VOORHEESVILLE — The village resident who more than anyone else has willed the Voorheesville Quiet Zone into existence recently expressed frustration that the things he was being told were not matching real-world actions.

Steve Schreiber is the chairman of the grassroots Committee for a Quiet Zone in Voorheesville, which was founded nearly a decade ago to keep trains from sounding their horns as they regularly travel through the village.

At the Nov. 23 village board meeting, Schreiber recalled that, at the trustees’ meeting three months ago, he was told a process would create an agreement between CSX and Albany County regarding the ownership of the Quiet Zone’s four-quadrant gate system, which have to belong to the county to satisfy funding requirements set by the state’s Dormitory Authority.

“So we’re now 90 days later; three months later. We’ve listened and heard progress was being made. There has been discussion; there’s been a process that’s underway,” Schreiber said. “And so, I maybe somewhat naively thought that a process would involve at some point a draft agreement between the two parties to accomplish what we’re talking about.”

The county legislature authorized the submission of a grant application to the Dormitory Authority in April 2018. Four months later, the county was notified of the available funding and set aside $340,000 for the project.

In 2019, CSX was awarded a $87,620 contract for preliminary project engineering, with $252,330 remaining in the Quiet Zone budget line.

The county legislature in March 2021 awarded Saratoga Railroad Engineering a $131,440 contract for design and inspection services, but when the “Norfolk Southern-CSX proposal came to light, they put a stop to it,” Mayor Rich Straut said in August. “They said we need to understand what’s going to happen here before we continue to move forward with design to the Quiet Zone.”

Mayor Richard Straut told The Enterprise after the trustees’ August meeting that, while the contract had been awarded, no actual design work had started — which may be because the money’s not actually there.  “The county still still does have to jump through some hoops on making sure that this funding from [the state’s Dormitory Authority] is secured,” Straut said earlier in the August meeting. “So they may not tell the consultant to start until they absolutely have the knowledge that that funding has been [secured].”

During the Sept. 28 board meeting, Straut said Albany County is “still working through the funding questions” with the Quiet Zone. The Dormitory Authority funding is supposed to be used for an asset — in this case, the four-quadrant gate system — that the municipality, Albany County, would have to have some type of ownership of or an extended lease interest in. 

Straut said in September that CSX “seemed agreeable” with the county owning the gates and with the rail company maintaining them, but nothing had been formalized. Straut then said there was a verbal agreement between CSX and Albany County that the county would own the gate system that would be placed on CSX’s land — the county would have a permanent easement, village attorney Rich Reilly said. 

“We’re working on trying to bring these concepts to a written agreement,” Straut said in September. “So, then that can go to DASNY, [and] DASNY can check that box and send the money.” Straut said on Nov. 23 that there were continued discussions between the county and CSX regarding the freight carrier’s granting the property access that’s required for the grant.

After he expressed his frustration with how the project had proceeded since August, Schreiber informed trustees that the village’s county legislator, William Reinhardt, had been in contact with Albany County’s point person for the project, Lucas Rogers.

“Rogers was asked by county Legislator Reinhardt, ‘What was going on with this? What’s the status?’” Schreiber said.

In a Nov. 4 email, Rogers told Reinhardt that he had reached out to CSX three times in the month prior  “to try and get this moving” and had not received a response. In a mid-October regulatory filing, CSX claimed it “continue[d] to meet regularly and work” with the village on issues it raised in a July letter to the Surface Transportation Board. 

Schreiber said his own set of questions for Rogers went unanswered. “And so in my view, this isn’t working. It’s not working at all,” he said. “I mean, really, we should be past general terms like ‘reaching out’ and ‘in process’ and ‘underway.’”

“I keep hearing these reassurances and I feel I’m in a parallel universe ... I see nothing really, and then I’m told something’s happening,” Schreiber said. 

The mayor couldn’t offer Schreiber much in the way of an update in part because the project’s involved parties had decided not to discuss specifics due to the details having yet to be agreed upon, but Straut did say during the Nov. 23 meeting that, since Schreiber’s Nov. 4 email to Rogers, the county and CSX had been in communication.

“I believe that we’re heading in the right direction,” Straut told Schreiber. “I know it’s an extended process, but it’s not as extended as the past nine years.”