Train delays: Searching for a way out -- and in
Residents say they've waited up to six hours, worry about safety
By Michele Linck, Journal staff writer | Posted: Monday, August 11, 2008
A car crosses the railroad tracks on the only road leading into the Millis Beach neighborhood in Dakota City, Nebraska. At times residents get caught waiting for a train either at the Cargill elevator or sometimes passing through the rail crossing. (Staff photo by Jerry Mennenga)
DAKOTA CITY -- Susan Church got up in plenty of time for 7:30 a.m. Mass one Sunday but never made it to worship services.
Six hours after her first attempt to cross the railroad tracks across E Avenue in Millis Beach -- she'd tried again an hour later -- a train still blocked the only road out of and into the small residential community in rural Dakota County.
"I have sat at the crossing and thrown a hissy fit, trying to get to work," Church said.
Her neighbor, Jeanne Vipond, knows Church's frustration firsthand.
"I have to leave early to make sure I can get out," said Vipond, the kitchen manager at Cardinal Elementary School in South Sioux City, where kids in the breakfast program depend on her to feed them at 7:30 a.m.
"If they blow that whistle, I'm out of here because I know that train's gonna block me," she said. "It's really hard to be blocked in here and not have a way out. It's like we're prisoners of a train."
Walter Heineman, on the other hand, doesn't see much of a problem. "The longest I ever waited for a train was 15 minutes," he said.
Even so, residents worry a train could impede an ambulance or fire truck responding to an emergency, although they say that's never happened.
Now, they're working with the Dakota County Board of Commissioners to come up with a permanent alternate route into and out of their neighborhood, a road that could be used whenever trains tie up the E Avenue crossing. They say it has never been needed more.
The Cargill grain elevator there has recently installed a gate across an unpaved route across a field at the end of its Millis Beach property that residents used to use as an alternative. Facility manager Eric Brandenburger said the gate went up for security and liability reasons.
It wasn't a real solution, anyway: Cars couldn't always navigate the field, which is impassable even to trucks in the winter months.
Although trains arrive to serve the elevator only 25 times a year, they are concentrated in the spring and fall and, at 100 cars, are longer than in the past. They block the track as they are "broken" to fit onto the elevator's four 28-car tracks and again when they're reassembled to depart, so the crossing is blocked more frequently than in past decades. Other trains that use the tracks can block E Avenue for 15 minutes, even if they're just passing through.
A long wait
Millis Beach is about a mile due west across U.S Highway 77 from Roth Industrial Park. Founded in the early 1900s as a rental cottage resort on Crystal Lake, it now has 20 homes and about 70 residents -- but no lake. The great flood of 1952 filled it in with mud.
Trains have run across E Avenue since 1890. The grain elevator opened near the track a century later, and an excavation company, JoMac Contracting, followed.
Millis Beach residents fought the elevator, they say, concerned the extra train traffic would mean more waiting for trains to clear the crossing. They say the county sold them on the elevator with the promise of another entrance one day.
Eighteen years later that day still has not come.
A month ago, Church carried a petition bearing nearly every adult resident's signature to the county commissioners, asking for a road. She and 24 other residents met with the commissioners to discuss possible solutions. County officials agree the residents need an escape route and say they are working to find a practical solution.
It may not be easy.
Which way to go?
Some residents and county officials agree the best route for a second road would run north from Millis Beach along one of two possible routes.
One would require only a 500-foot road and would make for the shortest and least expensive solution, according to county Commissioner Bill Rohde. It would also be the best direction to go, he said, noting that the train tracks are to the south; the nearest road to the west, F Avenue, is a mile away and land to the east is zoned for industrial development.
Either of the routes to the north would have to connect to a private road owned by Larry Albenesius, a Jackson, Neb., contractor. That road would lead traffic out onto U.S. Highway 75/77 across from Atokad Park.
However, Albenesius wants to keep his road private. He said he is concerned about traffic and about people -- not necessarily Millis Beach residents -- dumping junk or garbage if it's opened to the public.
Having had two heart attacks himself, Albenesius said he knows how important it is to get medical help quickly. About five years ago he gave two residents a key to his gate in case of such an emergency. "As far as I know, it's never been used," he said. The gate to his road can be reached by driving a truck through a field, except in the winter.
"There's another option if they can work with two other landowners," Albenesius said. "I would give them the right of way to build the road and the material (dirt). I'm not going to gravel or pave it."
He declined to provide details about the solution he has in mind until he discusses it with Fred Kellogg, the county's director of roads. He said he plans to attend a meeting today between Millis Beach residents and commissioners. Kellogg said even if Albenesius would allow residents to use his road, the new road would cross three other landowners' property, so easements would be needed from them, as well.
Zeke Castro is one of those landowners, and one possible route would run behind his house. He fears more cars passing by would create even more dust than the road out front does. "If they left it up to me," he said, "I would say no. If (Albenesius and others) would go for it, then I would have to go with them."
Albenesius said the best solution would be to build an overpass on E Avenue, taking traffic over the railroad tracks. He didn't know what that would cost, however.
Who's responsible?
Typically, the railroad company whose trains serve the Cargill elevator and, thus, block E Avenue -- and U.S. Highway 77, too -- is responsible for clearing the public crossing in case of emergency. Cargill is responsible only for its own tracks, which are contained on its own property and don't cross any public roads.
Often, the trains belong to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which also has jurisdiction over the tracks.
Burlington Northern spokesman Steven Forsberg said a train is allowed to block a crossing for only 15 minutes if it is just sitting. But if the cars are being moved around, that threshold is 30 minutes. He said the railroad's crews work as fast as they can to accomplish the breaking and reassembling and clear the crossing.
He said that according to the Sioux City-based trainmaster responsible for the track, no one has even contacted Burlington Northern about the E Avenue crossing being blocked. Forsberg said the trainmaster didn't see how the process could be done much faster but said that he would remind the Burlington Northern crews to pay more attention to keeping the crossings clear.
Until an alternate route is developed, Dakota County's emergency dispatch center advises residents to call 911 and it will contact the railroad to break the train and open the crossing. That process would take at least 15 minutes if the conductor were already at the crossing. But it could be longer, depending on how far he would have to walk to get to the crossing, Burlington Northern spokesman Joseph Faust said.
Cargill is willing to help get around the crossing altogether, if possible, by opening its gate. Brandenburger noted that the electric company recently used bolt cutters to get through Cargill's gate for an after-hours emergency when a windstorm blew a branch down onto a power line.
"If there's an emergency vehicle, we're going to do everything we can to help," he said.
If you go
The Dakota County Board of Commissioners will meet with Millis Beach residents at 2 p.m. today in the commissioners' room at the county Courthouse to discuss prospects for a second access road to the neighborhood.
Six hours after her first attempt to cross the railroad tracks across E Avenue in Millis Beach -- she'd tried again an hour later -- a train still blocked the only road out of and into the small residential community in rural Dakota County.
"I have sat at the crossing and thrown a hissy fit, trying to get to work," Church said.
Her neighbor, Jeanne Vipond, knows Church's frustration firsthand.
"I have to leave early to make sure I can get out," said Vipond, the kitchen manager at Cardinal Elementary School in South Sioux City, where kids in the breakfast program depend on her to feed them at 7:30 a.m.
"If they blow that whistle, I'm out of here because I know that train's gonna block me," she said. "It's really hard to be blocked in here and not have a way out. It's like we're prisoners of a train."
Walter Heineman, on the other hand, doesn't see much of a problem. "The longest I ever waited for a train was 15 minutes," he said.
Even so, residents worry a train could impede an ambulance or fire truck responding to an emergency, although they say that's never happened.
Now, they're working with the Dakota County Board of Commissioners to come up with a permanent alternate route into and out of their neighborhood, a road that could be used whenever trains tie up the E Avenue crossing. They say it has never been needed more.
The Cargill grain elevator there has recently installed a gate across an unpaved route across a field at the end of its Millis Beach property that residents used to use as an alternative. Facility manager Eric Brandenburger said the gate went up for security and liability reasons.
It wasn't a real solution, anyway: Cars couldn't always navigate the field, which is impassable even to trucks in the winter months.
Although trains arrive to serve the elevator only 25 times a year, they are concentrated in the spring and fall and, at 100 cars, are longer than in the past. They block the track as they are "broken" to fit onto the elevator's four 28-car tracks and again when they're reassembled to depart, so the crossing is blocked more frequently than in past decades. Other trains that use the tracks can block E Avenue for 15 minutes, even if they're just passing through.
A long wait
Millis Beach is about a mile due west across U.S Highway 77 from Roth Industrial Park. Founded in the early 1900s as a rental cottage resort on Crystal Lake, it now has 20 homes and about 70 residents -- but no lake. The great flood of 1952 filled it in with mud.
Trains have run across E Avenue since 1890. The grain elevator opened near the track a century later, and an excavation company, JoMac Contracting, followed.
Millis Beach residents fought the elevator, they say, concerned the extra train traffic would mean more waiting for trains to clear the crossing. They say the county sold them on the elevator with the promise of another entrance one day.
Eighteen years later that day still has not come.
A month ago, Church carried a petition bearing nearly every adult resident's signature to the county commissioners, asking for a road. She and 24 other residents met with the commissioners to discuss possible solutions. County officials agree the residents need an escape route and say they are working to find a practical solution.
It may not be easy.
Which way to go?
Some residents and county officials agree the best route for a second road would run north from Millis Beach along one of two possible routes.
One would require only a 500-foot road and would make for the shortest and least expensive solution, according to county Commissioner Bill Rohde. It would also be the best direction to go, he said, noting that the train tracks are to the south; the nearest road to the west, F Avenue, is a mile away and land to the east is zoned for industrial development.
Either of the routes to the north would have to connect to a private road owned by Larry Albenesius, a Jackson, Neb., contractor. That road would lead traffic out onto U.S. Highway 75/77 across from Atokad Park.
However, Albenesius wants to keep his road private. He said he is concerned about traffic and about people -- not necessarily Millis Beach residents -- dumping junk or garbage if it's opened to the public.
Having had two heart attacks himself, Albenesius said he knows how important it is to get medical help quickly. About five years ago he gave two residents a key to his gate in case of such an emergency. "As far as I know, it's never been used," he said. The gate to his road can be reached by driving a truck through a field, except in the winter.
"There's another option if they can work with two other landowners," Albenesius said. "I would give them the right of way to build the road and the material (dirt). I'm not going to gravel or pave it."
He declined to provide details about the solution he has in mind until he discusses it with Fred Kellogg, the county's director of roads. He said he plans to attend a meeting today between Millis Beach residents and commissioners. Kellogg said even if Albenesius would allow residents to use his road, the new road would cross three other landowners' property, so easements would be needed from them, as well.
Zeke Castro is one of those landowners, and one possible route would run behind his house. He fears more cars passing by would create even more dust than the road out front does. "If they left it up to me," he said, "I would say no. If (Albenesius and others) would go for it, then I would have to go with them."
Albenesius said the best solution would be to build an overpass on E Avenue, taking traffic over the railroad tracks. He didn't know what that would cost, however.
Who's responsible?
Typically, the railroad company whose trains serve the Cargill elevator and, thus, block E Avenue -- and U.S. Highway 77, too -- is responsible for clearing the public crossing in case of emergency. Cargill is responsible only for its own tracks, which are contained on its own property and don't cross any public roads.
Often, the trains belong to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which also has jurisdiction over the tracks.
Burlington Northern spokesman Steven Forsberg said a train is allowed to block a crossing for only 15 minutes if it is just sitting. But if the cars are being moved around, that threshold is 30 minutes. He said the railroad's crews work as fast as they can to accomplish the breaking and reassembling and clear the crossing.
He said that according to the Sioux City-based trainmaster responsible for the track, no one has even contacted Burlington Northern about the E Avenue crossing being blocked. Forsberg said the trainmaster didn't see how the process could be done much faster but said that he would remind the Burlington Northern crews to pay more attention to keeping the crossings clear.
Until an alternate route is developed, Dakota County's emergency dispatch center advises residents to call 911 and it will contact the railroad to break the train and open the crossing. That process would take at least 15 minutes if the conductor were already at the crossing. But it could be longer, depending on how far he would have to walk to get to the crossing, Burlington Northern spokesman Joseph Faust said.
Cargill is willing to help get around the crossing altogether, if possible, by opening its gate. Brandenburger noted that the electric company recently used bolt cutters to get through Cargill's gate for an after-hours emergency when a windstorm blew a branch down onto a power line.
"If there's an emergency vehicle, we're going to do everything we can to help," he said.
If you go
The Dakota County Board of Commissioners will meet with Millis Beach residents at 2 p.m. today in the commissioners' room at the county Courthouse to discuss prospects for a second access road to the neighborhood.
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