It was all I could do to refrain from blogging yesterday. I sort of made a pact with myself that on the Thanksgiving holiday I wasn’t going to post anything, but leave up a happy, holiday message all day. I did it. But it was brutal. Why? Because of this news item:

“There are options,” Nichting, a trail proponent, said after learning that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB), which has exclusive domain of the nation’s railroads, denied a request from Peoria and Peoria Heights to keep Pioneer Industrial Railway off the eight-mile line. “(The options) include litigation and possibly doing a Meigs Field operation. There one day and gone the next.”

Wow. It’s not often in Peoria that you have an elected official seriously suggest that the city deliberately commit a felony. The stupidity of Nichting’s statement is remarkable. If the city were to deliberately do a “Meigs Field operation,” they would be subject to civil and criminal penalties, and the federal government would likely order the rail line be restored at the city’s expense to boot. Nichting ain’t Daley.

But what makes Nichting’s statement most egregious is not the possibility that the city would really take such action — that’s most unlikely — but rather that it plants the idea in others’ minds. It gives the appearance of an official endorsement to anyone who might be inclined to vandalize the railroad line. That’s what makes his statement really irresponsible and reprehensible. The council should censure Nichting at their next meeting for making such a suggestion.

City Manager Randy Oliver will have no part in illegal activities. In an e-mail today, he said, “The Administration never has and never will be involved in any illegal activity. The Police Department’s District patrol cars have been alerted to the possibility that someone may try to destroy public/private property. Any actions of this type will not be tolerated.” So scofflaws, beware.