[RP TownTalk] Fwd: question about town center clock.

[Jonathan Ebbeler]

Mayor Archer -

As the author of the legislation for the Quiet Zone and main proponent on Council for its implementation I have a difference of opinion on the facts presented on your post.

As you remember, every year I placed the establishment of a Queensbury Quiet Zone at the head of my legislative priority list of things I wanted staff to focus on.  Every year I had to hear an 'are you sure' and continue to advocate for it due to the amount of pushback you gave.  I finally got tired of waiting and researched, drafted, and received a unanimous vote on a Resolution directing staff to implement it.  It still took an additional two years to implement.  The research and legislation took me an hour or two, and the backup material provided to staff had everything that was needed to see the process through.  As it was, the town staff (smartly) decided to engage a consultant to make the appropriate notifications to CSX/MARC/FRA, perform the safety analysis, and provide the FRA database updates.

The sole intent of why I authored 2013-R-13 ( http://riverdaleparkmd.info/Resolution%202013-R-18.pdf ) and the definition of a 'Quiet Zone' had nothing to do with general noise at Town Center, but to address the Federal Railroad Administration Train Horn Rule (49 CFR Part 222) mandate that horns sound within ¼ mile of a crossing with a minimum 2 long, 1 short of at least 96 decibels.

The debate of the legislation with Council included no discussion about general noise, and the Council has set no official policy about general noise at the crossing or Town Center.  The only law that you are obligated to enforce is found in RP Code Chapter 50 Environmental Noise Control, but this has no applicability given the language in Section 50-11.4 (Exemptions) which does not apply to town sponsored sound equipment.

I found this very informative post from former Mayor Ann Ferguson about the history of the clock, its service and maintenance, malfunctions etc.:  http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/2006-August/007938.html

The comment made that the chimes were not addressed due to the manufacturer is out of business appears to be untrue; the original company, Verdin, is still in business and can provide service if the town engaged them as a vendor and established a preventive maintenance agreement:  http://www.verdin.com/clocks/

It is absolutely fair and reasonable to claim your administration's ongoing budget crisis, the cost of maintenance issues, the bell chiming at the wrong time etc., the potential nuisance, as to why chimes are on or off.  But please fairly and accurately characterize and discuss the problems and potential resolutions vs. inventing inaccurate rationales.  If the town doesn't want to budget nor can afford to budget the money with Verdin, that is the Mayor and Council's choice, but the condition of the clock is an operational issue that the Mayor, you, prior to abdicating operational authority of the town this year, were responsible for (not the Council).  Your hands were not tied due to any law or policy direction.  The Quiet Zone legislation that I wrote had to do with the trains alone, not any policy direction being claimed.  This or future Councils can certainly clarify this point in future Resolutions, but to date the claimed policy direction only relates to the necessary bureaucratic direction that was required for the FRA and the Railroad Crossing at Queensbury.

JWE


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