Residents have a friend in Rus Thompson, whose website calls for an end to tolls on the island.

Thank you, I guess I do have one or two friends in all this.

Residents Outraged at Grand Island Tolls

New plans to raise tolls along the thruway drew an angry crowd in Grand Island last night.

News 4’s Melissa Holmes reports.

The thruway says it has a growing budget gap, but Grand Island residents say they don’t want to be the ones who pay to close it. It’s a solution you might find hard to swallow.

The thruway authority says tolls should go up because fewer people are using the thruway. Lower ridership means a budget deficit which could only be made up by more drivers or higher tolls. People on Grand Island want no part of that.

In fact, they want the tolls on the bridges to and from the island eliminated altogether.

Many of them attended a meeting last night with elected officials and thruway leaders. Residents have a friend in Rus Thompson, whose website calls for an end to tolls on the island.

He has more than 64-hundred signatures on his petition. Thompson feels the thruway spends too much, wastefully.

Thompson: “The salaries alone would give you pause, the management salaries over $100,000 a year, free EZ-pass after 5 years, the benefit package, the sick days, the holidays, the vacation.”

In the wake of the Minneapolis Bridge disaster, thruway officials last night also discussed the condition of the Grand Island bridges. Future projects include redecking the northbound south bridge, and making repairs to the substructure of both south bridges.