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Dear Friends and Supporters of the Quiet Zone,
Yesterday the Public Safety Transportation Committee of the Ff. City Council met
and unanimously voted to move forward with the QZ and will recommend the same to
the City Council on Monday the 12th of July at 7 p.m. Although the motion to
pursue QZ status for Fairfield will not be the final and totally definitive vote
on the matter, it is critical that we get as many votes in favor as possible
next Monday.
Please call or email your council member, and either of the at large members as
soon as possible and let them know that you support the QZ and hope they will
vote in favor. I will list the phone numbers and email addresses below for your
convenience. Our goal here is that no one can say they have not heard from
anyone who supports the QZ. This is the main reason we created this email list,
for moments like this where we need everyone to step up and encourage our City
Council to do the right thing and support the QZ.
The matter of the City's contribution to the QZ cost and who will pay for the
necessary street repairs on Court St. will be dealt with later, and we recommend
leaving that discussion for later. Thanks so much for your patience and support!
City Council Members:
1st Ward - Ron Adam - (641)472-4011 rkadam@lisco.com
2nd Ward- John Revolinski - (641)472-3939 jrevolinski@gmail.com
3rd Ward - Ray Mottett - (641)472-9010 motify@iowatelecom.net
4th Ward - Michael Halley - (641)233-0445 mhalley25@gmail.com
5th Ward - Daryn Hamilton - (641)469-6162 dhamilt@yahoo.com
At Large - Myron Gookin - (641)472-8650 mlgfkg@lisco.com
At Large - Susan Silvers - (641)472-7190
silversforcitycouncil@hotmail.com
Fairfield Quiet Zone will come to a vote on the City Council in the next
month or so. Prior to that vote a meeting has been scheduled for this Monday to
inform and educate the public on the details of the Quiet Zone and provide all
members of the community the opportunity to express their thoughts, feelings,
and concerns about the project. This meeting is an effort to ensure that
everyone has had the opportunity to get informed and make their feelings known.
It is important that Quiet Zone supporters attend this meeting to show support
for the project. If you can't make it at 7, please come when you can. Please see
the front page of the current edition of the Fairfield Weekly Reader for further
details.
In May the City Council voted unanimously to hire quiet zone expert Andy Mielke
of SRF Consulting. Mielke came highly recommended by city officials in
Burlington and has helped guide them and 23 other cities through the process of
establishing their city's quiet zone. After completing site work in Fairfield,
collecting traffic counts for each crossing, and working closely with the city
engineer and director of Public Works, Mielke will provide an updated report in
time for the Monday meeting at 7 p. m. at the Library.
This meeting will dramatically affect the council's decision to approve or
reject these recommendations.
It is crucial that we have positive, polite support at this meeting. Please
come, forward this email to friends, and bring at least one neighbor that
strongly supports the quiet zone.
We are very close to getting our QZ approved. Thanks for all your support.
May 21, 2010
Dear Friends,
Last week Michael Halley, Fairfield City Council member, and Bill
Blackmore and Ira Roffel visited the Burlington Quiet Zone and met
with the City Administrator and local business leaders who created
their Quiet Zone last December. We were amazed at how the concrete
medians looked. (see attached photo). The medians were much smaller
than we expected and not at all intrusive. Seeing is believing-we
think that when the people of Fairfield see exactly what it takes to
silence the train horns that support will only grow.
The Burlington City Administrator and business leaders spoke of how
this small change has had such a huge positive effect to their
downtown area. Their Quiet Zone has brought several very important
residential and business developments to the downtown area and has
had a positive impact on retail activities too. We invited them to
speak to our City Council. We were given copies of dozens of letters
from the business community describing the great benefits and
changes they have experienced from their Quiet Zone.
The latest big news about our efforts is that this week the
Fairfield City Council voted unanimously to hire Andy Mielke of SRF
Consulting to help finalize the details of our own QZ. The cost of
Andy's work will be paid for entirely by the Fairfield Train Safety
and Quiet Zone Committee. None of your donations will go towards the
cost of the consultant. It is being paid for by a donation
specifically for this purpose and funds from the raffle done in
2008. Andy Mielke's first visit to Fairfield will be announced
shortly.
One idea that has been considered to help defray the cost of our QZ
is to close the N. Court St. crossing. This would reduce the cost
significantly. However, we are told that there is not enough
support/votes on the City Council to get this done. As an
alternative we are going to ask that the City pay the cost of
repairing Court St. so medians can be installed. In simple terms, if
we link approval our our Fairfield QZ to the closure of the Court
St. crossing, we risk losing some of the growing support we have.
Please tell your friends and neighbors that we are making great
progress and forward this email to anyone who might be interested.
We'll let you know when there will be an opportunity to meet Andy
Mielke and hear his vision of how we can finally get this done.
Thanks for your interest and support. The Fairfield Quiet Zone
Committee
Special Quiet Zone Meeting to be announced featuring Top Quiet Zone Expert Andy Mielke of srfconsulting.com.
We are pleased to announce that we have hired an experienced quiet zone consultant to make the final recommendations (crossing by crossing) for the completion of the Fairfield Quiet Zone.
Andy Mielke has worked on 25 quiet zones across the country including Burlington. We are confident that Andy will quickly provide us with professional recommendations for how to quickly and cost effectively improve our railroad crossings to qualify for quiet zone status.
We will be announcing a special presentation by Andy to review the economic, social, and health benefits of the project as well as the fastest path to completion. We encourage you all to attend and bring friends to the presentation to show the City Council the broad community support for our quiet zone. We will let you the date and time as soon as the meeting is set.
We want to again thank all of you for your support. In pledges, cash donations, and city contributions we have raised over $200,000 for this important project.
It is very likely that we will need to raise additional funds to complete our quiet zone project. We will be contacting donors who have made multi year pledges with suggestions for converting those pledges to much needed cash. For those waiting to contribute now is the time. Please contribute as soon and as much as possible. Tax deductible donations can be made by check made out to ALF FTSQZ sent to PO Box 2302 here in Fairfield. For credit card donations contact us at qt@natel.net.
Special thanks to the Fairfield City Council Public Safety and Transportation Committee members Ron Adam, Chmn., Darryn Hamilton, and Michael Halley for all their help.
Thank you as always for your support, donations, and patience with this complex process.
Regards, The Fairfield Train Safety and Quiet Zone Committee
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Click here to
see 10 photos from Burlington
Iowa's Posted on
FaceBook.com "I visited Burlington, IA on a fact gathering mission for the Fairfield City Council to learn about the process their city went through to establish a Railroad Quiet Zone. These pictures show the safety enhancements made to their crossings that enabled them to receive a Quiet Zone designation from the Federal Railroad Administration." |

Fairfield Train
Safety & Quiet Zone
PO Box 2302, Fairfield, Iowa 52556
641-919-1118
Sample of train noise
(in case you have not heard enough)
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