Residents Still Battling Heavy Trucks In Nevada-Lidgerwood Vicinity

The “truck busters” are still plugging away in the Nevada-Lidgerwood neighborhood but are now asking for help from the Spokane Police Department traffic unit.

For months, a small group of people who live north of Francis Avenue behind giant retail stores on Division Street have been trying to enforce the city ordinance against heavy trucks using the neighborhood as a shortcut to Northpointe, Wendle Ford, Best, Costco or the Newport Highway.

The residents - most notably those along Cozza Drive, Addison, Standard and Lyons - have been writing down the names of trucking companies and forwarding them to the traffic engineering department, which then mails out letters asking the firms to avoid the neighborhood except for local deliveries.

Among the trucks seen driving through the residential neighborhood are some belonging to the city itself.

There has been some success, but the problem continues.

With the growth in area retailing and pending development in the Calkins Annexation, residents say it seems that each truck that stops cutting through the neighborhood after receiving a warning is replaced by two that violate the city ordinance.

Once again, the locations of the “No Truck” signs are: Nevada and Francis, Addison and Francis, Lyons and Division, Cozza and Division, Nevada and Cozza, and Standard and Lincoln Road.

Though residents believe in getting involved, “We feel we’ve done our share,” said Sandy Smith, a member of the neighborhood steering committee.

“They leave it all up to us,” said Jack Smith, who lives along Cozza Drive. “If they had a cop up here, they could catch them all in one day and the word would go out. It will just keep going on forever otherwise.”

City Traffic Engineer Bruce Steele, who has attended neighborhood meetings on the issue, will start forwarding letters he sends to the trucking companies to the police. He’s also asking residents to call his office every few days with the truck names so he can contact truckers sooner.

“The letters can go out the same day,” Steele said. “That way it’s fresher in the dispatchers minds and they can do something about it.”