Vernon calls special meeting Thursday on Maple St. crossing grant

Vernon's village council has called a special meeting for 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, with a single item of business: whether to submit an application for a Grade Crossing Improvement Project at the Maple Street railroad crossing.

That is the whole agenda. The posted notice lists a call to order, roll call, two calls to audience, the Maple Street item and adjournment. The meeting is at Village Hall, 120 E. Main Street.

The village has been pursuing improvement funding for the Maple Street crossing. The agenda does not say what work the application would cover, what it would cost, which program the money would come from or whether the village would owe a local match. None of those figures appear in the packet posted with the notice.

Grade crossing improvement programs generally pay for work where a road meets a rail line — surface, signals, gates and approaches. Which of those, if any, is in Vernon's application is not stated in the document.

The council last met Sept. 16, when, as The Current reported, it took up public hearings on three zoning ordinances covering mixed-use development and mobile repair shops. Before that, the council used an Aug. 26 special meeting to handle a raise for DPW Superintendent Trevor Graves and a three-year audit proposal from Berthiaume & Company.

Residents who want to speak get up to three minutes, once, during a call to audience, under the rules printed on the agenda. Anyone needing an accommodation to attend is asked to contact Village Clerk Krista Goodman at Village Hall or (989) 288-2300 with 72 hours' notice.

What happens next: the council votes Thursday on whether to file the application. If it approves, the cost, scope and funding source should appear in the application itself and in the meeting minutes. The Current will report the vote and those figures when they are available.