Sandpoint Says Good Riddance To Train Tracks Bevy Of Mayors Gather To Mark End Of Project They All Worked On

It took five mayors and 20 years, but Sandpoint finally is rid of a Union Pacific freight line that rolled smack through the middle of town.

Railroad crews have been tearing out 3-1/2 miles of track the past few months. Most of the rails are gone except for those still embedded in the asphalt at 18 intersections in Sandpoint.

“We didn’t want to deprive residents right away of the joy of driving over the rutted intersections. We wanted to break them in slowly,” joked former Sandpoint Mayor Dwight Sheffler.

He thought it made more sense to pull track out of the intersections first and fix the rutted roadways that have jostled residents for decades. But Sheffler wasn’t going to belabor the point.

“It’s great to see it gone,” he said.

Sheffler joined four other Sandpoint mayors Tuesday to mark the historic track removal project they all worked on. Former mayors Sally Cupan, Marian Ebbett, Ron Chaney, Sheffler and current mayor, David Sawyer, posed on a piece of rail with a mound of railroad ties stacked behind them and bid the trains good riddance.

“When I first suggested this idea the state was opposed to it. They said you are wasting your time. So did we waste our time?” Cupan said smiling and nodding to a loader hauling off railroad ties.

“The important thing is it’s gotten done. This is not just progress, this is the good kind of progress,” she said.

The tracks ran along Fifth Avenue and bisected the town. Six trains traveled the line each day, stalling traffic, blocking emergency vehicles and prompting fears of derailments and hazardous spills. The train also caused its share of accidents at the 18 unprotected crossings.

Union Pacific moved line to the north edge of town in a complicated track sharing agreement with Burlington Northern and the state transportation department. The project cost about $3.5 million. The job should be wrapped up at the end of summer when railroad crossing signs are pulled from the intersections and roadways are repaved.

Even though the tracks are gone, residents still are stopping at the intersections out of habit. School buses are, too, but they are required to stop because the railroad crossing signs haven’t been taken down yet, said Police Chief Bill Kice.

When Cupan pushed to have the tracks pulled, she hoped the land could be turned into a greenbelt. “I didn’t want to see it wall-to-wall lanes of traffic. The city should settle for nothing less than a greenbelt buffer.”

That might not be possible, Sawyer said. The state bought some of the railroad property for $3.5 million to expand the road and improve traffic through town. The rest of the land inside the city limits, about five blocks of right of way, is for sale by the railroad for about $2 million. Most of that land likely will be sold for commercial development.

In the meantime, Sawyer hopes the city and state can work to dress up the barren land with trees.

“It’s going to be an eyesore along the road for a long time unless we can do something with it,” he said. “It’s not going to get turned into a roadway for 10 to 15 years.”

, DataTimes