File Photo A freight train moves across an intersection in Minot in the midst of a spate of prolonged road blockages in February similar to issues raised at Monday’s Rugby City Council meeting.

The Rugby City Council were presented with concerns from a north Rugby resident regarding trains blocking the main street intersection.

The issue was not on the agenda, and brought forward near the conclusion of the meeting by Dave Bednarz, who is also a county commissioner representing District #3. Bednarz said the issue has been bothering him for around four years, and in the last week the intersection has been blocked by trains for up to 36 hours at a time. Bednarz felt Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway was misusing the city of Rugby as a parking lot to allow other trains to pass by.

“My brother-in-law, who was an engineer for 40 years, assures me, and it’s in the North Dakota Century Code, that if they’re going to block an intersection through town…they’re supposed to unhook in 10 to 15 minutes,” Bednarz said. “There’s no reason for them to not unhook. It’s the laziness of the engineer. Today, the signs were down, and there was no train on the track. But the engine was sitting about 100 feet to the west. It didn’t go far enough to the west so that the gates would open up. In the meantime two cars decided to go around that thing.”

Bednarz acknowledged the law does include a number of exceptions, but said nothing angered him more than turning onto to main to see the train blocking the road. Bednarz mentioned the blockages have interfered with civic events like the Fourth of July and Homecoming parades.

“I don’t have a problem when they’re loading grain. By God, they’re moving right along. But am I the only one that notices that they have the same damn car sitting on mainstreet for 36 hours at a time? I mean, let’s send some letters out there. Let’s stick with it,” Bednarz said.

City councilman Neil Lotvedt said his fellow councilman and state legislator Jon Nelson was working with the North Dakota Department of Transportation on the schedule in light of the future highway project, but that the NDCC as written was “unenforceable” and wasn’t being enforced.

“Nobody has been enforcing it. At this point BN has something in there saying they have the right of way,” Lotvedt. “What we would like is the county to start backing us so we can get that out of there. The City can’t do it by ourselves.”

Lotvedt said every intersection needs to be split 300 feet each way, and he’s told BNSF they have a segment going to the airport they can use as parking.

Bednarz replied something had to be done, and Lotvedt said they all should get on a phone call after Nelson makes contact with NDDOT.

“The U.S. government gave them that land to bring the railroad here. That makes them above everybody else. We’re working with the fire department. The emergency services are going to be a nightmare if we have a train,” Lotvedt said. “We’re all with you Dave.”

According to a Feb. 12 article from The Minot Daily News, a representative of the Federal Railroad Administration, all state and local laws regarding blocked crossings are unenforceable due to federal preemption. Warren Flatau, deputy director of Public Affairs for the FRA said in the article reports of blocked crossings can be made on the FRA’s website. Only one report is allowed to be submitted per person, but an investigation will be initiated if a certain number of reports are turned in over a two-week period.