Salem explores possible quiet railroad crossings

By Gail Peckler-Dziki

Correspondent

Several years ago, Silver Lake residents and Salem residents began looking into quiet railroad crossings. It appeared from preliminary information that the process may be extremely costly.

Town administrator Pat Casey gave the town board an update on the issue at the Dec. 15 Committee of the whole.

In preliminary discussions with Kenosha County, Casey was told that the county would be happy to let Salem pay for the changes to the crossings – which will federal safety standards ­– which could run $400,000 each.

That would be six crossings in the town – one at Highway JF, Highway C; 256th and 264th streets; Camp Lake Road and 76th street in Shorewood. Casey said that in order for quiet zones to be effective, most would have to be done.

Specifically, Casey talked about special assessments for railroad crossing updates. The assessment could apply to all landowners with property 1,000 feet or a quarter mile from the crossing.

Over the years, whistle rules have changed and the number of trains traveling though the area has increased. According to town supervisor Dennis Faber, the number of trains each week was at about 25.

Now, there are about 27 – per day.

Casey concluded that the need now was to get through the road paving and then look at quiet crossings again, stating that the special assessment was an option.

Salem isn’t the only area community dealing with quiet zones. In 2013, the City of Burlington temporarily lost its quiet zone because of a mistake in paperwork. The city regained the exemption about three months later after making needed modifications on the fly to meet federal safety standards.

 

Fire impact fees may be resurrected

Shortly before the national economy went south, taking various state economies with it, the town was considering impact fees for fire service. Currently, the only impact fee the town places on new construction is for parks and those fees are on residential only. That includes parcels of property for parks in neighborhoods.

As the economy begins to pick up, especially in Wisconsin, Casey said there is renewed interest in fire impact fees. Businesses would be included in these impact fees.

In the past, town planner Pat Meehan had conducted a study regarding these fees and Casey will come back to the board at a later date with current information about fire fees in nearby areas.

 


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