(The Associated Press distributed the following story on July 24.)
REESE, Mich. — A village that owes its name to the railroads is finding itself in federal court because of one.
The Huron and Eastern Railway Co. filed a lawsuit this month in U.S. District Court seeking to block enforcement of a newly amended village noise ordinance.
The suit stems from the early hours of May 15, when Reese police Chief Mike Hadd ticketed railroad worker Ronnie Miller, accusing him of violating the ordinance by switching train cars on a rail siding in this Tuscola County village of 1,375.
“When they’re putting rail cars together on Center Street and it wakes somebody up five blocks away … in the middle of the night, that’s excessive noise,” Reese Manager Joseph Hembling told The Bay City Times. “The person they happened to wake up is Mike Hadd.”
If convicted, 37-year-old Miller, of Vassar, faces up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. But the Vassar-based railroad is not waiting for a judge to hear Miller’s case on the noise violation before fighting the charge.
“At this point, Huron and Eastern is forced to … take this case to the federal level, to protect its employees from criminal prosecution,” said railroad lawyer Geoffrey Scott. “Under the village ordinance, employees are being held criminally liable for misdemeanors, just for doing their jobs.”
Huron and Eastern is one of 50 short line and regional railroads owned by RailAmerica Inc.
The Reese ordinance, governing noises made between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., was amended in March. The change added language stating that “loading, unloading, switching or connecting of train cars, tankers or other railroad equipment” constitutes excessive noise and violates the ordinance.”
Railroads are part of Reese’s history. The village is named after former railroad superintendent G.W. Reese. It throws a festival called Reese Railroad Days, its village hall resembles a train station and a popular tavern, Track Side Food & Spirits, sits just yards away from the rail lines that crisscross in the town.
Despite its railroading roots, some village residents say railroad workers too often do their jobs in the middle of the night, switching and coupling rail cars — sending out the telltale booming sounds across the community.
“Many, many, many, many times,” said William Bittner, 48, who built his home 10 yeas ago along Center Street next to railroad tracks. “I’m in bed, hearing that noise and I’m thinking, `I’m a lifelong resident of this community, I’m a taxpayer and I’m trying to get some sleep here. What is this?”‘
The railroad said there are times that cars need to be switched or coupled in the middle of the night. And Scott says village leaders have chosen to battle the railroad at the urging of a small but vocal group of Reese residents who have built homes or moved into homes near railroad tracks.