At Framingham hearing, residents plead against toll hikes

Despite the cold, icy weather, Framingham's Memorial Building was full Wednesday night with residents and politicians concerned about proposed toll increases for the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Although the audience section was packed, the table at the front of the room was not. Of the six seats arranged for Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board members, only three were occupied when executive director Alan LeBovidge called the hearing to order at 6:30 p.m.

The other members of the board, he explained, were stuck in traffic.

It was a fitting start to a hearing at which speakers lined up to oppose a proposal to boost fees at the Weston and Allston-Brighton tolls from $1.25 to $2, and double the fees at the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels.

The Turnpike Authority has said the increases could add up to $100 million to its revenue stream.

The hearing was the third of four scheduled throughout the Boston area and began just hours after Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino testified against the toll increases in a legislative hearing at the State House. The fourth hearing will take place on Jan. 7 at Worcester City Hall.

An estimated 150 people turned out in Framingham, where there were calls for a united front to fight the increases.

"There's nothing we can do as one. There's something we can do together," Jason Smith, chairman of the Framingham Board of Selectmen, said before a small crowd that rallied on the Memorial Building steps before the hearing. "We're ready to stop being this state's ATM," he called out to the bipartisan group of state lawmakers and area residents.

Also at the rally were members of an activist group, Stop the Pike, who earlier in the week protested the increases by paying their toll fees in pennies.

There was one speaker at the rally who needed no introduction. Mary Connaughton of Framingham, the sole member of the Turnpike Authority board who did not take part in the initial vote to recommend the toll increase, took to the steps amid cheers and applause.

Connaughton called for a statewide effort to oppose the increases. "If we just keep this a regional issue, it's not going to go anywhere," she said. "The time to correct this is now."

The calls to action continued inside the hall once the hearing began.

"Are you listening," David Hutchinson of Framingham asked the board as he looked out at the audience. Many members wore homemade "Stop the Pike" T-shirts. "That is the key," he continued. "We want action."

"I have two questions: why and how," said Michael Kelleher of East Boston and founder of Stop the Pike. "Why are we here and what do we have to say to take this off the table?"

Legislator after legislator pleaded with the board to reconsider the increases. "This would mean more than a 100-percent toll increase in the span of one year. That is too much for my constituents and the people of MetroWest to bear," said David Linsky, a state representative from Natick who has filed a bill to eliminate turnpike tolls altogether.

Tom Sannicandro, a state representative of Ashland and Framingham, said the toll increases would leave commuters from the area west of Boston footing the bill for the Big Dig. "We would be paying for something we're not even using," he said.

And from state Senator Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican whose district extends into Middlesex County, came a plea for responsibility: "Please, devise a comprehensive solution that the nation will follow in trying to solve our transportation problems."