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Parked Rail Cars Causing Residential Concerns in McAllen

6 years 10 months 1 week ago Monday, May 15 2017 May 15, 2017 May 15, 2017 6:53 PM May 15, 2017 in News

MCALLEN – Residents in a McAllen neighborhood said a line of rail cars parked feet from their front doors continue to be a dangerous eyesore.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported people living along Bicentennial Blvd. were concerned about illegal activity in the area.  

Resident Eliz Rivera said nothing has changed since the last time we spoke to her. She said children climb over the cars and homeless people continue occupying them.

“At night, you just hear them. You can hear voices over here,” she said. “The last time they were breaking into cars, some of the kids were hiding… They ended up catching one of the guys later that night after he jumped out of the train.”

The city said they can’t move the rail cars because they don’t own them nor do they own the tracks. They said the Rio Grande Valley Switching Company owns them.

McAllen Deputy Director of Traffic Operations Patrizia Longoria said they hope a new project will change that.

“We will be installing 11 flood lights along the area from Cedar to Pecan avenues along the railroad tracks,” she said.

Longoria said $3,300 of taxpayers funds will be used for installation.

“We have an established fund of x amount of dollars that we use every year to install lights,” she said.

Longoria said operating costs will be paid by the city of McAllen and AEP will take care of the maintenance.

AEP said installation will begin in 14 working days and will take about five to complete.

The call to requests street lights in the city of McAllen can be put in through the Traffic Operations Department. Once the request is in, crews will survey the area at night.

If lights are not working, AEP or Magic Valley Coop will be contacted to fix them.

The city could also install a light if certain criterion is met. 

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