And, once again, the discussion led to more questions than answers.

Danny Gilbert of Rail Safety Consultants presented a study on railroad crossings in the downtown during last week’s regular town board meeting.

The study suggested closing Chatham and Moore streets to vehicular traffic while keeping Center Street open.

Late last year, when the commissioners had their first serious discussion on the issue, they expressed the desire to close Moore and Center while keeping Chatham open.

The proposed closures are a result of the town’s desire to develop the 160 acres of land located near town hall.

That development, known as Trackside, would lead to the completion of the Apex Peakway from Laura Duncan Road to North Salem Street. The Peakway would require two new crossings over CSX rails.

CSX has told the town that it would need to close two existing public crossings in town along with three private vehicular crossings within the Trackside area.

Mayor Keith Weatherly and commissioners Doug Meckes and Mike Jones pushed for the approval of the study. The board already approved a resolution in June that stated the town’s intention to eventually close two roads.

The acceptance of the study would be a second step toward gaining approval from CSX for the plan.

But the three remaining commissioners – Bryan Gossage, Bill Jensen and Gene Schulze – all expressed their uneasiness about the process.

Their response seemed to startle Weatherly, who said he was “surprised by the discussion” since the board has already been discussing Trackside for two years.

He also expressed his concern that the board was leading the Trackside developer “down the Primrose path” since it already passed a resolution concerning the road closures.

Town manager Bruce Radford said “to go no further” would delay Trackside, where development was planned to begin in the spring.

Meckes said he was also worried about the developer and “leading folks down the path.”

Jensen quickly disagreed and pointed out that road closures would have long-lasting effects on the downtown. He also said the town should look into federal or state funding for bridges over the tracks.

If the Peakway had bridges over the tracks and didn’t require new grade-level crossings than perhaps the downtown roads could remain open.

“We need to think this through,” said Jensen.

But both Jones and Weatherly replied that “flyovers” were too expensive.

Gossage and Schulze said they didn’t want to be rushed into making a decision on such an important matter and agreed with Jensen that more information was needed.

Before making any decisions the board said it wanted to find out what the economic impact of closing one road compared to another would be on the downtown. It also wanted to seek different options for funding bridges and hoped to gain input from the Downtown Business Association.