15 thoughts on “City ready for next snowstorm”

1. C. J.,

   Do you have a link for this?

   Thanks,

2. David, no link. It was an e-mail from the City. What’s quoted above is the extent of the content.

3. just in time….rain in the forecast for Thursday. 🙂

4. Mention of Carri Scharf Materials’ East Peoria pit seems odd since the salt was supposed to come by rail from Canada.

   Scharf’s pit doesn’t have direct rail access. Why truck it from the railhead to a gravel pit then haul it to the Public Works storage warehouse on Dries Lane? This sounds like double handling to me, which adds cost…unless, Scharf is mixing sand into the salt?

   I guess I’m not party to the details. Just curious.

5. Maybe rail service into Peoria isn’t dependable or cost effective. 🙂

6. Peo Proud,

   I know your comment was meant to be sarcastic, but the double handling is what I was curious about.

   BTW, shipping from Canada would probably cost at least THREE TIMES as much if by truck. Rail delivery saves the taxpayers money, even if it’s slower.

7. David, I forwarded your question to our Public Works Director, Dave Barber. Here’s what he had to say:

   The delivery site needed to be capable of handling rail cars that unload from the bottom and then load the trucks. This was the facility we found in the area that was capable of handling these cars.

   Hope this helps.

8. Thanks, C. J.,

   It makes sense because the facility where the salt was unloaded, East Peoria Materials LLC, is owned by Carri Scharf.

   http://stopthepit.info/project_description/

9. David,

   Wasn’t meant to be sarcastic at all. Was simply a question regarding the “rail service” in Peoria… you know, the rail service that is going to be the economic driver of the city’s redevelopment. (that comment was intended to be sarcastic).

10. Peo Proud,

    There’s two ways to look at the rail service issue:

    (1) If all local rail service suddenly ended, the area’s largest employers would be socked with an enormous increase in trucking costs, limiting their markets and their viability. So it’s imperative for local economic development agencies and politicians to understand the rail service element to the local economy and work to retain our manufacturing and distribution base.

    (2) Over time, industries close, move away or go out of business altogether, thus efforts must be made to ensure that these industries are replaced via industrial parks or redevelopment. Peoria has done a poor job at this; Pekin has done an excellent job. The more rail-served industries, the more traffic for railroads. The resulting increase in traffic for them leads to increased train length and frequency, this better service for all.

    Transportation infrastructure is a must for true economic development.

    http://www.wpgrr.com/index.php?section=15

11. “…enormous increase in trucking costs” should be “…enormous increase in TRANSPORTATION costs.”

12. David, You are INCORRECT that the Carri Scharf property in East Peoria is NOT serviced by rail. The 13 acre parcel is served by the TPW (Railmaster???) and can accomidate approx 30 rail cars. The rail cars bottom dump all materials delivered.

    All of Scharf’s properties are served by rail which is why they NEED, not WANT rail sevice to their Averyville property (Old Staley Plant) via the Kellar Branch.

    At 8:11 Monday night they were dump unloading the City’s salt, so regardless of the bikers/hikers, in the next snow/freeze event, the availability of salt was totally due to RAIL SERVICE. The City will pick up Tuesday morning again NOT USING Bicycles to deliver to the Public Works Facilty.

    Peo Proud, Peoria is blessed to have dependable, cost effective, competitive rail service that lowers the logistical costs for many raw supplies because of that rail service.

    Carri Scharf operates under the formula of penny, nickel, dime.
    Penny —– barge
    Nickel ——- rail, and
    Dime ——- truck.
    They have never shared the costs to bring in these necessary materials by bicycle or back pack, but it would be significantly higher than the trucking costs.

    I can’t believe I finally knew something about rail service that David didn’t. Life is good.

13. David is wrong about something rail? Write this down in the history books. Just kidding David. Thanks Gary for the update.

14. Gary,

    The reference to “Scharf’s pit” threw me off because their “East Peoria Materials LLC” facility in East Peoria is hardly what I would call a pit. When I think of a pit, I think of a deep hole dug to extract sand and gravel.

    I went down to East Peoria Materials LLC yesterday afternoon to find 11 railcars spotted for unloading. Until yesterday, I was unaware that Carri Scharf owned this operation. They don’t have a website and so there isn’t much information on them.

    Thanks for the info…is Carri Scharf planning to do anything with the Staley facility this year?

15. They are slowly working on the Staley plans, but have been interupted by day to day demands for immediate attention as well as the Woodford County rezoning for the gravel mining operations just south of Roanoke Products along Ill 26.

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