I know some of you are tiring of the Kellar Branch deal, but if you’ve ever wondered why Peoria has a reputation for being anti-business (or at least anti-local-business), one need look no further than this debacle.Carver Lumber is located on the Kellar Branch line and relies on rail transportation for shipping (it’s considerably cheaper than trucking).  They agreed to the city’s plan to turn the Kellar Branch into a hiking/biking trail on the condition that equivalent service be provided via a “western spur” that the city promised to build.  What the city has done is:

• Replace a reliable carrier (Pioneer Industrial Railway) with an unreliable and incompetent carrier (Central Illinois Railway)  which not only hasn’t made a single shipment to Carver yet, but endangered Peoria citizens with a runaway train and damaged the rail line with a careless derailment;
• Tear up a section of the Kellar Branch so that, even if CIRY were competent enough to get a load of lumber up the bluff, it couldn’t deliver it to Carver because the line is obstructed;
• Not completed the western spur as promised.

Now Carver is making a reasonable request of the Surface Transportation Board: stay the Board’s decision to discontinue rail service on the Kellar Branch until (a) the western spur is completed, and (b) service via the western spur has proven to be adequate for Carver’s needs.

The city’s response?  “That would not be appropriate.”

That’s what the city’s attorney Tom McFarland wrote to the Surface Transportation Board today.  He goes on to say, “It would not be appropriate to stay the Board’s decision for an indefinite time while the adequacy of service from the west is tested, and perhaps to overturn the Board’s decision if Carver Lumber deems that service to be inadequate.”

In other words, turning the Kellar Branch into a linear park is more important than maintaining a profitable business climate for a long-time, local Peoria business.

It’s actually worse than that.  The city has no agreement with Union Pacific to use their line to the west, despite the western spur they’ve connected to it.  So, by saying it’s “inappropriate” to stay the decision “until the adequacy of service from the west is tested,” what they’re really saying is they’re not willing to ensure Carver can receive any shipments at all via the western spur before they start ripping up the rails on the Kellar Branch!

And why is it they’re doing this?  For a hiking/biking trail.

Make no mistake, parks are more important than business in Peoria.