 As a result, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) no longer considered the highway worthy of inclusion in the state highway system and began to take steps to remove the highway from the system.On February 22, 1999, NYSDOT sent a memorandum to the New York State Senate that laid out the groundwork for a bill which, if passed, would allow NYSDOT to remove NY 971D from the state highway system once it was able to transfer ownership and maintenance of the highway to another entity.A bill based on the memo was introduced in the State Senate on March 29 and eventually passed by the Senate and the New York State Assembly.