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By: Brendan McDonough

Reporter for North Tonawanda

More Police will soon be patrolling the railroad tracks in North Tonawanda as part of a $24,000 grant the city received. 

The grant, which was applied for in September by the North Tonawanda Police Department, was part of $50,000 total being handed out. The NTPD applied for half of the $50,000 and ultimately were awarded almost all of the requested amount. Three cities total ended up sharing the full $50,000. 

“It pays for officers to patrol the tracks for trespassers on the CSX railroads,” said Rob Frank, North Tonawanda Police Department.

People and cars being on the tracks when they shouldn’t is a bigger problem than most people would realize.

“Another thing is GPS systems,” said Frank. “People would turn using a GPS system and they were not watching the roads and they would be turning down the railroad tracks. It has actually happened like 10 times, in the past couple of months.”

From trespassing to criminal mischief members of the North Tonawanda Police Department say in the next few months they will be on the tracks looking for people who shouldn’t be there. Officers will also be checking for gates that are not working properly.

“There is a lot of graffiti on the buildings back there,” said Frank. “What we are going to do is, starting around May or June, we will be sending our patrols out there to monitor it and we will be issuing tickets for trespassing. We have an affidavit through CSX to do that.”

Frank says in the meantime he will be handing out pedestrian safety brochures. Taking one more step to help make the tracks and the residents in North Tonawanda a little safer.