Nays: Sandberg, Gulley.
You know, there’s a bitter irony in tonight’s council vote. The majority really believed they were voting for the best chance to get a trail. And yet their vote to continue pursuing Central Illinois Railroad as the carrier probably just doomed any chance of ever getting a trail on the Kellar Branch line.
Que sera sera.
I don’t know what to say C.J., is it me or is it blatant stupidity? How can they really think that? (that is rhetorical) I know that Peoria is just becoming anti-business.
Peoria isn’t becoming anti-business. Didn’t you hear all the wonderful things a trail is going to do for the city, gack. How can they make those claims with a straight face? When has a city park ever been an economic engine? Especially a long skinny park that you move quickly through….
Oh that is right it is a “quality of life” item that the city needs. I forgot that. (end sarcasm) But when there are no jobs to make a life here. (I know this has all been said before)
So the city council voted not to sell to Pioneer? What were they voting on with regard to CIRY?
And CIRY didn’t even show up to defend their horrible record. Guess they knew it didn’t matter.
I’ve never seen such a parade of fruitcakes, nutcases, and just scary ol’ people, than the group that showed up in favor of the “trail.”
If those are the types of folks who will be out there shedding all of those pounds, I definitely will not be there, unless I have a can of pepper spray.
A new low for Peoria.
Once again, your city is going to cost you more money for the wrong reasons. After the vote, I asked the Carver people what this will do to their business and they said they would try to absorb the $55,000 / day cost the Western spur is costing them. Then they went on to say they will continue to persue a ruling from the STB that CIYR and the Western spur are not favorable and comparable to the Kellar Branch and PIR. So not only is the city wasting time and money in persuing a contract with CIYR, they are also going to be spending more money the lawyers that will have to go before the STB.
Brad, I agree, but Carver said it costs them over $55,000 per year, not per day. That still hits their employees’ pockets, though.
Sorry for the day/year typo. Still, the point is they are paying more than they need or should.
I want to know why Van Auken voted with the majority. I like trails. I would like to see more trails. Trails are indeed good for the community and make it more attractive.
There are lots of ways trails can be created without destroying a business asset. It is much much harder to create rails. Eliminating the rail service eliminates business opportunities that currently exist and that could potentially exist. That is bad for the community. We may all bitch about our property taxes but businesses generate more tax revenue than residential property taxes. The city needs more revenue. Encouraging more business, supporting those businesses, and ensuring the infrastructure is there will do far more to keep our taxes down and the budget balanced than any trail.
The vote in favor of CIRY resolves nothing. It perpetuates the stalemate that currently exists. The continuing decline of the Pioneer Park area will drag on. This is not in the city’s interests and not in the Second District’s interests.
Mahkno, in regards to your first question, the options were to (a) sell the line to Pioneer, which was rejected, (b) withdraw the city’s adverse continuance petition and let Pioneer resume servicing the Kellar Branch, which was also rejected, or (c) keep trying to keep Pioneer off the Kellar Branch by continuing the adverse discontinuance proceeding and enter into a new contract with CIRY, which was the option that won.
In regards to your second question, Barbara didn’t like the fact that Pioneer filed a slander suit against the Recreational Trail Advocates back in 2001. She evidently only learned about it last night from Tim Cassidy when he addressed the council; of course, he was the RTA’s attorney so she only heard one side of the argument and his characterization of the situation. Her statement was that she didn’t like either carrier and wished she could vote against both of them and look for a third one. So, my guess is she voted with the majority because it didn’t matter to her one way or the other.
I think that’s unfortunate. While it’s true that the rail line doesn’t go through the 2nd district, the money that is being spent on this fiasco certainly does affect the 2nd district. Economic development in Peoria certainly does affect the 2nd district as well. Not that her vote would have changed the outcome, but I was disappointed nonetheless. If it really didn’t matter to her one way or the other, she should have chosen the less expensive option.
“If it really didn’t matter to her one way or the other”
If she didn’t have a feel for it then perhaps she should have relied on some outspoken 2nd district residents for guidance. It isn’t like she would not have known of their views until last night….
She said she had heard from six constituents who were passionate about the issue: three were passionate for the trail, and three were passionate for the rail. Everyone else she talked to was either indifferent or asked why we couldn’t have both (side-by-side solution).
The funny thing is, trail advocates are so blinded by their hatred for Pioneer that they can’t see CIRY is never going to get them what they want. CIRY is unlikely to be approved to service the Kellar Branch by the STB, first of all. But even supposing they do get approved, they’re not going to be able to provide good enough service for the STB to approve closing the Kellar Branch — not without the city building a wye connection where the UP line intersects the western spur and creating a new switching yard in Bartonville — and even then there’s no guarantee that will work. The city doesn’t have the money for it, and even if they did, it would still be years down the road. It ain’t gonna happen. The trail has been torpedoed by the trail advocates. Oh, the irony.
For my two cents worth: I sat for five hours in the city council chambers last night and watched a parade of the most ignorant people that I have ever seen in my life. Most of them got up with little or no knowledge about the subject that were speaking on. Very few did any real research on the subject. The Mayor clearly stated that this was not an issue about whether or not there would be a trail, yet 99% of them spoke on that subject. Just establishing how ignorant they are. I spoke but I spoke on the idea of allowing Pioneer to buy the rail and and how it would benefit the community and the future. I didn’t go into any hype about the trail vs rail. In fact I didn’t even mention the rail. The crazy accusations that are being traversed around this community about any of us being “on the take” and now about Sandberg using campaign funds from Pioneer are bordering on libel and scandalous. Yet no one seems to say a word about CIRY and the city and the failed contract (now expired). That just seems to slip by. Also the fact that CIRY was hired to do the crossing at Allen Rd. and was paid in full and the company they hired was paid in full and yet there is not one warning crossbuck or signal in place to warn traffic of an on-coming train. Everyone from the trail side is hopping up and down about the “dangerous” train going down the Kellar (which has been going on now for more than 100 years), but they aren’t saying a word about the unmarked crossing on Allen Rd., one of the busiest streets in our community. But there is no trail there so they don’t care if a car full of kids gets killed or not. Ignorant blankety blank blanks.
What a bunch of chicken-sh*ts. The whole lot of them, other than Gulley and Sandberg. I already know that Nichting and Grayeb the Turtle are evil personified, so I expected their speaking points, but for Ardis, Van Auken, Manning, and Spears to cave in, it just makes me wanna up-chuck. I had a lot of respect for the four of them before last night. Now, they’re just like all the rest. They suck eggs.
CIRY put up a sign at the Allen Rd crossing – Watch for Trains, or some such thing.
Sharon I have seen that over the last few weeks and I wish I had a camera. It is (I’m 90% sure of this) illegal to have a railroad crossing without crossbucks! A sign saying watch for trains is not enough.
I wish I could have been there to see how bad last night was and maybe to speak. But the city of Peoria has really screwed this one up.
I just don’t understand how the trail “advocates” and city officials can be so blind to think that CIRY is the best option for a trail. I just don’t understand.
This comment is in regards to the speech Bruce Brown made last night regarding Bill Rutherford. Bill Rutherford came to me in 1997 and asked me to do a study for him to bring a train from downtown Peoria to the Wildlife Prairie Park. I knew at the time he was deeply involved in parks and trails. That never entered into our discussions about trains. He truly wanted to be able to put people on a train and take them to the wildlife park and enhance their visit to Peoria. This was good business and good tourism. We found that it was not economically feasible to do that. So the idea was scrapped but we did work on several other things that included some territory near the wildlife park that included a rail line. But the point of my comment is that Bill Rutherford enjoyed parks, trails and trains. In fact he bought a trolley and had it in storage. So Bruce Brown’s comments are a bit one sided.
So…if there is a horseshoe, then one will find horseshit?