BRISTOW, Okla. — The railroad crossing on 8th Street in Bristow seems to have more cars than trains, which is the issue here.
The railroad wants some perks, and the city needs repairs at several other crossings. So, the quid-pro-quo is in.
The railroad made the city a deal. All the council had to do was close one railroad crossing. Then, the railroad would come in and repair and maintain three others. The council couldn’t turn that down, so they decided to close the one on 8th Street. That would have made the road a dead end, concerning some business owners.
“This is our livelihood. This is a big deal for every one of us,” Carla Holsrichter said.
Holsrichter’s insurance office is just a few feet away from the railroad. She also owns some other properties on 8th. She feels the city left her in the dark.
“We’re not a big town. There’s no reason,” Holsrichter said, “They know us personally. So the fact that nobody thought ‘maybe we should contact the people who this is gonna affect the most,’ bothers me.”
Kris Wyatt, the mayor of Bristow, brought this to the city council over the Summer.
“This was a really good opportunity to be in line for millions and millions of dollars of upgrades that we could not pay for,” Wyatt said.
That’s when they decided to close the 8th Street crossing, but after hearing from people like Holsrichter, she reconsidered.
“I don’t know that we measured thoughtuflly the impact of visibility from a thru street on that,” Wyatt said.
“So this was not done as a way to make their business lose value, make their business lose customers. It was thought of, more on a bigger picture of what street gets the traffic.”
The city council discussed the issue during its Sept. 16 meeting. They decided to rescind their decision on 8th Street and tabled a discussion of other options. They plan to address it further at their next meeting.
“When this offer came along, it was a good offer. And we’ll see what happens,” Wyatt said.
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