BUDA — City Councilmembers in Buda were dying to remove 18-wheelers from Main Street Tuesday night.

Mayor John Trube said he's tired of the angry phone calls from citizens. Councilmember Cathy Chilcote complained about the noise, the mess and the dangers of truck traffic. Councilmember Tom Crouse said a ban on large trucks "is an idea that's time has come."

But that time probably won't come for another 6-9 months.

Councilmembers decided, for the time being, to broker a compromise with two major Buda quarries, Texas Lehigh and Cen-Tex Materials. Frozen by language in a 2004 agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that turned the road over to the city, the council unanimously tabled an ordinance that would have prohibited vehicles weighing 20,000 pounds or more from traveling Main Street from Old San Antonio Road to RM 967.

Phillip Bowden of Cen-Tex estimated that 700-800 trucks trips per day either originate or terminate at his plant, which doesn't account for all the trucks from other companies that use Main Street as the fastest route to IH-35. Chilcote and Eileen Conley, owner of Memory Lane Antiques on Main Street, complained that the truck drivers are fast, aggressive and rude.

Even the quarries agree that the traffic is a downtown nuisance, but argued that the present alternative routes are cost prohibitive.

"We're being a good neighbor," Councilmember Hutch White said. "We don't want to put anyone out of business. But we're also responsible to our citizens."

Councilmembers unanimously support the removal of such traffic, which has irritated residents and drivers in downtown Buda for years. But councilmembers believe they're committed to allowing trucks to drive Main Street pursuant to the 2004 agreement with TxDOT saying the city won't prohibit truck traffic there without creating an alternative route.

"And that alternative route hasn't been created," Mayor Pro-Tem Bobby Lane said.

So, the council authorized the city staff to work out a deal whereby the quarries will finance a study of truck traffic impact in Buda and finance enforcement of the traffic laws on the relevant stretch of Main Street Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. until a long-awaited truck bypass route is completed.

Meanwhile, the city continues work on the truck bypass from Jack C. Hays Trail, where the major quarries are located, through the south end of Buda to IH-35. Partly financed by $500,000 in federal money produced by U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar, the bypass remains in the planning stages and won't be completed until next summer.

Trube told councilmembers that he continued to receive so many citizen complaints about trucks on the street that the office of TxDOT Engineer Don Nyland recommended the city weight limit the road. Buda City Attorney Jim Duvall argued that city's the agreement with TxDOT involves no other parties, so TxDOT's recommendation to weight limit the road released the city from legal obligation permit large trucks before building the bypass.

But Councilmembers Chilcote, Lane and Tenorio remained unconvinced that the language isn't legally binding and argued that the city should wait on the prohibition until the truck route is complete, lest the city would find itself in an expensive court fight.

"I feel very frustrated because we can't control those trucks," Chilcote said. "We can't slow your trucks down ... I want to get those trucks off the street."

The deal to be struck stems from offers by Cen-Tex. Attorney Jim Cousar, arguing for Cen-Tex that the weight limit shouldn't be imposed until the bypass is built, offered to finance the traffic study. Bowden said Cen-Tex long ago made a standing offer to fund enforcement.

Robert Kidnew of Texas-Lehigh said only about one percent of his trucks travel the contested stretch of Main Street.

	Web www.hayshighway.com