Community speaks out on railroad quiet-zone options

By MATTHEW REZAB
m.rezab@beeherald.com

Passions ran high at the Jefferson city council meeting on Tuesday where about 10 residents voiced their opinions about what should be done to curb locomotive horn noise throughout town.

Gabriel Nelson, an engineer at Snyder and Associates, presented the council with options ranging in cost from $100,000 to $2.4 million to make Jefferson a quieter town.

The crossings in question include North Grimmell Road, North Maple Street, North Wilson Avenue and North Cedar Street. The crossing at North Pinet Street was closed two years ago.

“Back when we were working on the overpass in November of 2012, we were looking at the potential of having a quiet zone in town,” Nelson said. “A quiet zone is essentially when you’ve done enough improvements to the crossings to make the risk of accidents less than when the trains blow their horns.”

By federal law, each crossing over at least a half-mile stretch is required to be “protected” before a quiet zone can be instituted. “Protection” can include: gates with lights and bells that cross all lanes of traffic; gates that cross directional traffic with a median making it impossible to drive around the gates or wayside horns that direct sound toward traffic when a train is nearby.

“The Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration recommend that if traffic at the crossing is less than 1,000 vehicles a day and traffic would be diverted less than a quarter-mile away they recommend closure,” Nelson said.

By federal law, an engineer is required to blow the whistle beginning 15 seconds before reaching a crossing. He or she must give two long blows, a short, then another long blow all the way through the crossing.

If a quiet zone is instituted the engineer is allowed to blow the whistle anytime he or she deems it necessary.

Nelson presented multiple options to limit the noise, including the closure of Maple and Wilson.

Most community members at the meeting pushed back against closing any crossings.

Cindy Tapper said she worries about how closing Wilson would affect her business.

“I have a beauty shop on North Vine Street,” Tapper said. “I’m on Highway 4. When the overpass went in I lost my parking. I have many clients that travel Wilson to come into the back to get to our business. I have a hard time thinking that they would close Wilson.”

The railroad and state would pay about $23,000 to the city to close a crossing. The cost to the city is estimated to be around $14,000. Installing a concrete median is estimated to cost $65,000.

The idea of using wayside horns resonated with residents and council members. Wayside horns are the cheapest option on the table, costing about $25,000 for each crossing.

“Wayside horns don’t effect the town as a whole as much because it’s directing the sound where you want it. It has a much smaller sphere of influence. It’s much quieter in the community as a whole.

2012, medians at Grimmell and Cedar. Potential of closing Maple and Wilson.

“Wayside horns don’t effect the town as a whole as much because it’s directing the sound where you want it,” Nelson said. “It has a much smaller sphere of influence. It’s much quieter in the community as a whole.”

Councilwoman Lisa Jaskey said the $600,000 price tag for gates crossing all lanes was too expensive in her opinion. She said she’s leaning toward the wayside horn option.

“Listening to the comments it seems like the directional horns may be the best compromise for a reasonable cost,” Jaskey said.

Councilman Dave Sloan agreed with Jaskey, but warned there would still be noise.

“None of us want to close crossing. Those directional horns, you’re still going to hear it,” Sloan said. “It’ll be better but you’ll still hear it.”

Adrienne Smith, who lives on North Olive Street, said the problem has gotten worse in the 32 years she’s lived near the tracks.

“We can’t even have company out on our deck,” she said. “When we moved there 30 years ago there weren’t as many trains. We have to stop our conversation until the train goes through. Your blood pressure goes up and you get mad. It’s just non-stop.”

Susan Timmerman said this is a quality-of-life issue and wouldn’t mind crossings being closed.

“It disturbs us,” she said. “It disturbs our sleep, our dinners and guests that stay in our house. I understand that people don’t want roads closed, but if you lived there I think you’d have a change of heart.”

Councilman Larry Teeples said the council will take all the comments and information into consideration and make a recommendation and allow the public to have more input at that time.

In other business, the council unanimously approved the hiring of Michael Stofer, 26, of West Des Moines as a patrol officer in Jefferson. Stofer is a graduate of Northwestern College in Orange City and the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy.