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1 December 2004

Mayor Goes to Vancouver for
Mackenzie Crossing Talks


Revelstoke - City Council has accepted one of the recommendations made by the Mackenzie Crossing Committee and has tabled the rest.
 
Council voted to negotiate with Transport Canada and the Canadian Pacific railway to negotiate towards the installation of a full-protection system at the crossing. The City will argue that the system is necessary for safety
reasons.
 
Mayor Mark McKee is in Vancouver this week to meet with CPR and Transport Canada officials.
 
However councillors decided to table a recommendation that Council hire a consultant to assess the real cost of a full-protection system. Cost guesstimates from various CPR officials have ranged from $250,000 to $900,000.
 
The company refuses to pay for the installation of a full-protection system just because some people in town want trains to stop whistling as they approach the crossing.
 
However, if Transport Canada accepts the safety argument then the federal government might pay for as much as 20 percent of a full-protection system.
 
Councillors also tabled a recommendation that they consider full or nighttime closure in the event the negotiations fail. Tabling permits Council to re-examine a recommendation at a later date. It does not mean the recommendations are dead.
 
Whatever happens, a six-foot security fence will be erected along the rail line as it parallels Victoria Road.
 
Mayor Mark McKee said the recommendations were the culmination of a year's worth of sometimes thankless public discussions and negotiations that all of the committee members deserve the public's thanks for working to resolve a contentious public issues.
 
He also publicly thanked everyone who came to the meetings and expressed their opinions - "even the ones with negative opinions about Council members." "At the end of the day we were all working together towards a better solution," McKee said.