Council Committee Moves Forward on Rail Consolidation Study; Bresee Tower Continues to Fade from the North End

ABOVE: Bresee Tower continues to become less and less from the north end in.

The Danville City Council Public Works Committee has forwarded to the full council plans for a railroad grade crossing and rail consolidation study.  The city has received a $400,000 grant, and would need to match it with $100,000.  It would emphasize the Norfolk Southern and CSX lines.  But as Community Development Administrator Logan Cronk explained after Tuesday night’s (June 10th) committee meeting, this could lead to a variety of  major or minor changes.  But either way, the goal would be to make things more convenient for Danville drivers.

Public Works Committee at Tuesday evening meeting.

AUDIO: (Could be) signs that say “hey traffic, go north, there’s a train on Bowman.”  It could be as cheap as that; or it could go up to an overpass.  But it’s all down to dollars at the end of the day, and we need to be realistic and understand that.  (But the goal is make some improvements, make it more convenient.)  Yes, get rid of the burden of the 15-20 minute wait behind the trains is essentially the point of the grant.

The study proposed goes before the full Danville City Council on June 17th.

As for what’s happening right now, the tear down of Bresee Tower by Homrich continues.  From the northern end, it is obvious that the tower is gradually disappearing.  And as Director of Public Works David Ruwe explains, the height of the old tower will go down when it’s time.

AUDIO: That hasn’t completely been described to us as far as how that’ll go as it gets closer.  We’ll follow back up with them on a meeting just to get a little bit better understanding.  But as they get closer to the southern end of the building, that’ll starting coming down from the top down.

(1st Picture) P.J. Bourn tells the story of recording her grandson’s heartbeat before he passed away.  (2nd Picture) Logan Cronk talks about previous street name changes in Danville.

Meanwhile, at Tuesday’s meeting, P.J. Bourn requested that Harding Place be renamed Christian-Jhace Cove after her grandson.  The committee understood the reason for Bourn’s request, but questioned what kind of precedence such a move would make.  It will go before the full council without a recommendation on the 17th.