Tonight, the Decatur City Commission will consider signing an agreement with CSX in the amount of $230,000 to pay for a critical piece of the long-discussed (we been talking about it since at LEAST 2009!) railroad crossing improvements at McDonough and Candler Streets.

According to a letter from Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon to the commission, this amount is related to the construction that will occur within the CSX right-of-way. CSX requires that it will install the new surfaces in the right of way at both crossings and review and approve all plans.

According to Mr. Saxon, CSX estimates the costs for this piece of the project as…

• Engineering and Construction Inspections – $37,000
• McDonough Crossing – Flagging and Construction – $96,500
• Candler Crossing – Flagging and Construction – $96,500

Check out the original plan for the Candler crossing above and the McDonough crossing below.   You can also find out more about these projects on the city’s website.

The City was awarded Transportation Enhancement project money for a large part of the total cost for these crossing improvements way back in 2008, but all the coordination with the many parties involved (CSX, GDOT, etc), destined it to be a long, drawn out process.  Could it finally be happening?

From this month’s Decatur Focus…

You may think that because the City Commission just approved an “agreement” with the Georgia Department of Transportation at their meeting last night – which will provide $1,415,867 in federal funding (through the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Livable Centers Initiative) for the North McDonough streetscape improvements – that you might see bulldozers and men decked out in orange down by the high school any day now.

And you would be so very wrong.

According to Decatur Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon, construction on the project will not begin for 4-7 years.

And it’s not for a lack of trying by the city.  They’ve already hired a design firm (which is being paid for with MARTA “off-set” funding) – the same design firm that’s doing the railroad crossing designs – and have held multiple meetings with residents about what they want to see along North McDonough in the future.

The hold up is due to just one adjective in my first sentence: “federal”.  As Mr. Saxon explained to the City Commission last night, because this is a federally funded project, the city will be required to jump through countless hoops (a full environmental review that was mentioned last night) over the next few YEARS in order to finally get the money in hand to pay for the physical improvements.

So, if you have kids in high school, you might want to break the news that they probably will never walk along wider sidewalks up to the Square before they graduate.  HOWVER, if you’ve got a 7 year-old, get that kid jazzed because in 7 years time “Streetscapes baby!”.

If Decatur still had possession of THIS fire truck, I’m pretty confident that the city’s “Touch a Truck Day” would no longer be dominated by kids.  Car and history buffs would stand in long lines, wide-eyed, jumping in place, giggling, waiting for their chance to sit in this beauty, making all the relevant fire truck noises with their mouths.

But seriously, even if you’re not into historic vehicles, the photo is worth a look.  (I can’t post it here because like most state-owned photos, I’d have to fill out a form and make payment to display it here.)  Three Decatur Fire Fighters (circa 1914) pose in the photograph along McDonough Street in the city’s brand-new, $8,000 fire truck.  According to a note attached to the photo, it was the city’s first truck after the fire department’s establishment the same year.

The Old Courthouse’s tower is also viewable in the picture, along with a “hardware store” and Turner Funeral Home.

P.S.  Next Stop’s got another nice pic of East Courthouse Square up on his site, featuring what is now the Lenz Building prior to its “modern” facade transformation.  To get your bearings, the Brick Store Pub building is currently at the far left-side of the photo.