Everyone downtown has had to stop a conversation, whether on thephone or in person, to wait for a passing train to movethrough.

The subject of train noise has come up on more than one occasion inrecent years, and in the light of the construction of an assistedliving facility downtown, it has come up again.

Developer Gayle Evans jumped through hoop after hoop to realize hisdream of putting an assisted living facility downtown, fightingwith problems like parking, location and public opinion, beforefinally purchasing a strip of land on Monticello Street across fromthe Inez Hotel.

But even once that had happened, there were still problems, as itturns out that there are restrictions on building an assistedliving facility so close to railroad tracks. Mayor Les Bumgarnersaid there was a meeting in which the issue was addressed andultimately resolved.

“He (Evans) didn’t realize the railroad was a problem,” Bumgarnersaid. “The meeting was success. I told them in a letter that wewere interested in a quiet zone.”

The idea of a quiet zone is one the Brookhaven Downtown Associationtook up for a time two years ago, researching what it would take tokeep train conductors from having to blow their horns all the waythrough the city like they do now.

“They have to be just as observant, because if they see a dangerlike a child too close to the train tracks they can blow the horn,”said Downtown Association member Terry Pappas. “It just puts itinto their hands. It eliminates the unnecessary. They don’t have tostart blowing in Wesson and stop in Bogue Chitto, which is what itseems like they do now.”

Downtown Association member Jay Perkins said the group gathered alist of other cities that have quiet zones, as well as the perksthat come along with the peace and quiet.

“It’s easier to attract tenants to live downtown when there’s aquiet zone, and property values increase as little as 7 percent andas much as 18 percent,” he said. “Things like attorney’s offices,where it’s hard to talk on the phone when the train is going by,there are benefits to property owners. And the city and the countyget more on property taxes and so forth.”

But there are definite safety changes that would need to be made inorder to put in the quiet zones, officials said.

“Right now if the train people blow those horns and you get out infront of them, that’s your fault,” said Bumgarner, althoughindicating that responsibility would shift if a quiet zone wereenacted. “It’s costly and time consuming, and it shifts theliability to the city if you have an accident.”

But Perkins and Pappas said the idea is supported not only by manydowntown businesses, but also by property owners up and down thetrain tracks on both sides. Plus, they said, the benefits of makingthe crossings safer would outweigh the costs eventually.

“What you have to do is statistically get the safety level to whereit would be with the horn,” said Perkins, citing things like amedian leading to the crossing that would keep people from tryingto go around the barriers.

“What we’d achieve by it is make the crossing safer for thecitizens of Brookhaven,” Pappas said. “There are a lot of peoplethat don’t pay attention, a lot of people will go around thosecrossings. One accident and someone’s lost their son or daughter orother family member. This eliminates that, it makes the townsafer.”

Pappas and Perkins said the Downtown Association has let up ontheir push for the quiet zone since the economy is causing cityofficials to tighten up the budget in so many places. Both stillsaid, however, that if the quiet zone can become a reality, itwould be a real positive for the city.

“This is a great opportunity for us to get the quiet zone, but itwill have to be an investment,” said Pappas. The economy hiteveryone really hard, and everyone tightened the belt. We didn’twant to continue to ask the city for this right now.”