ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / October 28, 2000

RESERVE – People living on West Eighth Street in Reserve don’t seem too concerned with the closing of the crossing at the Kansas City railroad tracks.

Earlier this week the St. John the Baptist Parish Council votedunanimously to close the crossing in the interest of public safety. Thevote went without incident or without any comments from the public.

This was quite a change from last year when the council tried to close the crossing at Cardinal Street in LaPlace. That meeting was punctuated by acrowd of angry and noisy residents who didn’t want to see one of the only connections they had with Airline Highway closed to them.

The council backed down and had the barriers on Cardinal Street torn down.

For the past year the parish council has been trying to figure out a way to make it safer for trains and cars to co-exist within parish boundaries.

The state of Louisiana has one of the highest rates of train/auto wrecks in the country, and St. John Parish has one of the highest rates in thestate. Three days before the council meeting a delivery truck ignored thewarning signals at the railroad crossing on Hemlock Street and was hit by a Kansas City Southern train. The driver was injured and his truck was atotal loss.

“This is a safety issue,” said councilman Cleveland Farlough, “and we want to show the public that something is being done about it.”Ever since 1997 Bertram Madere, director of Public Safety, and a special ad hoc committee have been trying to draw up a plan that would make it safer and easier to get over railroad crossings in the parish.

Closing of the West Eighth Street crossing is just the first step in the process. Madere and the council sees West Eighth as a start in a longseries of closings in order to make the parish safer.

The state of Louisiana has also stepped up to the plate to help the parish.

For every crossing that the parish closes the state will pay to have the subsequent crossing upgraded with all the bells, lights and gates.

As an example, now that West Eighth crossing will be closed, the state will upgrade the crossing at West Sixth Street and Cop Drive. Besidesjust a stop sign, West Sixth Street will also have a gate, with lights and a bell.

This will save the parish considerable money. Crossing gates with all thesignals cost about $100,000.

“We just don’t have the money to upgrade all the crossings,” said Madere, “and we need to keep the people’s safety in mind.”Not only will the state upgrade certain railroad crossings, but it is also offering to help build a road that runs parallel to the railroad tracks starting at West First Street on the north side and running it all the way to West 10th Street.

The state is also looking at the possibility of building another highway near the north west streets connecting them to Airline Highway.

The closing of the West Eighth Street crossing doesn’t seem to bother any of the residents in the area.

In fact, some of the residents don’t understand why West Eighth Street is being closed. Even though the parish wants to make things safe, WestEighth Street is not that dangerous, according to some Reserve residents.

Hazel Jacobs has lived in a house at the intersection of the tracks and West Eighth Street for 49 years.

“I have never seen a wreck on those tracks,” said Jacobs.

Warren Bourgeois who has lived on West Eighth Street for over 30 years said the same thing.

“There hasn’t been one wreck,” said Bourgeois. “However, I did see one onthe West Sixth Street crossing a couple of years ago.”A big safety concern is that West Eighth Street ends right at the front gate of Riverside Academy. When school lets out, buses and cars race overthe tracks and down West Eighth Street.

Bourgeois is worried the heavy buses coming down the street are slowly deteriorating the street. He said that bits of asphalt and roadway arebeing knocked off into the drainage canal that runs down the middle of West Eighth Street.

“Closing the crossing won’t affect me at all,” said Bourgeois. “It will cutdown on traffic around here.”Further down the street, Sidney Donaldson is trimming the giant oak tree in his front yard. Like Jacobs and Bourgeois, he has never seen a wreck atthe crossing, but he still wants it closed.

“I’ll be glad when they close it,” said Donaldson, “because of all the traffic.”Donaldson is more worried with the parish’s new drainage project. Hedoesn’t want them to put drainage pipes in the ditch and cover it up. Hesaid that will do more damage to his home than closing the railroad crossing.

Jacobs ran her broom along the sidewalk in front of her house. “It don’tmake no difference to me,” said Jacob philosophically. “The train willstill pass by my house and make noise.”

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