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Highlands Today

Rumbling Trucks Rile Residents, Businesses In Avon Park

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: September 16, 2007

AVON PARK — Tom Macklin was cracking up over the truck traffic along Main Street, and his house on that street, according to him, was literally cracking up as well.

Although other neighbors disputed whether truck vibrations created the crack along his stoop and the foundation of his house, several of them also notice delivery trucks, haulers and full-size tractor trailers heading right into downtown Avon Park.

"We get semis coming through here," said another Main Street resident who did not wish to be identified.

As if on cue, a semi passed in front of his house, heading towards Memorial Drive. "You see that?" he said, wide-eyed.

Residents noticed this truck traffic despite an ordinance passed five years ago banning thru-trucks from using Main Street to get through the city. According to the ordinance, trucks weighing more than 3,000 pounds, unless they are conducting business within the city, can only travel through U.S. 27 or specific parts of nine other roads that are labeled as truck routes within the city.

Macklin and City Councilman George Hall said that several Main Street businesses complained to them about it as well. Hall added that he notices "a truck or two" every time he's downtown, usually during the peak business hours.

Avon Park Police Commander Michael Rowan said that several more tractor trailers must use the road to reach the site of a bank branch, currently under construction. However, the police officers usually stop at least four trucks a week violating the ordinance. Usually, officers follow the truck when it's in downtown to see if it makes any stops before they cite them.

"They're doing what they can," Rowan said. "If they see a truck that doesn't have any business on Main Street, they'll stop it."

Macklin thought it was "ludicrous" that trucks would be allowed to use Main Street to access a site along U.S. 27. He argued that there was no reason they couldn't use the truck route to circle around the city and reach U.S. 27 from Stryker Road.

SFCC student Johnathan Medina, who lives near the intersection with Memorial Drive, said he hears the semis and motorcycles zipping by all the time, interrupting his studying and sometimes waking him up at night.

"It's just annoying," said Medina, who lived in that house with his parents for more than three years. "They just drive by really, really loud."

For Macklin, it's more than a headache. At a City Hall meeting Monday, he blamed the vibrations from truck traffic on the cracks forming along his house. He said at one point he saw a dump truck making "at least nine or 10 round trips alone, hauling dirt east through town."

Neighbor Tom Wise, whose house is another 100 feet back from Main Street, also has hairline fractures through his walls and his driveway. He doesn't think his and Macklin's crack problems come from the truck traffic, but from a compactor used during construction at Avon Park more than 10 years ago.

The retired Air Force veteran was more concerned about the speeding.

"They do go too damn fast," Wise said. "They think they're in the country."

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