While the City Council, Park District, Journal Star, and Recreational Trail Advocates scoffed at the idea of putting a trolley on the Kellar Branch line, there’s one key player who thinks the idea has some merit: the mayor of Peoria Heights.

A subscriber to the Peoria Rails Yahoo Group posted this message earlier today:

Look for a big splash in the paper tomorrow. Peoria Heights mayor Mark B. Allen at the Peoria/Pekin Urbanized Area Transportation Study (PPUATS) meeting today, said he wanted money for a look at a trolley line to link the new development at the old Cohen Warehouse to downtown Peoria. They want a replica street car to link the two areas to provide economic growth. With Peoria Heights on board so to speak, I would say that the rail line is safe for a while. I’d rather see a business with rail service in the old warehouse but any businesses that contributes to economic growth rather than drain taxes for a trail is a good thing.

Just think, if they built the trail next to the track, they could walk or bike the trail one way and ride the trolley the other. They would also support jobs. That’s a win win win for everyone.

This is significant because the bulk of the section the Park District wants to convert to a trail runs through Peoria Heights, not Peoria. In fact, Peoria Heights owns the portion of the Kellar Branch that passes through their village and could decide to sell it or lease it without having to get any approval from the Peoria City Council. That’s only fair, since Peoria has been unilaterally making decisions about the line up to this point in time.

The Kellar Branch saga continues.

UPDATE: Here’s the Journal Star’s first article on this story.