WHAT PRICE WILL LAGRANGE PAY FOR SILENCE

At the July 6, 2009 LaGrange City Council meeting, the hot topic was the "quiet zones" in the city. At the present time the CSX trains that pass through the city do not blow their whistles However, all of that could change on June3, 2010 unless the city meets certain requirements set forth by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). There are as many as thirty-five trains that go through the city each day.

At issue at the present time is the zone that is in the area between Walnut Street and Second Street. This issue has been in progress since 2003 and many people thought that it had already been resolved. However, according to Councilwoman Melanie Woosley, the issue is anything but resolved. Sinced being assigned to chair the committee charged with making recommendations to the other Council members about the issue, Councilwoman Woosley has met with representatives of the FRA.

Woosley reported that the FRA stated that in order to keep the "quiet zone", which is now in jeopardy, the city has two choices. The first involves placing medians on First Street, both on the north and south side of the tracks, to prevent vehicles from attempting to go around the crossing gates when they are down. Additionally, the city must close Second Street at the tracks. The second option would also require the medians but instead of closing Second Street the city would have to pay to have crossing gates installed and make Second Street one way. The problem with the second option is that the gates would have to be installed by June 3, 2010 and CSX has said that it will take eighteen months to install the crossing gates which would put the city beyond the June 3, 2009 deadline. The FRA has recommended that the city install the medians on First Street and close Second Street.

On Monday night the Council unanimously passed a resolution requiring that the medians be installed and that Second Street be closed by November 1, 2009. However, there is a lot of concern among some members and many of the people in attendance about the impact that closing Second Street will have on traffic in a city that already has severe traffic problems.

Mayor Carter continues to believe that there may be a possibility of getting the crossing gates installed on Second Street before the June 2010 deadline.

There was some discussion about why the crossing gates had not already been installed and Tom Cox, a local realtor with an office in LaGrange, placed the blame on Mayor Carter. The Mayor denied that she was to blame and stated that the city had been in compliance but due to the manner that some traffic accidents had been reported the city had gone out of compliance. The finger pointing soon ended as everyone agreed that the important issue now is the salvation of the quiet zone at any cost.

The next deadline on the issue will be November 1, 2009 when Second Street is slated to be closed. However, according to the City Attorney, Graham Whatley, the closing must be done by ordinance rather than by resolution. The purpose of passing the resolution now instead of an ordinace was the fact that a resolution was needed to demonstrate to the FRA that the City was doing something. An ordinance would have required two readings which precluded the immediate passage of an ordinance.