The Hamlet Town Council is once again calling for repairs to the Starke Street railroad crossing. During Wednesday’s meeting, Council President Dave Kesvormas said the crossing continues to get worse. “I want them to fix it,” he said. “You see people bounce around it like a jackrabbit. Somebody’s going to get stuck on the tracks.”
The condition of the crossing has been an ongoing concern for years. Earlier this month, Starke County Economic Development Foundation Executive Director Charlie Weaver offered to speak to officials with the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad. But as of Wednesday’s meeting, the town hadn’t gotten a response.
At the very least, council members hope that the railroad can make temporary repairs now, and then make full repairs to coincide with the town’s larger Starke Street reconstruction project planned for the spring.
As a next step, Kesvormas said he planned to contact a Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern representative himself. “It is going to be no holds barred,” he said. “I’m going to give them a deadline, and they’re going to fix it, or at least temporarily until the spring, whenever. I’ll be nice. We can coordinate that nicely with our project, and everybody would be happy. But if not, if they’re going to come over here with three 15-pound bags of patch mix from Menards and think that’s going to fix it, then that’s another thing.”
He said the railroad’s past efforts at temporary repairs have done little to solve the problem.
