The City Council of Kingman, Ariz., voted down a proposal that would eventually create a quiet zone to bar trains from sounding their horns in the downtown area, reported the Kingman Daily Miner on Thursday.
The newspaper said:
Council received a study on the proposed quiet zone in October. According to the study, it would cost around $370,000 to install all of the safety measures the railroad is requiring in order to turn the area into a quiet zone for trains.
Council had asked city staff to look into the idea of creating an improvement district to fund the project. An additional $95,000 to $111,000 would be needed to cover the administrative costs for creating an improvement district, according to staff.
City Manager Jack Kramer added that trying to determine who would benefit from the quiet zone and those who would be included in the district would be very difficult. It was also too small a project to make it feasible for the city to go out for bonds.
Kingman started considering the railroad quiet zone about a year ago, especially after an investigation determined a similar zone was hailed as a “smashing” success in Flagstaff. A quiet zone in Tulsa, implemented in 2010, certainly has been appreciated by downtown residents and businesses.
I suspect Kingman officials do want a quiet zone, but think the city cannot afford it. The coffers of many American cities — especially in Arizona — are begging for cash after the real-estate bubble burst and a deep recession ensued in 2008.
But it seems inevitable the city will be forced to revisit this issue. Kingman’s population has more than doubled in the past 20 years, and those new residents likely aren’t used to those ear-splitting horns from the many diesel locomotives that lumber through town.
And Kingman’s motel owners will demand it, too. Here’s one from the archives in February 2010:
According to former (Hotel) Brunswick Owner and Manager Debra Sixta, the trains were one of the main deterrents to tourists spending the night there.
“The people would walk in, hear the trains, and walk back out. That happened a lot,” she said.
The historic Hotel Brunswick now is closed.
I don’t get this one. The city can just pass an ordinance and make the RR pay for it or face fines, etc. Is Kingman one of those towns that thinks govt is there at the behest of business or something? BNSF is rolling in dough right now running all that freight from China eastward, its not like the old days when the railroads were really hurting.