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More than 500 New York's "I Love NY" tourist signs may remain – for the moment – under an agreement with the federal government, which required their revocation before September 30, announced Friday State officials.
The deal means the state will not lose $ 14 million in highway financing, the Federal Highway Administration said in a statement.
In the coming months, New York will present its plan for a new tourism campaign including applications.
"We have reached an agreement to launch an innovative experimental project that will allow tourism signage to highlight cultural, historical and other important sites of the state," said Transport Department Commissioner Paul Karas. , and the director of the Thruway Authority, Matthew Driscoll. declaration.
Confirming that the state and the federal government were "on the road to resolving this case, the statement from the Federal Highway Administration added," On the basis of NYSDOT's written pledge to comply, the FHWA puts an end to the initial sanction and restores the funds for the 2018 financial year ".
The Cuomo administration set up the panels in 2013 to increase tourism, saying that they offered useful information and that they did not cause accidents.
However, the federal government has stated that they have violated laws restricting road signage to navigation aids and preventing them from being used as advertisements.
The battle around the big blue and white road signs, usually appearing in groups of five on national highways – a so-called motherboard, followed by four successive beacons – erupted after the Federal Highway Administration rejected the demand for the state to install them. .
However, the Cuomo administration has continued the program as part of the 2016 summer tourism campaign, by installing 514 statewide flagships at a cost of 8.1 millions of dollars.
On Long Island, 144 "I Love NY" signs have been installed on Meadowbrook, Wantagh and Northern State Parkways, Long Island Expressway, Jones Beach and Long Island MacArthur Airport.
Some of the posters, placed in the streets of Montauk, Port Jefferson and the East, were removed after residents and local officials complained of their ugliness and their alteration of the landscape aesthetic .
In February, Brandye Hendrickson, acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, told state officials that they would retain about $ 14 million out of the $ 1 billion that the agency pays to the state each year. improving highways and bridges.
Details of the upcoming campaign were rare.
"As the" I love New York "," Taste of New York, "and" Pathways through History "signage campaigns have been underway for about five years, the state will develop a new advertising campaign that will be featured in various media as well. that easy-to-download applications that will coordinate with road signs, "said the two officials in their statement, adding that the program would include regional motherboards.
Tourism is a $ 100 billion industry, which generates about a million jobs, they said. "Once we have more details on this new effort, we will coordinate our efforts with our federal counterparts and announce the campaign as soon as it is over."
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