanes. How can they handle what this is?"

Connell said that many people will just bypass the interstate roadblock on Route 9 and other roads.

"The people they're setting up to catch are going to find 100 ways to go around it. There are lots of better ways to spend our tax dollars."

He said the county should support federal and state legislators in opposing the permanent stop.

"They hope to catch the most uninformed criminals," Board of Supervisors Chairman Noel Merrihew III (R-Elizabethtown) said of a permanent checkpoint.

Border Patrol Public Affairs Officer John Pheifer didn't return a call for comment Monday, but the Border Patrol has said in the past that it needs the North Hudson checkpoint to search for illegal aliens and terrorists. State Police often stand at the temporary roadblock behind Border Patrol agents, waiting for drug possession and other non-federal crimes to be turned over to them.

Supervisor Gerald Morrow (D-Chesterfield) said he supports the temporary stop.

"You go through in two seconds. I don't support a permanent one."

LOCAL COSTS
The federal government should compensate Essex County for local law-enforcement costs related to the existing checkpoint, Supervisor Randy Douglas (D-Jay) said.

"Is revenue coming in or is it costing us dollars? I'd like to see what it costs us and ask for some reimbursement from the federal government."

SAFETY ISSUES
Supervisor Ronald Jackson (R-Essex) said the permanent stop might be safer than the intermittent one there now.

"At least it (a permanent stop) gets them off the road. It might be safer than stopping them on the road."

Four people died when a tractor-trailer truck plowed into other vehicles stopped at the roadblock in September 2004.

"We've lost lives on that highway down there," Supervisor Anthony Glebus (R-Lewis) said. "It's not going to be foolproof safety. I can't see losing more lives because they want a permanent checkpoint."

People drive fast on the interstates, he said, and more crashes could result at a permanent stop.

Supervisor Joyce Morency (R-St. Armand) said the checkpoint might stop drugs from coming into the county.

Connell said Congressmen John McHugh (R-Pierrepont Manor) and John Sweeney (R-Clifton Park), State Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) and Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) are all opposed to a permanent stop.

Traffic will back up at the proposed checkpoint during peak periods, he said, no matter how it's designed.

"It's not going to be a two- or three-minute stop. You could be sitting there in the summer for an hour," Connell said.