City to Norfolk Southern: reopen Center Street
After the railroad let three weeks pass without answering Bellevue's annexation proposal, the city asked it to honor a written promise to reopen the crossing.
Bellevue has stopped waiting on Norfolk Southern. The city mailed a letter Wednesday asking the railroad to reopen the Center Street crossing, which it had closed during talks about shutting down crossings around its expanding yard.
Safety-Service Director Jeffrey Crosby said the railroad did not respond to the city’s last proposal within three weeks. He said the city has a written agreement that Norfolk Southern would reopen Center Street if the two sides could not reach a deal.
That proposal, in a June 22 letter from Mayor Donald Berkey to Norfolk Southern CEO Charles Moorman, offered to close the East Center and East street crossings if the railroad agreed to have its Bellevue yards annexed into the city. Annexation would bring the city income tax revenue to offset costs from the closings and from heavier truck traffic.
Background: the five-crossing proposal, the annexation offer and the yard today. More in Farm & Rail.