(La Porte, IN) - A former La Porte City Councilman is congratulating the current administration for silencing passing train horns.

 

Tim Stabosz said he pushed for a Quiet Zone status for La Porte during his two separate terms on the city council, having previously served from 2004 to 2007 and 2016 to 2019.

 

“It’s been a long time but we’re finally here. I want to say what a momentous occasion this is,” Stabosz remarked during the public comment portion of last night’s La Porte City Council meeting.

 

Stabosz said the quiet zone, requested by the city and granted recently by the Federal Railroad Administration, will make a difference.

 

“Silencing the horns will improve the sleep of residents and quality of life overall,” he said.

 

Stabosz also said that the next step is to have a specialized route constructed to ease truck traffic in the downtown, explaining that "Train horns no longer sounding combined with less truck traffic would make downtown more attractive to investors, and make our vision of a downtown with sidewalk cafes and upscale and other retail an ever-increasing reality."

 

Stabosz, who’s now the La Porte County Auditor, said he supports a truck route in whatever shape or form. He’s also a Republican candidate for one of the seats on the La Porte County Commission, whose support for such a road would help in the process of trying to secure federal dollars.

 

Currently, Mayor Tom Dermody continues to aggressively pursue a truck route, yet the major barrier standing in the way is securing the $100 million or more in federal funding needed to build such a highway.

 

Most recently, Dermody, who’s also a Republican, has been examining the idea of creating a truck route on Washington Street to get some trucks out of downtown until an actual corridor or bypass around the area can be constructed.