Page 37 - Sonoma County Gazette April 2017

After 10 days away, I came home full of Mexico’s sun, warmed to the core on theOur sleepy little town has gone from a ag stop on the NWP RR to a major crossroads and thoroughfare with tra c signals. This month, Burr Wilson (Penngroovian) and Supervisor Rabbitt catch us up on signals, trains, roads and more. Thank you to both!
Supervisor David Rabbitt Reports
Main Street Crossing
• A queue cutter signal is currently being installed on Main Street in Penngrove. Over the next few months residents will see control boxes and foundations being installed and in early May should see the installation of the queue cutter signal poles and light displays. The goal is to turn on the queue cutter by the middle of May barring any unforeseen events. (A queue cutter is a special tra c signal designed to keep the railroad tracks clear from vehicles)
• The quad gate system is currently being designed. The final design is scheduled to go to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in April.
Once the design is approved and funding secured the quad gates will be ordered and the County will request a construction bid and set a construction schedule.
• Concurrent to the design of the Main Street crossing, Transportation Public Works Department has been researching medians to replace the concrete medians that are found at some of the Penngrove crossings.
Quiet Zones
• Sonoma County is reviewing the Quiet Zone documents and will file a Notice of Intent early next week. Sta has been working closely with the City of Rohnert Park and Cotati to file this documentation with the Federal Rail Authority. Once filed the 60 day Reportscomment period will begin.
• Supervisor Rabbitt and Supervisor Gorin advocated for a pilot project on Copeland Creek to help minimize ooding in and around Penngrove due to Copeland Creeks past history. Work has already started on this pilot project.
Cannabis
• With the recent voter approved cannabis tax measure, the county will be
able to boost code enforcement to protect neighborhoods from illegal grow operations and permit grows in areas that their land use designation allows. The Board of Supervisors will discuss the approved measure expenditures in early April and will revisit a more comprehensive plan later in 2017.
Burr Wilson Reports
SMART Train
Immigrant students have little to fear
Test trains are regularly running on the SMART track through Penngrove. These aren’t your father’s old, mile-long freight trains lumbering down the track and tying up the crossings for eternity – the SMART passenger cars are fast and quick to come and go. Safety is paramount. A newly developed Positive Train Control (PTC) system is online, with aggers and monitoring personnel being posted at critical grade crossings during system shakedown runs.
Your safety begins with you: please use caution when crossing the railroad track on foot, on bike, or in a vehicle. There’s no need to rush a crossing to beat an oncoming SMART train. The crossing will be closed for only a minute; let the train pass, and then go safely on your way.
What is a “queue-cutter” signal?
President Donald Trump’s immigration policies will not have any effect on the students in the schools in Rohnert Park and Cotati.
The Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District (CRPUSD) Board of Trustees received legal guidance from the California School Boards Association. Immigration enforcement o cers would need to follow these – and other – procedures:
• District personnel shall not allow any immigration enforcement o cer
or agent to enter a school site without first signing in with the school administration and making a request to enter campus, and shall forward any request by immigration enforcement agents to enter a school site (including for the services of lawful subpoenas, petitions, complaints, warrants, etc.) to the superintendent’s o ce for review.
• Whenever possible under the law, district personnel, when encountering immigration enforcement agents who are on school grounds on account of urgent circumstances, will direct them to the school o ce and alert an administrator to contact the superintendent’s o ce.
• District personnel will immediately send all requests by immigration enforcement agents for information or documents to Haley, who will consider all legally permissible actions that may be taken to respond to such requests to protect the privacy rights of students and their families.
• District personnel shall not enter into any agreement with ICE to enforce federal immigration law, and shall not participate in any ICE or Border Patrol enforcement actions.
Copeland Creek Maintenance
A seventh-grader could save your life
Less than half the
people who su er
cardiac arrest get
needed help before
professional help
arrives, according
to the American
Heart Association.
But that is changing.
The Rohnert Park
Department of
Public Safety is
providing four
instructors in CPR
to teach as many
people – including
school students – as
possibe Hands-
Only CPR training,
including use of the
automated external
defibrillator (AED).
To learn more, go to cpr.heart.org.
Queue-cutters are a specialized form of tra c signal, consisting of a pre- signal on the roadway placed in advance (upstream) of a railroad grade crossing and interoperated with a downstream signal beyond the crossing. These tra c signals are interconnected with railroad crossing warning systems for pre- emptive, coordinated operation, giving adequate time upon train approach to clear vehicles from the track area and downstream intersections.
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Road Work Ahead
The county Public Works department and contractors are erecting tra c signals on major roadways around Penngrove; 1) the pedestrian crosswalk
on Old Redwood Highway intersection with Adobe Road and Penngrove Avenue is becoming an active warning system, and 2) tra c elements at the intersection of Main Street with Woodward Street are being signalized, starting with queue-cutter* tra c signals around the railroad crossing. An illuminated No Left Turn signal will warn motorists inside this intersection not to turn onto the railroad tracks during train approach. Pedestrian elements of this busy and congested intersection plus a long-awaited upgrade of railroad crossing warning appliances to a 4-quadrant gate system are still in the design stage.