Diane Valden reports for the Columbia Paper that the state of New York is shifting the costs of exploring speed limit reductions to towns and villages. Department of Transportation Analyst Gayle Sudder sent a letter to Columbia County Department of Public Works Engineering Division Director Dean Knox that said municipalities that want to lower speed limits, “shall provide the NYSDOT with the necessary study data, using standard NYSDOT methodology." Copake Supervisor Jeff Nayer said that means costs for towns and villages. “It’s going to cost us thousands of dollars to really look at it” every time the town asks for a speed limit reduction. “We’ll have to provide information about accidents… it’s going to become a costly thing and they’re making us pay for it.” Knox said that changes the way the “state has been doing [things] for the past 50 or 60 years.” But Assemblyperson Chris Tague, who represents Greene County and a small part of Columbia County, says the new policy will only affect projects where municipalities wanted rushed results. Tague reportedly told Columbia County Public Works Committee Chairperson and Stuyvesant supervisor Ron Knott that, “The letter should not have gone out.... The state will continue to do the traffic studies, but there will be a six-to-nine-month lag for a response.” Read more about this story in the Columbia Paper.