LULA – Business went as usual for the Lula City Council Monday evening. However, for visitors to the voting session it was something happening outside city hall at the start of the meeting that generated conversation as to what - if anything - could be done.
The main railroad crossing in the small city was blocked by a parked freight train and had been for several hours. Traffic was backed up in all directions. Locals who knew work-arounds quickly turned down side streets in search of alternate crossings. Others simply gave up, turned around and left the city.
Does that scenario sound familiar?
Just look to the southern end of the county where Flowery Branch has been experiencing the very same thing.
Last week the municipality opted to close one of its three rail crossings in the hope of working with Norfolk Southern Railroad and reducing blocked crossing events at the remaining two crossovers.
Is it possible Lula is next?
Admittedly Lula is smaller than Flowery Branch, but people are beginning to take note of the frequent inconveniences, that according to a couple of the visitors chatting before the start of Monday’s meeting. They (names unavailable) said their neighbors “took it in stride but are getting a bit weary.”
Following the meeting Mayor Jim Greer said he was aware of the murmuring. It happens, “a couple of times a day and it varies in length from a few minutes on up to as many as a few hours,” Greer said.
Greer said city officials had approached Norfolk Southern on the issue and knew of the situation in Flowery Branch. “Their (Flowery Branch) siding is not quite as long as the one that we’re on here,” Greer explained.
Greer said he remembered that several crossings were closed in the 1970s by the railroad. “Probably four, maybe five,” Greer said, thinking back. “That left us with the ones we have now.”
Late in 2015 the historic wooden Cobb Street Bridge was closed for over a year to undergo major repairs. Even now it has a 6,000-pound weight limit, so places to cross the four sets of tracks are limited.
“We really only have two crossings here within the city,” Greer said. “It would be difficult to conceive that they would be able to close any of those. We hope that's not going to be our fate as well.”
ANNUAL MILLAGE RATE ROLLBACK APPROVED AGAIN
According to Mayor Jim Greer it has become a pleasant habit. Each year when the city prepares its budget a millage rate is proposed to fund that budget, and each year the city council approves the millage rate ascribed to that budget followed immediately by a vote to roll back the rate to zero.
This year a rate of 0.975 mils was approved but seconds later rolled back to 0.000-mils. Both votes were unanimous.
