Whistles still blowing in Bismarck, N.D.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission is working to arrange a meeting with BNSF, the City of Bismarck and Fraine Barracks after residents close to the barracks crossing complained the work to make the crossing private is taking too long, the Bismarck Tribune reports. The train whistles are still blowing and some residents are frustrated that construction and legal work are taking so long after the commission signed its order May 19. The order doesn't make Fraine Barracks a private crossing by default, but it does make the crossing private once certain conditions have been met. BNSF is working with the city to hash out a contract that will detail what maintenance the city is responsible for and what liabilities it will have once the crossing is private. The city is unable to start construction until the agreement is signed. City officials would not say Wednesday how long they've been working on the contract or when they received it. City Attorney Charles Whitman would not say what liabilities the city would be forced to take on through the contract. But in an e-mail to PSC staff, City Administrator Bill Wocken said it "indemnifies the railroad from almost all real or imagined events." The commissioners set a tentative meeting with the three parties for Aug. 24. Commission Chairman Kevin Cramer questioned whether BNSF was unhappy with the agreement and "stonewalling the process." BNSF's attorney during the hearing, Stephen Plambeck, said, "No I don't think that what's going on at all." Rather, he said, the agreement was simply still being worked out. BNSF did not appeal the commission's order, but Commissioner Tony Clark questioned, "how formally that opportunity was presented to them." Cramer said the company is sufficiently legally represented to be informed of the process. Regardless of what is causing the hold-up, nearby residents want the whistles to stop. "They're (BNSF) just dragging their feet on this and a lot of people in western Bismarck are upset," said Highland Acres resident Jim Christianson. "The agreement was signed over two months ago, and the needed improvements could be completed in less than a week." Wocken said the contract has taken longer to work out than the city desired. "To say we have not achieved any real progress at this point would be very close to correct, as the whistles keep blowing," Wocken said in his email to PSC staff. "We have not lost our resolve to continue to work of this process, but it is very slow going."