Back in February, former mayor Dick Carver came to Peoria (at taxpayer expense) to talk about options for the future of the Kellar Branch, including which railroad company would be the better rail carrier: Pioneer Industrial Railroad or Central Illinois Railroad Company. The president and general counsel for Pioneer showed up at the meetings, but no one from Central Illinois Rail bothered to make the trek down from Granville, Illinois. I also addressed the council at the time with what I thought was a well-reasoned argument in favor of the rail carrier who had provided better, safer service (Pioneer).
Nevertheless, the City chose Central Illinois Railroad, in no small part because of Dick Carver’s comments. One comment in particular (summarized below from the Feb. 13 council minutes) was especially swaying to the council:
Mr. Carver said he felt that Mr. John Darling, President of Central Illinois Rail Company, had a good relationship with the Union Pacific Railroad. He said Mr. Darling committed himself to making service more reliable, and more frequent, with a reasonable cost.
You see, without the Kellar Branch in operation, the western connection is only accessible from the Union Pacific line, so a good working relationship with UP (among other things) is essential if shippers on the western connection are ever going to get something close to a competitive rate.
John Darling, President of Central Illinois Rail, was the man of the hour that night, even though he wasn’t there at the meeting. Dick Carver talked him up, explained what a great working relationship the guy had with UP, etc. He wouldn’t come right out and say that Darling/CIRY was a better choice than Pioneer, but he might as well have. The implication was clear. So the council voted to get a contract with CIRY based on that recommendation and the promise of John Darling.
Fast-forward five months: The city is still unable to reach an agreement on a new contract with CIRY, and guess what? John Darling is no longer the president of Central Illinois Railroad. Randy Ray informed at least one councilman today, “Mr. Darling has left. Their new Chief Operating Officer is Jack Stolarczyk.”
Now that their pretense for choosing CIRY over Pioneer (Darling) is “lost and gone forever,” will they say “dreadful sorry, CIRY” and drop them in favor of Pioneer?
I think we all know the answer to that.
CJ,
PLease let everyone know that the vote for CIRL was NOT unanimous.
And as for Mr. Jack Stolarczyk, the new COO for CIRL, Mr. Jack Stolarczyk was the “conductor” on my latest trip down the Kellar from Pioneer Park to Prospect @ Peoria Heights. During the 45-60 minute trip which I accompanied Mayor Jim Ardis, Mr. Jack Stolarczyk, then the Operations Manager for CIRL repeated declared that the Kellar Branch was beyond hope to run trains on again. His gobbligook included that to rehab to class 1 standards would cost millions of dollars and was just not feasible, practical, or conceivable. When I asked if Class 1 standards had to be met, after much hemming and hawing, he finally said that to run freight trains at slow speeds, that was not required or necessary. Needless to say I was only on “one trip” and other COuncil members made the trip and I bet they swallowed his pablum as fast as Mr. Jack Stolarczyk spooned it out.
wow, CJ, I didn’t know you could sing!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Well so far CIRY has had three presidents in about as many years. The first one was indicted in a murder for hire crime. Then, CIRY had a runaway train. Then the new president, John Darling stated that his corporation was not responsibile for the previous actions of anyone at CIRY or DOT as it was known then. Now we have another president John Stolarczyk, who it seems is trying to sell the council and the Village on a load of unsubstantiated crap in regards to rehabbing the line. Pioneer Railcorp has run that line at a profit and believes it can do the same again and is willing to put its money where its mouth is. So which do you want in your back yard? Pioneer Railcorp is local right here in our neighborhood and so are their employees. They pay taxes in our community and employ a lot of people. They have been here for years and are a steady competent company.
Other than the fact he knows nothing about railroad maintenance, or at least is willing to play ignorant, what else do we know about this latest CIRY character??
THE MOUSE WROTE: “Other than the fact he knows nothing about railroad maintenance, or at least is willing to play ignorant, what else do we know about this latest CIRY character??”
He’ll be CIRY president for just six more months before he too quits 🙂
You assume, David, that CIRY will last another 6 months?
The MOUSE WROTE:”You assume, David, that CIRY will last another 6 months?”
Yes, I’m assuming they’ll last another six months. They may not – losing the Elk Grove Village operation had to be devastating (perhaps the real reason why John Darling is no longer president) and Peoria is not going to make up for the loss.
I believe CIRY owns the trackage in Chicago, the former Illinois Northern and Lumber District.
It turns out that CIRY actually leases those lines from BNSF. Hmmm, how long will that last?
A little bird told me that the CFO of CIRY also resigned at the same time as the President. Wonder what is going on? Who knows what and who ticked off who. Who is jumping ship before it sinks?