Weather is holding up repairs to people’s yards on Pearl Street, but all work needed will be done, a representative of Kansas City Railways told residents at a meeting Thursday.

The yards were wrecked by landslides due to recent railroad construction. KCS Engineering Director Lee Peek said as weather permits the railroad will bring in equipment to begin restructuring the land, which residents said began to crack and sink toward the tracks about two months ago.

At that time, KCS was adding a parallel track along its right of way behind the houses. The sloughing has affected porches, clotheslines, basketball goals, patios, sheds and electrical poles – several of which required stabilization by power company Entergy. Yards have been tread bare by heavy equipment attempting to stop the slide.

&#8220We’re going to get it fixed and we’re going to make it right,” Peek promised about 15 residents, attorneys and elected officials crowded inside the living room of 36-year resident Gertrude Reed during an afternoon downpour. &#8220One of the things we need it to do is stop raining,” Peek said. &#8220If we get out here in the rain and the mud we’re just going to make a bigger mess.”

A rock buttress was constructed last week to prevent further slides onto the tracks by crews supervised by P.B. Sloan, construction manager for Brandon contractor Foster, Jones and Associates. His crew was finishing the roadbed on which the new track was being built when the first sliding began shortly after Christmas, he said last week. That effort appears to have worked, Peek said, aided by lateral drainage ditches that let water drain from beneath the land, preventing the saturation of the fine loess soil that caused the soil to slide off the slick, water-resistant layer of clay below.

&#8220We’ve stabilized it so it’s not moving,” Peek said. &#8220It looks like things are in good shape. Now it’s time to start repairing the surface as soon as the weather allows.”

After the meeting, organized by North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield and District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon and attended by District 2 Supervisor William Banks and Warren County Board of Supervisors Attorney Paul Winfield, Peek met with individual residents to discuss problems and to get plans to fix the problems in writing.

Residents also asked about large equipment that rumbled beside their houses, the railroad’s long-term commitment to fixing the land and smells they said forced some people out of their houses, though Selmon and Mayfield agreed the smells were probably unrelated to the railroad. Letha Thomas, who has lived next door to Reed for 36 years, said she was concerned with saving her storage shed and its contents and with replacing a drainage system in her yard. Her daughter, Clara Frazier, said she had personal property in the shed as well, and that an expensive drainage system and bulkhead behind her parents’ house would have to be replaced.

&#8220They’ve spent a lot of money fixing their land,” Frazier said.

No legal challenge has been brought against the railroad, said attorney Omar Nelson, who represents several residents. He said, however, litigation hasn’t been ruled out if the yards aren’t restored.

&#8220We’re just in the process of listening to KCS right now,” Nelson said.