The Clinton County Drainage Board approved drainage plan for the new Forest Fire Station Tuesday morning.
“The Forest Fire Station is now good to go,” said Clinton County Surveyor Dan Sheets. “They’ve got a drainage plan in place. They originally came to us back in March, but they found out they had some cost issues. They should be ready to go anytime on that new fire station which is definitely needed in that area.”
The new fire station is scheduled to be about 8500 square feet and built on the southeast corner of the town park.
In other action, the Drainage Board approve a memorandum of understanding between the Norfolk Southern Railways and Clinton County on removing a section of rail about 300 feet east of Maish Road near the Twin Havens Estates Subdivision.
The county has plans to remove the 36-inch pipe at milepost TS204.6. The county will remove a 60-foot section of track and create an open section of ditch reducing flooding in the area. The removed track shall be left on the adjacent track.
“The drain from the subdivision was slightly undersized by our calculations,” said Sheets. “With this agreement, they are letting us to cut the rails, remove the rails and also be removing the embedment there with the embankment so there will be no restriction of water from the drain.”
Sheets added this will have no impact on what the city is doing as they removing the rail on Washington Avenue as part of the renovation project on that road that is scheduled to start this month.
Sheets also said he can’t imagine Norfolk Southern ever using that set of railroad tracks that run east and north of Clinton County again.
“We also cut it with railroad permission in Michigantown,” said Sheets. “We know it’s essentially marked abandoned and all crossings are vacated in Howard County. That rail used to go to Kokomo up through Russiaville and it has not been used in years. There’s also a trestle in Clinton County that has deteriorated almost to the point it’s falling into Kilmore Creek. .I don’t believe we’ll see any more trains on that track.”