Miscreants are making life difficult for commuters at the Centralia Train Depot and surrounding businesses.
Police say they are doing what they can, but some locals say the problem persists.
At a recent Centralia City Council meeting, Tim Haichuck, the station agent for Amtrak, addressed the council and asked for “assistance cleaning up the area.”
He said commuters are being harassed by unsavory characters loitering in the parking lot. He also claimed people lingering at the station are abusing drugs and alcohol and using the portable toilet outside the building as cover for deals and prostitution.
“And in between the causeways on the north and south end of the building. I’m asking for more signage under the possible (state laws) that state ‘no loitering,’” he said. “I have several passengers that complain constantly … A lot of my passengers that ride the train are constantly complaining about the parking on the north side, because their cars get broken into.”
He’s advised people to move their cars to avoid trouble, but the problems are so persistent he’s posted signs at the station telling passengers to call the police if they’re harassed by people hanging around the area.
The station serves a dual purpose as the city’s Amtrak stop and also the transfer station for Twin Transit in Centralia.
Several business people near the train station didn’t want to be quoted, but many expressed frustrations with blatant public drug use and intoxicated people stumbling around the area.
They also said they didn’t believe the problems were caused by bus riders, but rather people who are no longer allowed to ride.
The people causing the problems don’t tend to hang out around the front of the station, Haichuck told the council. Rather, they spend time in parking spaces on the north side of the building.
Commander Jim Rich, of the Centralia Police Department, told The Chronicle the department is aware of the issues.
In fact, last Thursday, the department fielded reports of people smoking marijuana in the breezeway of the building. The police, he said, are working with assets of the anti-crime unit to catch lawbreakers, but the fluidity of people and the relatively discrete and swift nature of drug deals and prostitution pose challenges for responding officers.
“It’s tough to be inside the porta potty at the same time those things are going on,” he said. “I don’t mean to sound flippant, but they’re tough to catch.”
He said Haichuck’s comments to the council might start a larger conversation about the issues surrounding the train station, but in the short term, beyond responding to service calls, there is little the department can do. Because the station is a public space, the police can’t make new rules about people being in the area, nor can they go up and ask them to leave if they’re just hanging around.
“We don’t have the authority to do that,” Rich said.
