This is the crossing at the center of the Stellar Plaza which is the crux of the ongoing dispute between the city and the CMPA. Councilor Shaw is concerned because this side of the completed plaza incorporates the expected crossing to Madison Avenue in its design.—Staff Photo by Barbara King
Railroad says divergent interests are at the root of the argument
Port Authority representative Dave Cheatham's goal Monday night was to persuade the Council to sign his proposal for the mid-plaza crossing. First, though, he apologized for the way the railroad board had treated Mayor Campbell, Councilor Dave Shaw and attorney Corinne Finnerty.
"Hopefully, you'll not dwell on that," he said.
The proposal the CMPA is asking the city to sign includes the following provisions:
• Mid-plaza, the fence would be a sliding gate which would be kept locked.
• On special occasions when the city would want the gate open, the city would provide advance notice to the CMPA to request it be open. The railroad would then issue a "Track Occupancy Permit" if notified in advance and the use of the tracks is not required for the railroad during said event.
• The temporary access device would be put in by city employees and be immediately removed from the railroad right-of-way as soon as the event ends.
In Finnerty's view, giving the CMPA control over whether the gate is open or not for special events is just wrong. "We would be at their mercy and they're going to decide whether we can use our plaza."
To this, Schnaitter assured the governors the approval would be pretty much a formality. In fact, he said the city could submit one request listing events at the beginning of the year and get the okay "in one fell swoop."
Cheatham and the CMPA attorney both stressed that the issue is one of safety. The city's interest in the area is recreational while the railroad considers activity in the plaza as a liability.
"The railroad's and city's interests are different," Cheatham pointed out.
"We don't want a culture where we say 'Let's have a picnic on the tracks!'"
It was a 90+ minute marathon session that went round and round which finally arrived at a point at which there was no agreement.
"We're at an impasse," summed up Dave Cheatham, representing the City of Madison Port Authority (CMPA).
And so it was as the North Vernon City Council adjourned their discussion on how to handle the proposed pedestrian crossing in the center of Stellar Plaza directly across from the Park Theatre.
The Madison Railroad has taken a take-it-or-leave-it approach for the ongoing issue, insisting that they will only consider the one proposal they have put on the table. Citing safety concerns, their proposal calls for a locked gate at the crossing. Any time the city would need the gate opened-during an event, for example-the city would have to request the railroad's permission.
The railroad board's intransigence is tinged with a puzzling level of hostility. The first hint was earlier this summer when Cheatham was sent to the Council to inform them that as far the CMPA was concerned, the city should just 'talk to our lawyer' regarding any future communication about the Stellar Plaza work.
At Monday night's Council meeting, their attorney, Spencer Schnaitter, even raised the specter that someone here had added an extra page to a document which the CMPA had already signed, basically accusing somebody in the city of falsification. Then, consider Council President Dave Shaw's account of his and two other officials' reception at Monday's Port Authority meeting in Madison.
Shaw, Mayor Harold Campbell and project attorney Corinne Finnerty had hoped to discuss the railroad's proposed agreement with the board and formally asked to be on their agenda on July 29. Instead, Shaw says they received the rudest reception he has ever personally experienced.
The board wouldn't even look at materials prepared by Finnerty, including her notes on the agreement proposed by the CMPA.
"Is the public not entitled to speak to another public agency?" asked Mayor Campbell. "We have invested a lot of money in this railroad for us to be treated like that."
How much? Since January 2011 to now, the city has written checks totaling $913,839.93.
A delegation now plans to attend the next Madison City Council meeting this is body and the mayor appoints the CMPA board of directors.
"We want to tell them how we feel. Maybe they're missing a point," explained Campbell.
As reported in earlier issues of this newspaper, the City of North Vernon says that its plans for the mid-crossing were shown and approved by the Port Authority board at least two years ago. The completed side of the plaza has a built-in path to the crossings, noted project engineer Cory Whitesell on Monday night, and these plans were definitely shown and signed off on by the CMPA.
Since taking on this case in June, attorney Finnerty has compiled a stack of documents through Indiana's Sunshine Laws that show the CMPA was first made aware of the plaza plans in July 2012. The documents include emails from Cathy Hale, the CMPA's director; minutes of the authority's meetings; plans clearly showing the pedestrian crossing in the center of the plaza; and notes sent to Hale after viewing the project in person with the engineer.
The documents, wrote Finnerty, "should put to rest any claim that the CMPA was unaware of the center pedestrian crossing and/or did not ever approve it."
As she told the Council Monday night, "We have a pretty bulletproof paper trail."
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