Council works on railroad crossing closure compromise

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council talked about railroad crossings, right-of-ways and internet access during its workshop meeting on Wednesday, March 12.

Revisiting a proposal made last year by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railroad (CPKC) and the Iowa Department of Transportation, the council discussed the potential closing of the railroad crossing that connects Iowa and Lane streets to Shelby Street.

From the railroad’s viewpoint, the Shelby Street crossing is both a technical problem and a safety hazard. The way that particular crossing aligns with the railroad tracks makes upgrading the intersection’s signaling equipment to current standards unviable and the geography of the crossing limits visibility for low profile vehicles.

“It’s just not an ideal situation for a crossing,” said Canadian Pacific’s Andy Cummings.

Unable to upgrade the safety signals at the crossing to current requirement, the railroad and DOT consider closing the crossing entirely as the safest option and are offering the city a total of $250,000 in incentives to close both the Shelby Street Crossing and the nearby Brackett Street crossing.

Closing both crossings would close Shelby Street east of Fisher Street and dead-end Brackett Street where it connects to Iowa Street.

Unfortunately, in between those two spots is T&C Machine, which depends on the Shelby Street crossing for access.

“There’s literally no way that this is not going to impact my business,” said owner Chuck Knecht at the meeting.

While alternate routes may be viable, if inconvenient, for regular vehicle traffic, large trucks would face considerable problems with the grading of the roads and turning radiuses at the intersections needed to get to Knecht’s shop.

Unable to find a solution that would allow for an alternate route into Knecht’s shop without the Shelby Street Crossing, discussion turned to options for keeping the crossing open, such as taking out the signaling system at the crossing and replacing it with stop signs.

However, this option was not well-received by the railroad representatives at the meeting, who emphasized their priority of safety.

“I’ve never decreased protections at a crossing,” said CPKC projects manager Kyle Spree.

Further complicating the matter is that the situation at the Shelby Street crossing needs to be resolved before signaling upgrades at the North Grand Avenue crossing due to how the connectivity of the signaling systems work.

Another idea brought forward was to give Knecht the entire intersection, essentially turning it into a private driveway that could be gated off from regular traffic but still usable for Knecht’s business.

The council asked the involved parties to come back to a future meeting after more information and feedback have been collected.

Addressing another multi-faceted problem, the council spoke with Joe Hull, the owner of Hot Shots, about a proposal to purchase city right-of-way along his building, which he would use for a storage attachment and an outdoor patio.

“Basically, I’ve got a shortage of space over there,” said Hull.

Hull explained that the recent remodeling of the Hot Shots’ kitchen has left him with reduced storage space, but the topography of the area around the building doesn’t leave him many options to expand.

His idea is to purchase the right-of-way between his building and the sidewalk, use it for an attached storage room and fenced off patio area.

Historically, the city has not relinquished such right-of-ways, but the council did brainstorm ideas that could help Hull without violating rules and regulations of flood plains and fire codes.

“I don’t think we want to go against the rules, but I think we need to try and find a solution for him,” said Mayor Dean Andrews.

In other business, the city is looking to upgrade internet service to the water treatment plant. The plant uses the internet for more than regular connection for business and phones. The controls and monitoring systems for the plant itself require high bandwidth for both upload and download speeds and stability that the city’s current service provider is not able to provide.

“We really need to try and get some better internet service out there,” said City Administrator Steve Diers. “We need a good, long-term, consistent option.”

To that end, OmniTel has provided the city with a series of options for bringing a fiber line from its infrastructure on North Grand Avenue three blocks to the west to get to the plant.

Of the options provided, each presenting a combination of upfront payments and monthly rates, Diers recommended paying the most cost effective option of a $15,000 upfront fee for the build and a $150 standard monthly charge for the service in an open-ended contract.