Atlanta City Council rejects proposal to close Miller St. railroad crossing

By John Dilmore
john@casscountynow.com

The Atlanta City Council on Monday voted to reject a proposed plan to close the Miller Street railroad crossing near downtown, an idea that would no doubt have led to “some complaints” had it progressed, according to City Manager David Cockrell.
The item on Monday evening’s agenda called on the council to discuss and consider a proposal to close the crossing “under the Federal Railroad Signal Program managed by TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation).” 
Also up for discussion were possible related street improvements in the adjacent area and bringing in a TxDOT engineer to provide the council with more information. But only a short discussion of the proposed closure and the challenges it would create took place.
“They will put out for you and for other places, if they find a redundant crossing, a carrot if you will in the fact that they’ll pay $150,000,” Cockrell said. “It is my understanding that a portion of the $150,000 would be spent actually closing the crossing. 
“The only reason it’s on your agenda is, I don’t have the authority to say ‘no’ – or yes. But I do say if you want to do it, you should get more information … and you should probably have a public hearing.”
Cockrell mentioned that the cost of maintaining crossings viewed as redundant by TxDOT, as well as traffic considerations and other factors, are weighed in the agency’s proposals.
“They’ve got to maintain every crossing up to a certain level,” he said.
The vote to reject the proposed closure of the Miller Street crossing was unanimous.
In other action, the council voted to hire Kathy Boyles as the HOME Program management consultant.
Boyles told the council, “I looked before I came to see how many houses we built because the city manager always asks me that. We have built 30 houses and we have four under construction right now.”
The council also approved appointing Elnor Pyle, Janis Thurman, Cathy Maley, Lou Walls and Carolyn Addington to the Atlanta Public Library Advisory Board.
Later Cockrell provided the council with an update on the High Demand Job Training Grant.
“This is an Economic Development Corporation grant,” he told the council. “They partnered with Texas Workforce Commission to find high demand job training.”
Welding has been identified as a high demand job in this area, he said.
“So what’s happened is, the state has put in $25,000, the Economic Development Corporation has put in $25,000, and the EDC’s money will be used to buy $25,000 worth of welding equipment,” Cockrell said. “The other money will be to hire a certified welding instructor at Texarkana College who will put on courses that are college level courses at Atlanta ISD.”
The goal for the first year of the program is to award a minimum of 18 certifications.
“Hopefully the word will get out and people will sign up for more college level classes,” Cockrell added.