West Brownsville council reviews hearing on railroad issues
WEST BROWNSVILLE – Borough council met in a special work session on Monday, which President Pat Maxon said was “for the purpose of discussing issues at hand” regarding their upcoming Public Utility Commission (PUC) hearing.” Council members said the Aug 19 hearing was scheduled because of complaints filed by the borough that Norfolk Southern Railroad Co. “has failed to maintain the track area along Main Street as per their track maintenance agreement.”
Maxon and other council members said this creates hazardous road conditions for the public using the roads.
Solicitor Melinda Dellarose said the council would need to submit some paperwork to the PUC “not with a lot of particulars, but just to give the commission an idea of what we are requesting.”
She said the PUC would want to know if the board would be willing to assume any of the costs while the railroad company is repairing the tracks, such as repaving costs.
“We should say no to that because these damages were done by the railroad,” said Maxon.
The rest of the board agreed that they would not assume any cost.
Damaged sewer lines under the tracks are another issue that has risen with the council and the railroad company.
Mayor Martin Brockman said that the increased weight of the trains has caused the sewer lines to collapse.
“They have increase the size of their cars, so they hold more coal,” said Brockman. “They have also increased the number of cars, so there is more weight carried over the road.”
Councilman John Petro added that the sewer lines were built in the 1940’s when there was not so much traffic from the railroad, and the lines were not meant to have that much weight on them.
“Why should we feel responsible for damage that was done because of their increased weight and travel?” said Petro.
Council members said that the collapsed sewer lines were the reason for sewage backup in some local residents basements, and were discovered after the council had brought Robinson Pipe Cleaner into the borough to help correct the backup problem.
The council agreed that they did not want to assume any of the cost for repairs of the sewage lines, because the damage was caused by the railroad.
“If the damage was because it was a faulty line, it would have collapsed on either side of the road,” said Councilman Larry Beck. “If it was because it was too deep, or any other reason, it would have collapsed on both sides of the road. But it was only collapsed underneath the tracks.”
Council members said that the sewer line was a separate issue that would also be placed with the PUC if they were allowed to do so at the hearing.
“I think we were able to make more sense of things tonight,” said Maxon. “It seems so simple to us but for whatever reason the railroad company hasn’t thought of it this way, because they don’t want to assume these costs. This could be a battle for us, but hopefully the PUC will help us out with this.”
Council members said that in the future they would simply like to see the railroad keep up with maintenance on the tracks without having to continue asking them to do so.
The hearing is open to the public and is to be held in Pittsburgh at the State Office, 11th floor hearing room, located at 300 Liberty Ave. The council will advertise the hearing during the first two weeks of August.