By JAMES FINK
Business First

Sorrento Lactalis has won a temporary stay against the City of Lackawanna that prevents the municipality from ticketing the Buffalo cheese-maker's trucks as they pass through the city.

State Supreme Court Judge Hon. Diane Devlin ordered the stay late Monday, but Lackawanna Mayor Norman Polanski said he expects to appeal the ruling.

At issue is a decision the Lackawanna City Council made in March to ban any truck weighing five tons or more from using either South Park Avenue or Ridge Road unless they were making a local delivery to a Lackawanna business or residence.

Sorrento is located in South Buffalo near the Lackawanna-Buffalo municipal line. The company's trucks frequently use either Ridge Road or South Park Avenue to get to its South Park Avenue plant.

Polanski said the ticketing of trucks is not directed at Sorrento, but at any heavy-duty vehicle that uses either street.

"We have the right to set limits for our own roads," the mayor said. "We aren't targeting Sorrento, but our goal is (to) stop all truck traffic along South Park and Ridge. We aren't giving breaks to anyone."

Polanski admitted that Lackawanna officials are irked that a request for $34 million in federal stimulus funds for repairs to both roads has been rejected by state representatives. The five-ton limit, he said, was not retribution for the that.

However, William Senay, Sorrento plant manager, disputes that claim.

"The mayor and city officials have acknowledged that their actions are not against Sorrento, but are politically motivated and in response to being unable to secure funding from various government agencies for road and bridge needs," he said in a prepared statement.

Senay said Sorrento trucks have used Ridge and South Park for more than 40 years with little to no concern raised by Lackawanna until now.

"Many of our employees are Lackawanna residents, and these illegal actions may impact their livelihoods as well as those of hundreds of employees at our facility in the long term," the statement continued. "The abrupt nature of imposing an ordinance that severely restricts access to these roads not only negatively impacts our operations, but also imposes hardships in neighborhoods where our trucks are now being re-routed."