May Neighborhood meeting Minutes

May Meeting Minutes
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Attendees: 35 and 4 Staffers
Union Pacific Railroad presentation
The Manager of hazardous materials for the Union Pacific Railroad Lane Sekavec presented at the May neighborhood meeting. He explained that the Union Pacific are is in control of the railway lines on the North side and the railway across the river on the South side is controlled by BNSF.
Sekavec shared that Union Pacific has a record of 99.9% handling of hazardous product without an incident.
He mentioned that railroads overall is the safest method of transporting hazardous materials over other methods like trucking. The railroad mission is prevention, preparedness response and recovery.
Response is dependent on the local emergency services and Sekavec assured all in attendance that the UPR has a very good relationship with the local emergency services running drills of a routine basis.
Sekavec share that the best way to report a problem is to find the signs posted along the tracks and when calling the phone number reference the information on the sign so the responder can quickly identify the problem location.
Sekavec spoke of all the special equipmen on had to handle any incident in a quick and timely fashion. He also stated that due to technology and the ability to send photos and videos in seconds any incident is handle rapidly and efficiently. or
He shared the number to call with questions, issues and problems which is 888 UPRR COP or 888 877 7267. Sekavec shared that the UPR would like to be notified of criminal activity, crossing accidents, derailments, fires etc.
Sekavec assured everyone at the meeting to call and not to second guess a call. “Better safe than sorry”.
He shared that there are designated stopping points for trains that are allocated to support school bus crossings.
A video of a train being hit by a tornado was shown at the meeting.
Sekavec explained that during the tornado incident that the tanks being transported did not leak as they are housed in a steal casing that is 7 1/16 of an inch thick to protect the contents from leaking out of the container.
Lane opened up for questions
Sekavec answer that trains are inspected every time they have a car added.
He explained that Tank Cars will carry different contents and they pick the right interchangeable contents.
Yes, we notify the emergency crew what is coming through If we have flammable liquid especially if it is a military grade material.
40 – 50 trains come through Lawrence each day.
Sekavec stated that advanced notification may become legislation in the future and the incident in Ohio is probably going to drive that decision.
Palestine Ohio is probably going to drive a legislation.
A neighbor brought up that the North 1900 Road crossing is in need of work.
Midland is said to be a bad railroad crossing.
A neighbor stated that they have been sitting at a crossing for two hours and called for assistance to be informed “it is not our train”!
A quiet zone was discussed. Sekavec stated that this needs to be a decision made by the City Council.
It is said that it would take Millions of dollars to re-route the trains around Lawrence.
Neighbor mentioned the horns being obnoxious from some of the trains.
Ted mentioned that the quiet zone and stated that the city said the NLIA could request directly with the Railroad. Sekavec said the city has to accept the liability. Sekavec mentioned going to the website to find out how to obtain a quiet zone.
Neighbors discussed street safety. One neighbor mentioned that drivers are rolling through the 4 way stop at locust. Another neighbor is advocating for 4 way stops on 7th street to slow drivers down due to the concern of children and families walking to Lyon park.
Neighbors at the meeting were in agreement that car speeds need to be controlled.
Garage sale will be the weekend after Mothers Day
Kevin Elliott made an announcement that the clean-up at the boat ramp in North Lawrence will be June 17th from 10am – 1:00pm.
Dont forget the neighborhood Cook-Out June 10th from 10am – 2pm which includes food, live jazz and family games at 319 Perry Street.


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