by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council had a lengthy conversation Tuesday evening about quiet zones for railroads and the amount of time Burlington Northern-Santa Fe trains sit on the tracks within the city limits.

In what resulted in a 30 minute discussion, the council didn’t resolve the matter. Council member John Brand did make a commitment and that was to make a commitment soon – just not right now.

“This is the third council group I’ve been on where this issue has been discussed and nothing gets done,” Brand said. “It’s time to come up with a decision one way or the other.”

Wellington citizen Fred Hinman approached the council asking that his neighborhood be designated a “quiet zone.” What does that mean? It is a place in which the train engineers would be restricted from blaring whistles when they come to a “quiet zone” intersection. 

“I’m not sure what the statistics are but maybe 80 trains pass through Wellington a day and there are about 10 million whistles,” Hinman said sarcastically. “It’s a quality of life issue. You can’t open your windows at night because of the whistle. It is nearly impossible to have a conversation.”

What Hinman is proposing is issuing quiet zones. That would be to instill 100-feet concrete barriers that would sit in the middle of the roadways such as at Washington Street on the north and south side of the tracks that would make it impossible for motorists to pass over the tracks once the signal crossing comes down.

That could cost the city about $150,000 for these barriers that look much like what you see on the turnpike that separate the two lanes of traffic.

Wellington has five intersections that motorists and pedestrians cross over the tracks: C, Washington, Jefferson, G and H Streets. That means the train blares five times en route to the BNSF train station on the east side inside the city limits.

But if the neighbors are successful with designated quiet zones, the trains would be prohibited of blowing the horn in those designated areas.

This won’t be an easy proposition. Quiet zones not only need to get the approval of the Wellington City Council, but get the approval of the Federal Railroad Administration.

Train horns are required by federal law to be sounded at all public crossings 24 hours a day to warn motorists and pedestrians that a train is approaching. Train crews may also sound their horns when there is a vehicle, person or animal on the tracks within 25 feet.

But quiet zones weren’t the only thing on the council members’ minds when it came to the railroad on Tuesday. So was the lengthy waits for the train.

As was mentioned in a meeting a month earlier, there was concern by the length of time a train can sit on the track during a layover and if the city should enforce it. Much of this was rehash from a previous meeting (see here). By law, the railroad can’t block a driveway for more than 10 minutes. Sometimes, though, a train will sit parked for more than 45 minutes.

There was debate how the city can enforce it. By law the city can issue tickets ranging from $50 to more depending on the length of time a train sits blocking an intersection. But there was disagreement over whether the city should enforce those rules by giving railroad tickets, or let it go knowing the railroad is an important industry to Wellington and it doesn’t behoove the city government to create an adversarial relationship with the BNSF Corporation.

Council member Vince Wetta, who advocated stricter enforcement of train parking in Wellington, even admitted to being conflicted.

“We don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to the railroad,” Wetta said.

Hinman said the city needs to decide what steps to take, either just tackling one issue at a time or going for broke and addressing everything the BNSF is doing wrong.

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In other business, the council approved the purchase of a Bobcat E-25 Compact Excavator from White Star of Wichita for about $75,000.  The council rejected the five-year term to pay for the Bobcat, in order to solicit three-year terms at a reduced rate.

The council also approved the implementation of the landfill coupon program for a second time.

The council went into executive session for 30 minutes to discuss trade secrets.