HORTONVILLE- On Wednesday, July 12, the Town of Delaware Town Board discussed the dangers of a dilapidated retaining wall below the train tracks on River Road in Callicoon. The wall sits a few feet from the road, and on the other side of the road is the Delaware River, which begs the question: What if the wall gives way?

“Me and [Engineer] Bill Brown spoke to the railroad today,” said Highway Superintendent Chris Hermann. “They know there are major problems, but they’re broke.”

Hermann said he was going to meet with a representative from the railroad company to plan some ditching because, “the stone’s coming right out in the road…. because now there’s a big gap in [the wall]. And the [railroad official] admitted, ‘Yep, there’s major problems but no fundage.’”

When reached for comment, Norfolk Southern Director of Government Services Michael Fesen said, “Thank you for letting Norfolk Southern know. We are working to determine the location of the issue, and we will address it as fast as we can.”

“Whose fault is it,” pondered Town Supervisor Scott DuBois, “when the train comes downtown, not on the track? I’m assuming, Ken, that’s all liability on them?”

Town Attorney Ken Klein responded, “Yeah, we can’t even touch the thing. In fact if you go near the track, they go nuts!”

Hermann recounted when he called county officials in the past to alert them of the precarious retaining wall and ran into opposition from railroad employees when investigating the site: “Oh my God, it was like you robbed a bank, there were guys there asking, ‘What are you doing near our tracks?’ ‘Well, there’s a hole right here.’ [They were] not nice either,” recalled Hermann.

“No,” agreed Klein, “They’re very protective because they’re afraid if anybody does anything it will undermine the integrity of the track base and they will have a train wreck.”

DuBois agreed with Hermann’s concern, saying, “Every time the train goes by and vibrates it, it’s just going to get worse.”

“It’s just like the electric company,” proclaimed Councilman Alfred Steppich, “they don’t do anything until the wires are down, and the railroad doesn’t do anything until they have a wreck.”

“Until the train is in the backyard of Peppino’s. It would be fun for the kids to come see it in downtown,” quipped DuBois.

DuBois said that he and Hermann had inspected the site on River Road in the Spring and had determined that the wall is decaying and the track is getting lower over time. “There’s really no way to fix it, unless they’re going to drive some type of steel into the ground to shore it up… Either the train’s going to end up out in the water, or it’s going to park on the road.”

When a resident asked how many trains go over the track every day, Hermann responded, “There’s one, at about 10 o’clock at night usually.”

“One train,” agreed DuBois, “but it’s a long one.”