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Packed house at railroad crossing closing hearing

16 April 2008 –
By Jon Therrien
NL Staff Writer
Members of the Princeton Town Board held a public hearing Monday concerning the railroad crossings on Center and Barden Streets.

Princeton Mayor Donald Rains opened the meeting by stating that no vote will be held during the meeting.

Mayor Rains also noted that a meeting would be held in May in which the town board will take advantage of the state funding available for the railroad crossing on Center Street and to discuss the results of temporarily closing Barden Street.

During the meeting, Mayor Rains clarified that Barden Street is presently closed for the purposes of studying how the traffic pattern will change if Barden Street is closed.

Mayor Rains briefly described the options the town could take in regards to the railroad crossings; however, only two of those options were discussed during the meeting.

The first option that was discussed was the option of closing the Barden Street crossing permanently.

The second option discussed was closing of the Center Street crossing.

Discussion was held concerning closing Center Street.
Craig Casey of Princeton said there are several businesses downtown that would be hurt if they closed Center Street.
Mayor Rains agreed, saying, “If we don’t have commerce, we don’t have much of a town.”

Mayor Rains noted that the North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) will fund 90 percent of the gating of Center Street through a grant, however the Town of Princeton must provide 10 percent of the funds for the project.

He also noted that a decision about whether the town will take advantage of the grant must be made no later than May 9.
As a result, the Mayor tabled the discussion of the Center Street crossing.

Some of the viewpoints represented during the meeting included Jahmal Pullen, a representative of the DOT; W. L. Barringer Jr., the Director Grade Crossing Safety, a Norfolk Southern Corporation; Danny Gilbert of Rail Safety Consultant of Roanoke; Princeton Fire Chief Ken Starling; Rescue Chief Eddie Haddock; members of the town board and members of the community.

Mr. Pullen noted that the federal program that will provide the grant for the gating only comes into effect “if there is a closure.”
According to Mr. Pullen, 400 crossings in North Carolina are put on a list of crossings to consider gating.

He added that the list of 400 is later “whittled down” to 100 crossings.

Mr. Pullen explained that once the crossings make the list of 100 crossings, and then the DOT considers the economic benefits the DOT could have of gating the crossings.

Chief Starling noted that closing Barden Street would add an average of two minutes to the fire department’s response time.
Starling said, “We always operate on a backup plan. We don’t just have a plan B.”

He recommended that Barden Street remain open.
Chief Starling also presented a petition he had from citizens in the area insisting Barden Street remains open.

About closing Barden Street, Chief Haddock said, “I hope the town forefathers have the foresight to see this is a bad move.”
Phillip Edwards, who owns Princeton Tire, said he was really thankful for the fire department because they put out a fire he had at his store.

He added, “Two minutes would have made a lot of difference.”
Ronald Rawlings, who owns property in Princeton, said he was in favor of closing Barden Street because it would allow the town to have money available to fix a drainage problem he has had on his property for over 40 years.

Mr. Rawlings noted that there should have been a petition against moving the fire department across the railroad tracks.

Mayor Rains said his main objective is the two safety issues of response time and the crossings not being safe.

He added that the town has to come up with $20,000 to put a gate on Center Street and the town has to know where they will get that money.

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