Amazon Execs Respond To Milford Traffic Complaints

MILFORD, MA — Two Amazon executives came to the Milford Board of Selectmen meeting Monday night to discuss how to fix an ongoing traffic nightmare for residents and businesses near the company's warehouse off Birch Street.

In recent weeks, residents and town officials have lodged complaints about Amazon drivers clogging Route 109, I-495, and other local streets. Sometimes the vans overwhelm the Mobil gas station west of the I-495 ramps with some vehicles sticking out into the road and blocking traffic, residents say.

"[The vans] caravan like a funeral procession disregarding traffic signals and traffic laws," Board of Selectmen Chair William Buckley told the Amazon representatives.

Messina Street resident Pat Cerasuolo told the Selectmen that semitrailers wake him and his family up at night, on top of clogged streets. He called the situation "a nightmare."

Amazon Senior Operations Manager Matt Fein, who is based in Columbus, Ohio, and U.S. Public Policy Manager Jeff Cleland, who is based in Washington, D.C., came to the meeting along with local Amazon attorney Michael Giamo.

"Your constituents are our customers," Cleland told the board. "We are interested in solving these issues."

Buckley asked the Amazon executives for an action plan to be delivered within 48 hours that would detail how the company would solve the problems. He also asked Amazon to provide phone numbers and email addresses to residents who have complaints, and the same for town officials like the fire chief and police chief.

If Amazon doesn't respond, Buckley said "the town has the means to take appropriate action."

This isn't the first time Amazon has attracted negative attention in Milford. In April, nine businesses along Industrial Road and Commercial Way signed a petition asking the Planning Board to close one of Amazon's exits on the road. Amazon was able to quell those concerns.

Cleland said that Amazon would talk to the drivers within 48 hours about the complaints made about them. Amazon employs its own drivers operating out of the Milford facility, but also uses contract drivers to deliver packages across the region.

"We don't want to be seen as the enemy of a town," Cleland told the Selectmen.