The railroad crossing at Maben Bell School House Road is pictured Wednesday. The town of Maben hopes to have the track on the crossing removed before the end of the year. Paloma Green/Dispatch Staff	   MABEN – After more than a year of behind-the-scenes work and negotiations, Oktibbeha County has committed to help Maben remove about 30 feet of railroad from a track that has lain dormant for 20-plus years.
The track is part of the Columbus and Greenville Railway owned by parent company Genesee & Wyoming. The town is looking to remove a section that crosses Maben Bell School House Road because the track’s deteriorating condition has damaged vehicles that drive across it. Decaying timbers are even exposing spikes at the crossing, Mayor Lee Shuffield told The Dispatch.
     Lee Shuffield   “We’re going to help this get this accomplished because it’s very desperately needed in our town,” Shuffield said. “It’s actually three sets of tracks together right there in that section of the road, and it is (crossed) many, many, many times daily.”
Maben residents have complained to Shuffield about the spikes puncturing tires and he has heard of at least one case where a loose cross tie damaged a car. He said he often picks up hub caps and other car parts that land in front of his landscaping company’s shop at Maben Bell School House Road.
Shuffield said other municipalities, like Eupora, have similarly paved over sections of their crossings and he wants to bring Maben in line with that standard.
CAGY waived its $4,000 document preparation fee and engineering review fee required to process right-of-entry requests.
“If the town believes it is in their best interest to remove the crossing at this time, Columbus and Greenville Railway (CAGY) does not object,” reads a statement provided to The Dispatch by Tom Ciuba, a CAGY spokesperson. “CAGY is providing an easement for the crossing removal at no cost.”
CAGY has not yet provided an easement because it requires the county to take out an insurance policy and bonds for the project, prior to issuing the right-to-entry. The board of supervisors gave County Administrator Wayne Carpenter permission to begin that process during its Tuesday meeting.
Carpenter is not yet sure how much the policy and bonds will cost but said Maben has committed to covering those.
“It’s been a slow process,” Shuffield said. “… Now we are just waiting to get (Carpenter’s) paperwork in order and once he does that we’ll be able to submit that to the railroad. And then they will hopefully finish up their part and then, maybe, this won’t take another year to get this thing complete.”
The county will cover the cost of track removal and road work, estimated to be about $15,600, because the county helps repair Maben’s roads in exchange for 50% of its road maintenance tax levy.
Shuffield is cautiously optimistic the removal will happen before the end of the year. Carpenter agrees with that timeline.
“That was one of my goals when I was elected a little over a year ago, that I wanted to see (this) accomplished,” Shuffield said. “So that’s going to be exciting when that day comes for me, for sure, and I think our residents too.”