Rail Crossing Delays Frustrate L’Anse Village Officials

At last night’s L’Anse Village Council meeting, Village President Ron Ervast commended those involved with producing Saturday’s successful Baraga County Lake Trout Festival and Keweenaw Bay Classic Fishing Tournament…

Thanks to the village, thanks to our fire department, thanks to our local police for making everything go good this weekend. There were a lot of people in town, and I think every motel was packed.

Work to recover from the May 15th heavy rain and flooding continues. Village Manager Bob LaFave said he has a meeting planned for today to push forward with the Secret Creek culvert replacement. That culvert was scheduled to be replaced this summer, anyway, and the contract was recently awarded to MJO Contracting.

Trustee Bill Menge, Jr. shared his frustration about several recent lengthy traffic delays caused by the malfunctioning gate arms at the railroad crossing on US-41 near the Falls River…

I think we should maybe think about billing the railroad for our police doing traffic for multiple hours.

LaFave explained that CN railroad has told him the problem occurs after a train passes, and the arms don’t rise as they’re supposed to. All it takes to lift them is throwing a switch, but the union contract mandates that only certain employees are allowed to do that. The nearest designated employee is stationed in Gladstone, and has to drive to L’Anse every time the gates get stuck, to flip the switch, and clear the crossing.

There is no detour around the crossing, which means that ambulances and fire trucks responding in emergency situations are stuck in traffic along with everyone else. LaFave said he’ll again convey the council’s concerns to CN.