The village had closed off the Linden Avenue extension near the village garage which connected with Route 28 and forced all traffic to access businesses, the high school, county and village garage and residences all from Walnut Street.

Mayor Carol Waller was on the street to see how things went and said that it was "very congested," but that prohibiting parking on both sides of the roadway made a big difference.

"I'm hoping this brings everyone back to the table," she said, echoing the sentiment she expressed this summer when she proposed closing the extension.

Also on hand to witness the flow of traffic was Town of Otesgo Supervisor Bill Gates, who agreed that traffic was congested, but added that "there are things that can be done."

Now that the impact of closing the extension can be clearly seen by all, the stakeholders in the no-man's land where the roadway once ran will be invited by the mayor to return to the table to rekindle negotiation which had hit a dead-end earlier this year.

Waller said the village is moving ahead with a survey of the area so "we'll know exactly who owns what."

"Let's stop screwing around on this," said Gates. "The county should show some leadership on this."

He added that in terms of building a road, the town could cooperate in seeking state funding to pay for the project.

Village officials weren't the only ones keenly interested in the traffic. Linden Avenue residents Peg Tourella and Celia Lamb were there to explain to officials that the traffic congestion has much more of an impact on them than those people and students inconvenienced by a longer wait to negotiate their way to and from school each day. "We're all retired people," Tourella said of her neighborhood. "At our age this affects the quality of our life."

She said they moved to Linden Avenue in 1999 and at that time part of the traffic from the school, village and county garages, and businesses went out the extension to get to Route 28.

"All of a sudden, everybody is coming this way, creating a situation that's unbelievable," she said.

Lamb has lived on the street for 42 years and said that this was the first year she said, "I hate it."

"It's a fight to get to Main Street. The village has a problem - a serious problem with traffic," she said.

When she and her family moved to their home there was a small county highway garage, Calhoun's welding shop and the street was a dead-end. "Gradually they've pushed more and more down here," she said. "I don't understand how the village got down here."

Lamb's son Dave has been driving school bus for 12 years and said traffic was worse Wednesday morning, but added that "everyone brings their kids on the first day of school."

He said and his bus full of students had an almost 3- to 4-minute wait for traffic to clear at the intersection of Linden and Walnut.

School superintendent Mary Jo McPhail said the buses were a little late this morning, but that was not too unusual for the first day of school.

She was also out assessing traffic into the campus and on Linden Avenue. The blockage that was created along Linden Avenue hadn't happened to that degree previously and she was expecting things to be worse in the afternoon.

McPhail explained that in the morning, everyone is headed to the school, but in the afternoon there are parents coming to pick up students, buses traveling between the elementary and high schools and students who drive leaving the campus. She said she'll be back out there this afternoon to again monitor the traffic.

"The school district," she said, "remains committed to working together to bring about a resolution."