Friday, Sept. 23, the staff at Hastings High School was alerted to a potential threat of violence at the school. The school worked with Hastings Police Department to investigate the validity of the threat as quickly as possible and communicate their findings to parents. The message to parents is included below: “Friday, we were made aware of a threatening message which referenced a ‘Hastings’ high school. Because we treat all threats seriously and were able to immediately work and investigate with local law enforcement, we were able to determine the message was related to a different school, in a different state.”

Thanks to the quick work of district staff and Hastings Police Department, the communication went out quickly to quell any fears students, faculty and families had from the communication of the initial threat.

Field would be all the way up Highway 55 near Tires Plus or Taco Bell, depending on conditions and load.

Trains are moving faster than you think. Even the accidental demonstration train looked to be barely moving, and it was moving between 510 mph. At that speed, there were zero issues holding a conversation 15 feet from the train. The same cannot be said about a 30foot box truck that drove by earlier. Trains are sneaky quiet until they blow their horn.

Micki Mair, CP Rail Police Officer spoke about the theme for the day to reinforce the message.

“When you are near tracks always expect a train. Don't play on the tracks. Don't cross the tracks unless it's an actual crossing. We just look for the community to be safe and be aware of their surroundings when they're on the tracks,” she said.

The 30minute interaction with the representatives from CP Rail was quite the eyeopening experience for those in attendance. Mayor Mary Fasbender was in attendance and asking all the right questions to answer citizens’ concerns expressed at a recent city council meeting.

“It’s about education, this has been a great learning experience,” said Mayor Fasbender. “Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and we learned a lot here.”

Fasbender was referring to a particular exchange that happened around the use of the train horns at a city council meeting, a large concern from citizens.

“The primary concern from constituents is that the train horns have been louder, used more frequently and for much longer in the last month or so,” added Mayor Fasbender. “Now we have a good explanation as to why. It is the maintenance of the tracks and the mandated use of horns.”

An important piece of information for the three rail crossings in Hastings is the only crossing designated as a quiet crossing is 2nd Street. That designation is still relatively new with the needed gates installed in 20082009. 10th Street and 18th Street are normal crossings.

At normal crossings, there are rules related to the need for a horn to be blown. Quiet crossings only require the use of the train’s bell.

The Federal operations rules dictate that anytime there is a person close to the tracks, the horn must be used within a certain distance of the person and until the train engine is past the person. If not used, the engineer can be written up and ultimately lose their job. This also includes any rail workers experienced in being around moving trains. That means, if a track is being worked on, anytime a train goes by, they have to sound their horn until they pass the worker.

This brings up a question that needs to be asked: Does that include any paved path that an engineer deems is too close to a track? The group on hand could not answer that question without seeing an example of the path. It certainly would mean any sidewalks or paths that cross a track such as the crossing at 18th Street. The importance of this could be an explanation of why the horns in the vicinity of the Ardent Mill have increased in frequency with workers near the tracks, other people crossing the tracks or riding on paths close to the tracks. The good news is the maintenance project should be over by the end of October.

Other pieces of safety week involve topics like photographers using train tracks as a spot for senior pictures or other pictures.

“It is illegal. It's trespassing and it's very dangerous. Trains do not always run on schedules. They can be in any area at any time. So even if it's a track that's not frequently used setting up for senior pictures, there could be a train coming through that day since there is no schedule, so we don't like to see the senior pictures,” said Mair.

To learn more about Operation Lifesaver’s Rail Safety Week, visit www.oli.org.