City Council members may be angered by the collapse last week of a Charles Village street onto CSX Transportation tracks, but they say they’ll let Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake handle the problem.
Council Vice President Ed Reisinger, who chairs the Land Use and Transportation Committee, said Monday he has no plans to look into the incident.
“The administration is carrying the football on this because she oversees all those agencies that can help and support those residents,” he said.
The mayor’s staff has been working with CSX officials to evaluate the unit block of East 26th Street as well as the safety of other CSX properties around the city. Meanwhile, the city has issued hotel and grocery vouchers to the 40 or so people forced out of their homes by the land slide.
In addition, spokesman Kevin Harris said Rawlings-Blake has “ordered that we expedite the claims process” for damaged property to avoid leaving city residents “in limbo.”
He said that if an investigation determines that CSX is responsible for the collapse the city will work through that.
CSX is already getting the blame from Councilman Carl Stokes, who represents that section of Charles Village.
“In the last three or four years that I’ve been back [on the council] the residents have complained about the sinking earth and crack in the retaining wall,’ said Stokes adding he has sent complaints about the street to the city and CSX.
Stokes said CSX claims they have maintained the area “properly.” He and the residents dispute that.
“They have not been good neighbors; they have not maintained their property well,” he said, complaining that CSX properties regularly have trash, overgrown grass and weeds and that the company does not clean it’s properties “with any regularity at all.”
Council President Jack Young, who once represented the area, said he hopes CSX will address the condition of East 26th Street and compensate residents. “We just want them to live up to what they’re supposed to do,” he said.