Concrete medians installed by the City of Nevada, Iowa for their Quiet Zone in 2008. Photo courtesy of Walt MacDonald.

Fairfield City Council has hired a Quiet Zone specialist Andrew Mielke of SRF Consulting using funds donated by the Fairfield Train Safety and Quiet Zone Committee. His job is to advise the City Council on how to implement their resolution of November 2007 to create a Railroad Quiet Zone for Fairfield. The debate has moved on from the sometimes bitter divisions of the past over whether Fairfield should have a Quiet Zone. A recent poll on the Fairfield Iowa Facebook page showed 91% were in favor of Quiet Zone, and dissenting comments are almost never seen in the Facebook discussions or in the comments on the three Quiet Zone articles published on Fairfield Voice this year.

Public discussion now centers on what configuration of Quiet Zone is best for Fairfield, and how much it will cost. According to the Federal Railroads Administration website there are now 385 Railroad Quiet Zones in the US. Fairfield may be the first in the US created with no taxpayer funds and be entirely funded from private donations.

In the public meeting at the Fairfield Library last Sunday night, Mr. Mielke said the minimum configuration to qualify for Quiet Zone for Fairfield would involve changes to only 4 out of the present 8 crossings. This would satisfy the Federal Railroad Administration, which requires the accident risk levels to be reduced to less than the present levels with the horns sounding. He suggested the four changes could be closing 3rd St crossing; installing Supplemental Safety Measures on 2 other Streets; and closing or upgrading one other street. He recommended including 23rd St among the streets to receive safety upgrades since this crossing currently has the highest risk level of the 8 crossings in Fairfield. This is a similar solution as a city in New Jersey he’s currently working which has elected to upgrade only 6 of their total 12 crossings to create a Quiet Zone for the city.

At the other end of the scale, Mr. Mielke said, is Burlington, Iowa, which last year upgraded 6 1/2 out of their 10 crossings. They closed 2 crossings, left one unimproved and installed medians on just one side of one other crossing.

Of the various safety upgrades possible on the crossings, only one is commonly used. This involves placing a concrete median down the center of the street for 60 to 100 feet in front of each railroad crossing gate. This prevents traffic from going around the gate, which is a major cause of accidents. Although cheaper plastic wands are possible as well, these have had problems with vandalism and snowploughs. A former City Council member of Nevada Iowa, Walt MacDonald said in 2008 they installed 920 lineal feet of concrete medians (pictured above) on five crossings for a total cost $28,350, plus around $10,000 for signs and street repairs. This comes out to a total cost of under $8,000 per crossing.

The biggest accident risk reduction for the Quiet Zone is achieved by reducing the number of crossings by closing less used ones. This is why BNSF and the Iowa DoT give cash incentives to close crossings. The Fairfield Quiet Zone committee made a proposal to the City’s Transport and Safety Committee in March in which they reported that these cash grants would be $50,000 total per crossing. Andrew Mielke cautions that deals vary in each case. “The City could expect to receive at least $40,000 per crossing closing,” he said.

In 2004 the Federal Railroads Administration gave two options to the City of Fairfield to establish a Quiet Zone. Both of these options involved closing 3rd and Court St crossings. While no one has come out publicly against closing 3rd St, opinions are more divided on Court St. This has become an issue since the most recent estimates presented to the City by the Quiet Zone Committee in March indicate that Court Street is the most expensive to upgrade due to the poor condition of the road which would need to be resurfaced prior to installing medians. The total cost is estimated at $67,040. So this together with the cash incentives provided by BNSF and Iowa DoT would likely save the City over $100,000 if Court St crossing were closed. This figure could be less if the City bore some of the cost of resurfacing Court Street prior to installing medians.

At Sunday’s public meeting one Court Street resident, Peter Dollive, asked about closing Court Street. Michael Halley, the Council member tasked with heading up the Quiet Zone project responded that his enquiries with fellow Council members indicated the City would not approve this. Mr. Dollive questioned this. “If the residents on Court Street want the street closed, why would anyone want to keep it open?” he asked.

One reason often cited to keep Court Street open is that closing it would inconvenience people traveling to the square by car, on foot or by bicycle. But evidently not for the residents of Court St – so far no resident of Court St has objected to the idea of closing the crossing and many have spoken out in favor.

Since Court St is a dead end on the north end it’s hard to make the case that it is more convenient for people traveling to the city from places other the street itself. To test this, I tried driving to the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center by three different routes from the intersection of B and Kirkwood Sts. Using B St came out quickest at 1 minute 25 seconds. Court St was 6 seconds slower, and Main St came in at 20 seconds slower. Obviously it depends on traffic conditions, but since B St has a better road surface and has parking only one side of the street, it’s likely to be the fastest route most of the time.

Some say business owners around the square feel closing Court Street would inconvenience their customers. Pam and Wayne Slowick, owners of one of the larger retail businesses on Court Street disagree. “We don’t think it will have any impact at all on Thymely Solutions traffic. We think our customers drive up B and Main to cross over to Court Street,” they said.

Closing Court St achieves a significant risk reduction for the Quiet Zone as well as saving donors and the City the cost of upgrading the street. However, as Mr. Mielke points out, it is still an option to not select Court St for one of the streets to be upgraded.

Mr. Mielke expects to have a report with his recommendations ready for the City Council within a month.

I don’t believe I’ve ranted on Fairfield Voice yet, so be aware, this IS a rant. However, it’s one that effects most everyone in our fine little town…

It’s Spring! The birds are chirping, bulbs are blooming and temperatures have finally reached the point where you just want to be outdoors.

What that means to me, is Spring cleaning. Although I did a lot of Fall clean-up, there are still plenty of leaves in my flower beds that need to be raked out. And here is where the rant begins…

I raked a bunch last weekend and used up the last of my Waste Management sanctioned lawn and leaf bags which, apparently, are only carried by Hy-Vee. So I went to Hy-Vee and found that they were out of the bags. I was told that they would have more by this weekend, which wasn’t horrible, just a little inconvenient.

So now it’s this weekend. I called over to Hy-Vee, only to discover that they still do not have any bags, and worse yet, they don’t even know when they will get any.

As the great philosopher Popeye once opined “That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more!”

I don’t even know what to do about this. My garden is growing and I can almost guarantee that within the next week, it will be thick with new growth and still full of waste. Surely some of it is good for the garden, but not all of it. Oh, and not to mention all of those little maple trees that are growing that, if not picked now, will be like trying to pull a post set in concrete out of the ground.

Surely, I could get it all done and put it in the trash can. But that wouldn’t be very environmentally friendly, now would it? Not to mention the fact that Waste Management won’t take the trash if there is lawn waste in it.

Then there are the big green plastic “Hefty” bags that work way better than the paper ones but since they aren’t reyclable, won’t be picked up by Waste Management either.

So what is a citizen to do? Oh yes, I guess I can burn my leaves, but as I commented on a blog post on this site a few months ago, I’m not really into that. I’d simply like to rake, bag, and recycle. (Oh, I neglected to mention that I tried calling Waste Management but since it is Saturday, the office is closed.)

Am I the only one with this problem or as a relatively new resident is there another way to do this that I am unaware of?

Guess I’ll spend this sunny day curled up around my laptop with tax receipts and Turbo Tax, which I have to do anyway.

But I’d sure rather spend some time in the garden…

This week I thought I’d try something new and collect the best locally produced videos that made it onto the Internet this week.

Purple Asteroid Cadillac = Iowa Hip-Hop

PurpleAsteroidCadillac is a local band looking to shed some light on Iowa Hip-Hop. I like it!

Coal Train Short

I’m not totally clear on the context, but apparently some one who’s a fan of trains spotted something rare rumbling through Fairfield this week. It’s also a great short – get ready to cover your ears.

MSAE Senior Class Sings ‘Let It Be’

It certainly beats the Night Ranger song that my high school class sang back in the 80s.

A Move For Jason Lee Goodwin

In honor of Jason Lee Goodwin, family and friends moved a house in Fairfield, Iowa.

Here is another great opportunity for local gardeners new and experienced to learn more about growing their own food!  As part of his internship in the Iowa Master Gardener program, MUM Sustainable Living professor Alex Kachan is offering a series of workshops on various aspects of small-scale, organic gardening to the entire community for free.  The only requirement is that you register at least one week in advance because each workshop is limited to 15 participants.  If Alex gets more than 15 requests for a workshop he will schedule a repeat for the overflow members.

I had the great pleasure of both attending one of Alex’s lectures on Vermicomposting (using composting worms to biologically break down organic matter) and working with him at the Ecovillage CSA two summers ago.  He is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about growing food sustainably from every step in the cycle, so I am sure these workshops will be not only informative but inspiring.

Here is a brief listing of workshop times and topics.  Email Alex at the address below for complete descriptions and to reserve a spot in the ones that interest you.

Sunday, March 14th, 2010: Starting Seeds
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept., room 111 & SL greenhouse

Sunday, April 18th, 2010: Making your bed – the art of Double Digging!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Sunday, April 25th, 2010: Compost – learning to grow soil!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Sunday, May 2nd 2010: Compost Tea – pampering your soil & vegetables!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept. room 111

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010: Garden Q&A’s
Workshop length: 2:00– 4:00 PM (2 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Workshops will be filled on a first come, first served basis.  To register, choose the workshops you wish to take and send their titles, dates & your name to Alex at: akachan@mum.edu

Click here to download a flyer providing more details on the workshops.

There may still be snow on the ground, but the days are getting longer, the temperatures are creeping up and if you listen, lots of birds have returned from their winter journeys.  That means it’s the perfect time to start planning your garden!  For anyone thinking of starting a garden for the first time, or who wants to learn some new tips and tricks, the At Home Store is hosting a new garden planning series this spring.  Starting next week is a two-part class called Planting a Garden with guest lecturer Moni Hayne.

Here is the information from the At Home Store’s Facebook event page (click to RSVP):

Moni Hayne will be joining us to share her garden knowledge. An organic gardener, with lots of experience gardening in the Midwest, Moni will be lecturing on Garden Planning, and Beneficial Insects. Learn tips on how to plan your garden, how to start seeds (and how many to start!) and how to work with beneficial insects to make a healthy garden.

The first class will focus primarily on garden planning, and the second class will focus on beneficial insects of the garden, and how to enlist their help!

The first class is on Thursday, March 11th from 6:30 to 8:00pm.  The second class is Thursday, April 8th. Cost is $10 per class, or $15 for both classes.  The At Home Store is located at 52 North Main Street, on the Fairfield square.

Once again, here is a link to the event page if you would like to RSVP.

Here is the At Home Store page on Facebook.

Stay tuned to Fairfield Voice for more gardening tips and resources coming soon!

My Mom started a green family tradition that is still lively after 12 years. She was weary of all the waste piles of discarded wrapping paper every Christmas morning….so much for our large family and such an expensive waste! She declared a moratorium on paper gift wrap, and began sewing cloth gift bags for the gifts she gave.

A couple years later, my sister gave us each a huge pile of various-sized, Christmas-themed cloth gift bags, enough to “wrap” all our gifts. She’d shopped the after-holiday fabric sales and picked up beautiful fabrics which she sewed into gift bags that would fit a variety of standard gift boxes.

All our gifts within our family arrive wrapped in these cloth gift bags. Some of the bags are years into rotation within our family circle, and my sisters and I have certain favorites we love to find coming back to us. On Christmas morning, instead of a mountain of crumpled wrapping paper, we have a neat stack of folded gift bags with ribbons tucked inside and collapsed gift boxes. No paper – zero.

I’ve taken the cloth gift bag idea one step further and made “all-occasion” gift bags for birthdays, Mother’s Day, etc. We use these within our family, trading them back and forth. If anyone of us ends up with more than the others, we just send a supply along with the next gift sent.

I’m now looking for organic cottons from which to sew more bags. The artist in me loves discovering fun fabrics and beautiful ribbons to make the bags, and I hope to start expanding our circle of friends and family who will adopt the concept.

As an incentive, this year my friends will be receiving a selection of cloth gift bags on their birthday to launch them into our green family custom. I invite anyone to sew your own gift bags. It would be a nice little green cottage industry for anyone with basic sewing skills.  A new stand at the Farmers Market perhaps?