Baker City’s plan to establish a railroad quiet zone is continuing.

Michelle Owen, the city’s public works director, said she submitted a notice of intent to establish the quiet zone in early January, and it is under a 60-day comment period that ends March 9.

Based on any comments the city receives, Owen said she will revise the proposal and then submit an application for the quiet zone to the Federal Railroad Administration.

If the federal agency approves a quiet zone for Baker City, freight trains would not be required, as they are now, to sound their whistles when approaching each of the five public crossings within the city limits, including Broadway, Auburn and 17th.

Train crews could use the whistles at their discretion — if a person or vehicle was on the tracks, for instance.

To qualify for a quiet zone, the city would need to make physical upgrades to the crossings so vehicles couldn’t easily get to the tracks, even when the crossing arms, bells and flashing lights are activated when a train approaches.

A local nonprofit that supports the quiet zone has committed to raising the money for the improvements — estimated last year at about $150,000 — so the city doesn’t need to spend money for that work.

Owen said the group, which had raised about half that amount by last spring, is planning a fundraising effort.

“The fundraising group has asked us to kind of look at ways that folks could contribute,” Owen said.

Peter Fargo, who is a member of the group raising money for the quiet zone improvements, said the group plans to meet March 20 with local business owners about fundraising.

The city accepts tax-deductible donations for crossing upgrades. Options include:

• Call City Hall, 541-523-6541, to make a payment by credit or debit card. Specify that your donation is for “RR Quiet Zone Fund 175-740.”

• Write a check to: City of Baker City, RR Quiet Zone, Fund 175-740. Include a separate memo in the envelope with your payment amount, name, address, cell phone number, and email address. Mail it to P.O. Box 650, Baker City, OR 97814. Or drop your payment in the lockbox outside City Hall.

The city would be responsible for maintaining structures built at crossings, which could include such things as concrete medians with plastic poles.

Owen said last year that maintaining the structures would cost the city an estimated $500 per year.

La Grande installed similar features before its quiet zone took effect in 2019.

Pendleton also has a quiet zone.

The Federal Railroad Administration has approved more than 900 quiet zones in the country over the past 15 years or so, including 13 in Oregon.

The path to the city applying for a quiet zone was a circuitous one.

On Jan. 25, 2022, the City Council voted 4-3 to apply for a quiet zone.

But on April 12, councilors, decided instead to take the matter to city voters.

Then, two weeks later, councilors changed course again, as councilor Kenyon Damschen, after researching the quiet zone issue, voted in favor of a motion to revert to the Jan. 25 decision to apply for a quiet zone without putting the issue on the ballot.

Based on studies of 562 quiet zones nationwide by the Government Accountability Office, the federal auditing agency, in 2011 and 2013, there is no “statistically significant difference” in the number of accidents at train crossings before and after quiet zones were established.