City Council Discusses RR Crossings, Outdoor Dining
May 16, 2017 at 6:30 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Mayor Joe Thallemer said a group of railroad employees with Norfolk Southern are coming through Warsaw this week to replace railroad ties and resurface the crossings.
“We were notified a few weeks ago without dates,”?he said, but then received dates on Thursday.
The crossing at Dogwood Drive will be affected Wednesday. Thallemer said he did talk about Dogwood with the railroad as it is a one-way in and one-way out and residents are concerned about any emergencies.
“The railroad assured me they will have a truck with gravel down there. If a fire truck or an emergency truck needed to get across, they will be able to do that. They are fully aware of those concerns and are going to work quick,” he said.
On Thursday, Pope Street and Winona Avenue will be fixed.
Thallemer said he spoke with Street Superintendent Jeff Beeler about those two crossings and it will create “quite a bottleneck if those are closed simultaneously.”
He said he didn’t know how the railroad was going to work on those crossings at the same time or separately. Beeler did call his Norfolk contact and asked they get things done where they could alternate Pope, Winona, Fort Wayne and Arthur streets to keep those crossings in the same area spread out to avoid bottleneck traffic. The schedule was still the same as of Monday’s council meeting, with Fort Wayne and Arthur streets being worked on next Monday.
“(Beeler) did say the railroad indicated east/west trains will not be allowed to run during that,” Thallemer said, but wasn’t sure how that affected the north/south crossings.
Then he said he did have a visit this last from CF&E, the east/west railroad.
“We had a chance to go through and look at the overpasses and crossings in the community,” Thallemer said.
CF&E brought three engineers with them and a director of operations. He said it was a pretty good meeting, and Councilman Ron Shoemaker also was a part of those discussions. They met for about an hour and then went out to all the railroad crossings. CF&E identified some crossings they’re going to get repaired yet this year, some next year and at least one they recommended the city partner with them on.
“And with regards to the overpasses, they seemed to be in decent shape. There are some repairs that are going to have to be done at Argonne Road, and those repairs will be this year,” Thallemer said.
Any cosmetic work to those crossings, such as signs, will be public projects that Warsaw and Winona Lake would have to work together on with CF&E’s engineers at the city’s and town’s expense.
Shoemaker said he was “very encouraged” that they were interested in Warsaw and fixing the crossings.
Thallemer said the city in August 2013 received about $1 million for crossing safety improvements for Pope Street, Winona Avenue and Market Street.
“They determined last year that they wanted to do the rest of the intersections up the way because those new signals communicate with each other and they didn’t want to have three new signals and the old signals, so they decided they’re going to do them all,” he said.
Norfolk Southern is bringing its group up to Warsaw this week with the Indiana Department of Transportation “and we’re going to hopefully look at getting those signal safety changes and improvements on those north/south crossings yet this summer,” Thallemer said.
He said it was frustrating that they’ve taken this long, but it’s not a project the city will spend any money on since it’s Norfolk and INDOT’s project.
Thallemer then moved on to the outdoor dining standards.
At the May 1 city council meeting, Thallemer and City Planner Jeremy Skinner rolled out the “Downtown Outdoor Dining Standards,” which were about 10 pages long. Monday, Skinner gave the council a slimmed-down version, which was about 1-1/2 pages.
“We tried to simplify it and boil it down. I think Jeremy listened to what you had asked last meeting,” Thallemer indicated.
Skinner said there were a couple of sections, on fencing and planters, that would still be added to before it went to the Board of Public Works and Safety but he wanted to give the council a preview of the standards.
Most of what was taken out of the standards was mostly “verbose,” Skinner said, which went into details about “things you don’t really need to get into details about.”
The new version also doesn’t go into great detail about what would be acceptable in terms of coloring or logos, though plastic furniture is still not permitted. City code already covers items like vulgarity and signs so that was taken out of the standards. State law covers smoking at restaurants, and the city doesn’t have any smoking laws, so that was taken out of the standards since state law has to be followed.
In other business, the council:
• Approved continuing tax abatements for Flexaust Company Inc. and R&B Investors with Wildman Business Group. Flexaust’s four abatements were first approved in 2006, two in 2011 and 2013. Wildman’s were first approved in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
• Approved a resolution expanding the Warsaw Central Developed Area as already approved by the Redevelopment Commission and Plan Commission. The plan now goes back to the Redevelopment Commission for confirmation.
• Had a moment of silence for Kosciusko County Council President Bob Sanders, 69, who died Sunday.
Thallemer said, “Bob certainly worked well with everyone. He was quite a leader at that level and we’ll certainly miss him.”
In the invocation, Councilwoman Diane Quance thanked the Lord for Sanders’ fine example as a leader.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said a group of railroad employees with Norfolk Southern are coming through Warsaw this week to replace railroad ties and resurface the crossings.
“We were notified a few weeks ago without dates,”?he said, but then received dates on Thursday.
The crossing at Dogwood Drive will be affected Wednesday. Thallemer said he did talk about Dogwood with the railroad as it is a one-way in and one-way out and residents are concerned about any emergencies.
“The railroad assured me they will have a truck with gravel down there. If a fire truck or an emergency truck needed to get across, they will be able to do that. They are fully aware of those concerns and are going to work quick,” he said.
On Thursday, Pope Street and Winona Avenue will be fixed.
Thallemer said he spoke with Street Superintendent Jeff Beeler about those two crossings and it will create “quite a bottleneck if those are closed simultaneously.”
He said he didn’t know how the railroad was going to work on those crossings at the same time or separately. Beeler did call his Norfolk contact and asked they get things done where they could alternate Pope, Winona, Fort Wayne and Arthur streets to keep those crossings in the same area spread out to avoid bottleneck traffic. The schedule was still the same as of Monday’s council meeting, with Fort Wayne and Arthur streets being worked on next Monday.
“(Beeler) did say the railroad indicated east/west trains will not be allowed to run during that,” Thallemer said, but wasn’t sure how that affected the north/south crossings.
Then he said he did have a visit this last from CF&E, the east/west railroad.
“We had a chance to go through and look at the overpasses and crossings in the community,” Thallemer said.
CF&E brought three engineers with them and a director of operations. He said it was a pretty good meeting, and Councilman Ron Shoemaker also was a part of those discussions. They met for about an hour and then went out to all the railroad crossings. CF&E identified some crossings they’re going to get repaired yet this year, some next year and at least one they recommended the city partner with them on.
“And with regards to the overpasses, they seemed to be in decent shape. There are some repairs that are going to have to be done at Argonne Road, and those repairs will be this year,” Thallemer said.
Any cosmetic work to those crossings, such as signs, will be public projects that Warsaw and Winona Lake would have to work together on with CF&E’s engineers at the city’s and town’s expense.
Shoemaker said he was “very encouraged” that they were interested in Warsaw and fixing the crossings.
Thallemer said the city in August 2013 received about $1 million for crossing safety improvements for Pope Street, Winona Avenue and Market Street.
“They determined last year that they wanted to do the rest of the intersections up the way because those new signals communicate with each other and they didn’t want to have three new signals and the old signals, so they decided they’re going to do them all,” he said.
Norfolk Southern is bringing its group up to Warsaw this week with the Indiana Department of Transportation “and we’re going to hopefully look at getting those signal safety changes and improvements on those north/south crossings yet this summer,” Thallemer said.
He said it was frustrating that they’ve taken this long, but it’s not a project the city will spend any money on since it’s Norfolk and INDOT’s project.
Thallemer then moved on to the outdoor dining standards.
At the May 1 city council meeting, Thallemer and City Planner Jeremy Skinner rolled out the “Downtown Outdoor Dining Standards,” which were about 10 pages long. Monday, Skinner gave the council a slimmed-down version, which was about 1-1/2 pages.
“We tried to simplify it and boil it down. I think Jeremy listened to what you had asked last meeting,” Thallemer indicated.
Skinner said there were a couple of sections, on fencing and planters, that would still be added to before it went to the Board of Public Works and Safety but he wanted to give the council a preview of the standards.
Most of what was taken out of the standards was mostly “verbose,” Skinner said, which went into details about “things you don’t really need to get into details about.”
The new version also doesn’t go into great detail about what would be acceptable in terms of coloring or logos, though plastic furniture is still not permitted. City code already covers items like vulgarity and signs so that was taken out of the standards. State law covers smoking at restaurants, and the city doesn’t have any smoking laws, so that was taken out of the standards since state law has to be followed.
In other business, the council:
• Approved continuing tax abatements for Flexaust Company Inc. and R&B Investors with Wildman Business Group. Flexaust’s four abatements were first approved in 2006, two in 2011 and 2013. Wildman’s were first approved in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
• Approved a resolution expanding the Warsaw Central Developed Area as already approved by the Redevelopment Commission and Plan Commission. The plan now goes back to the Redevelopment Commission for confirmation.
• Had a moment of silence for Kosciusko County Council President Bob Sanders, 69, who died Sunday.
Thallemer said, “Bob certainly worked well with everyone. He was quite a leader at that level and we’ll certainly miss him.”
In the invocation, Councilwoman Diane Quance thanked the Lord for Sanders’ fine example as a leader.
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