The Robin Street pedestrian tunnel features trash and graffiti.

The CSX railroad requested that Dunkirk consider closing the Robin Street pedestrian tunnel, Dunkirk Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury said Tuesday.

Woodbury commented at a Common Council meeting about the proposed closure, in response to statements by Paul Somerfeldt criticizing the idea.

Somerfeldt said residents have complained about the condition of the tunnel, and pushed for more patrols of it, for many years. “If we clean that area up and … make nice marked parking spaces all the way to the berm, it will encourage people to not have it look the way it is,” agreed Woodbury.

However, he continued, “to close the tunnel wasn’t an arbitrary decision by us, it was a request by CSX to us to start the process to consider it.” The process would involve the New York State Department of Transportation, the Federal Railroad Administration, and public hearings. The tunnel goes under railroad tracks owned by CSX.

“Closure of that is going to cause some undue burdens on certain residents of the city of Dunkirk,” Somerfeldt said, causing pedestrian detours of up to three-quarters of a mile. He wondered, “If we close off that area, what other parts of the city are we going to start letting go by the wayside? This could be a slippery slope. … By the way, another issue is, we’ve had our taxes almost doubled and we’re going to reduce the services of the city? That’s not right, either.”

Woodbury responded later, “Talk about a slippery slope — if you take one step in there, you’re going to be slippery slope on some stuff you don’t wanna see. It’s a problem — how we solve the problem, I don’t know. Maybe we close it off with something that can be removed at some time, once we get some of this vandalism under control.”

He promised to work with first responders to make the tunnel safer, “but right now, there are times when I wouldn’t want a kid, or anybody, going through that tunnel, even if there’s nobody in there. There’s stuff in there you don’t want to be anywhere near.”

Woodbury concluded, “I’m open to whatever you all decide, but I thought it was good to get the discussion started. It isn’t safe now — we want to make it safe, however that safety measure is.”

Councilwoman Nancy Nichols said to Somerfeldt, “You need to take a look at that tunnel in person to see what it is like. I would not go through there myself for the love of money. You could not pay me to go through there. The city does not have the money to keep maintaining what gets vandalized in there, what debris they leave on the floor.”

She added, “When you criticize us for taking something away from people: We’re not. We just don’t have the money citywide to go in there and keep painting it. A few years back they painted it… two days later it was spray painted again, and all kinds of nasty debris on the floor.”

Woodbury also noted earlier that the city tried to put cameras in the tunnel — however, according to Nichols, the vandals trashed those too.