{"id":19689,"date":"2018-02-13T13:35:16","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T18:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=19689"},"modified":"2018-02-13T13:35:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T18:35:54","slug":"videos-resolutions-and-railroad-crossing-hahira-2018-01-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/videos-resolutions-and-railroad-crossing-hahira-2018-01-30.html","title":{"rendered":"Videos: Resolutions and Railroad crossing @ Hahira 2018-01-30"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe Hahira City Council passed two resolutions at its February 1, 2018\r\nRegular Session, one\r\nsupporting GA HR 158 to stop state fee diversions<\/a>,\r\nand another\r\n\r\nsupporting the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail<\/a>.\r\nTwo days before I spoke about both and there was discussion at the Hahira Work Session of January 30, 2018.\r\n

\r\nAnother item from that Work Session has unfortunately\r\nbecome big news:\r\n\r\npossibly closing the Lawson Street railroad crossing<\/a>,\r\nwhere\r\na man was killed February 5 when a Norfolk Southern train struck a dump truck<\/a>, according to WTXL.\r\nWALB says, “The Georgia State Patrol identified the driver as Dexter Brown, 48, of Barnwell, S.C.”<\/a>.\r\nMayor Bruce Cain gave a statement to Hahira Today<\/a>,\r\nwhich also included some discussion of that agenda item:\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe topic of closing the railroad crossing came up in the city\r\ncouncil work session last week after Norfolk Southern offered the\r\ncity of Hahira $40,000 if they willingly close the Lawson Street\r\nrailroad crossing.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHowever, if they were to vote against the request to close that\r\nproperty then Norfolk Southern plans to go forward with the closure\r\nand the money would no longer be an option. This is a discussion\r\nthat the city of Hahira has been having with Norfolk Southern for\r\nquite some time.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“I don’t know if it will be a factor or not. The council\r\nmembers of course hate that anything like this has happened, but\r\nthey still have to look at the community views,” Cain said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIt is going to be a situation where you have some of the community\r\nnot wanting to close the crossing and then you have some that says\r\nthat it is a dangerous crossing and they would like to see it\r\nclosed, he said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“The crossing is a little bit elevated, but it is not as\r\nraised as the crossing North of Lawson, which is Stanfill Street and\r\nthat one is really elevated but it does have the gates and all the\r\nsafety precautions there for that one,” Cain said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAll the crossings in town have safety precautions in place except\r\nfor the crossing at Lawson Street. According to the mayor, a lot of\r\npeople don’t take the Lawson Street crossing because they feel it is\r\njust too dangerous.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“It was mentioned at the work session that there was a\r\nfatality there back in 1996 and then there was another incident with\r\nminor injuries in 2008, and of course now a fatality this year. I\r\ncan’t really say how the council will weigh the situation,”\r\nCain said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSee also:\r\n