The New Iberia City Council is set to vote on a resolution opposing the closure of crossing arms at railroad tracks on Caroline and Evangeline streets at Tuesday’s meeting. 

City government received a response earlier this month for a status report of the railroad safety projects from the state Department of Transportation and Development Rail Safety Engineer Bill Shrewsberry. In the letter from Shrewsberry, it was noted that both streets were considered candidates for closure. 

Closing one of the railroads is currently a socketed item on DOTD’s priority list, but over the years New Iberia government has fought consistently against closing tracks at the behest of local residents. 

In May 2016, DOTD let their intentions be known the tracks on Providence and possibly Caroline streets were to be closed, but after a City Council meeting in which business owners who live near the street complained, DOTD reversed the decision. 

For Caroline and Evangeline, the closure of those tracks diverts traffic to nearby Glenn Street, a smaller street with elderly residents. One local resident said at the time that there were no traffic accidents at the time either. 

But in the letter sent this month, Shrewsberry cites a November 2016 collision at the crossing that required closure of the crossing to be reconsidered by the city. 

At the City Council meeting on May 1, members of the City Council, including David Broussard and Mayor Pro Tem Dan Doerle, vigorously opposed another attempt at a railroad closure. Because the city has no control over the railroads, however, a resolution is the most they can do. 

“I remember the neighbors that came here (the last time), and until you live down a street you don’t know,” Doerle said at the meeting. “And those streets: Caroline, Evangeline, Bayard, they’ve got a nursing home at the end and elderly people.”

In other business, the council will vote on a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a yearly maintenance agreement with DOTD for mowing and litter pick up for the fiscal year. 

Another resolution will allow the mayor to submit an application for wastewater facility system improvements to the state Department of Environmental Quality on behalf of the city of New Iberia for the purpose of placing the rehabilitation project for the Silver and Tampico streets areas, as well as the Squirrel Run pump station on the project priority list for funding through the state’s revolving fund loan program. 

The meeting takes place 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at New Iberia City Hall.