On Friday, April 16, the Surface Transportation Board approved discontinuing rail service on the Kellar Branch line that runs through the heart of Peoria. The Board also agreed to railbank the corridor, meaning it technically could be reactivated in the future for rail use, although reactivation of railbanked corridors rarely ever happens. Railbanking preserves the corridor and assures that no part of it can revert back to the ownership of adjacent property owners.
The City of Peoria, Village of Peoria Heights, and the Peoria Park District now have 180 days to approve an agreement converting this corridor to a recreational trail. According to the STB decision, the Park District will have to “assume financial responsibility for the management of [and] any legal liability arising out of the transfer or use of [the right-of-way].”
You may recall that the inscrutable “Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation” made this possible by buying out the interests of rail carriers Pioneer Industrial Railway and Central Illinois Railroad, as well as shipper Carver Lumber. It’s been my contention that the price for buying out those interests will eventually be paid by the taxpayers, either through the City or the Park District. I expect we’ll find out what the cost was in the next few months as the Park District prepares to convert the line to a trail.
Besides the big hit taxpayers will get for buying out those interests, we’ll also be paying for the conversion itself, which is estimated to cost $6 million as of October 2008, and is partially funded by grants (which are themselves federal and state tax dollars). The Chronicle will be watching to see if the Park District’s actual costs of conversion deviate significantly from their estimates.
Sell the land!!!!!
Wow, what a year 2010 is going to be. Walking trail finally gets going, museum gets started and maybe a new hotel downtown.
What a good time to live in Peoria!
Not sure if that is sarcasm or not, but it is good to see a final resolution to the trail fiasco. Now if they can get it built with a reasonable budget, it WILL be a tremendous asset to the community. Maybe not one that everyone will use, but trails of this type are definite amenities to a community and fit a need that has been long ignored in Peoria — dedicated trails for bikers. It will take many more of them for Peoria to integrate the bicycle into the fabric of the community such as many other communities have done (such as Madison, WI and Edwardsville, IL) — but it’s a start.
Gee, can’t wait for my next tax bill.
Trail: $6+ million in tax money
Museum: $34+ million in tax money
Hotel: $37+ million in tax money
Civic Center expansion: $55 million in tax money
Total public investment in these four things alone: $132 million. Wow. That’s more than some of the CSO project estimates. Why did the city lay off all those police officers when they have all this money?
CJ:
While I agree with you, the Museum is a County project and the Trail is a Park District projects neither of which impact the City of Peoria budget (at least until the City puts money into them) but they will impact tax payers. The Civic Center expansion was done in a different economic time. The hotel still has hurdles to get over (private financing) before it becomes an actual project. I wonder if Al Z’s intention to reopen the bars on Main St tells the private part of the story or is just some sort of attempt to push the project forward before funding is done?
Peo Proud wrote: it is good to see a final resolution to the trail fiasco.
The fiasco has only begun. Wait until adjacent property owners have their say.
peoriafan,
When you drink Kool-aid, you don’t even require sugar and water, do you? š
I doubt the Peoria Park District will manage to get the Rock Island Trail extension done this year. Construction may not even begin this year.
Another sad day for manufacturing and any chance of additional good jobs in Peoria.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST THE CITY FOR METEOR INSURANCE? THEY MIGHT WANT TO TURN THAT BIG HOLE DOWNTOWN INTO A GIGANTIC BOMB SHELTER.
Thank God it’s railbanked ’cause we’re gonna need it. And I still think certain people deserve jail time for some of the hijinks associated with this debacle.
I like the “railbank” idea. So when we need trolleys and interurban we’ll be ready to go.
“Not sure if that is sarcasm or not”
When you aren’t sure, you can bet it is government in action… (or is that inaction?
A message to all of the “constant” de-railers(pun intended)of anything close to even a mere whiff of progressive ideas in Peoria. Move to Galesburg!!! That dying city is a prime example of never wanting to take a chance on economic development or things like the trail which enhances quality of life and hopefully economic development. I do credit Galesburg with building a lot of money in the city reserves, but their basic public services are in far worse shape than Peorias because they are too fearful of spending the moiney they have…they, through years of non-action on anything progressive to build the economy has caused their economic condition to be one of the worst in Illinois. No business wants to go in there because the city is REALLY run down and they will lose significantly in the census. Most people living there work here in Peoria or the Quad Cities becasue there are no jobs. The people there when I was there in the 90’s said the same thing naysayers say on these Peoria comment blogs. So, I’d advise if you want NO progress, please move there. You will love it!!
Galesburg is an example of corporate policies that put profits before employees.
Move out of the area to find cheap desperate laborers where there are no labor laws.
Outsidethebox wrote: The people there when I was there in the 90ās said the same thing naysayers say on these Peoria comment blogs. So, Iād advise if you want NO progress, please move there. You will love it!!
You’re greatly mistaken.
Galesburg’s largest employer is BNSF Railway. In the near future, yard expansion and corresponding rail traffic growth will increase employment.
And there’s more: The opening of Progress Rail Services’ railcar salvage facility early this year added jobs and Gates Corp. recently added 25 jobs when they relocated some distribution work to their local rubber plant.
Galesburg, for all its faults, knows that wasting taxpayer dollars on money-losing “quality-of-life” schemes will only build up debt, keep taxes high and deter attraction of job-creating industry forever.
Yeah, like museums and hiking trails.
Yeah, Galesburg is a thriving and beautiful metropolis, thanks to their rail yards. Whatever David is drinking, pass some around. David still thinks that “taxes” are killing Peoria. Sheeeesh. The “tax” money comes from sales tax revenue, for crying out loud. That’s spread out over everyone who purchases something in Peoria. The city gets very, very little from property taxes; the taxes that folks like David are always whining about. Have you ever thought about what sales tax revenue would have been lost through the years if there was no Civic Center? Do y’all think people will move to Peoria for the humidity? Because the sidewalks are new? Can you say “La-La Land”? What David wants is a belching, grey-sky, guys in hard hats having cranes fall on them, litter rolling down the streets, traffic being stopped by passing trains, sort of Peoria again. Well, times have changed, and they ain’t going back. Yeah, I miss the heck out of the old Caterpillar, Pabst, and Keystone sort of world; where decent jobs were plentiful, and you could count on your job being there in 10 years.
But, thanks to the politicians, right wingers, and corporate presidents, those jobs are now in Mexico and overseas, and they will not come back. David doesn’t quite get it yet, but they will never be back, because there is too much in corporate profits to be made by paying workers a cup of rice a day as opposed to decent living wages here in the USA. No matter how much pollution you belch out, no matter how many empty box cars pass on the Kellar Branch, those jobs are G-O-N-E. So, change with the times, or be swallowed up by the times. In the David P. Jordan and C.J. sort of world, the only thing holding us back from having a thriving manufacturing world is the loss of rail service, and those horrible TAXES. The school district sucks up probably 60-70% of our property taxes. Deal with it.
Oh, I know that David and C.J. will start throwing figures and crap, showing how Galesburg is the next Toronto, thanks to those beautiful rail yards running through town. But, the truth is that quality of life is much more likely to bring jobs in than a rail line. It’d be grand if it was 1894 again, where the rail line would bring all sorts of passengers, business, materials, and loose women into town. Last I checked, it wasn’t 1894 around here any longer. It isn’t even 1951. By golly, it’s 2010, and David and C.J. still don’t get it. Their ultra-right, fist in your face, rail line up your ass sort of attitude is what helped to get us into this mess. While David was out there with his lantern trying to bring rail traffic in, Caterpillar was loading up the liner with a full load of rice, heading to South Korea, and leaving a lot of hurting workers in its wake.
Those 25 Gates Rubber jobs in Galesburg were re-located from another town, huh? I’m guessing those 25 jobs are paying $40-60 thousand a year? With benefits? And, they’re long term jobs? Check on that, will you, David? How many jobs has the Civic Center created through the years? Have you added those up? My guess is that while not many of those Civic Center jobs are paying $40-60 thousand a year, with great benefits, I’m also guessing that the Gates Rubber jobs don’t, either.
Whenever I go to Galesburg on my job, it feels damned good to be heading back out. Half of the town is virtually dead. There is nothing to attract people to live there. Unless you’re David and C.J., sitting on their porches in their little 1921 knickers, waving at the passing trains and blowing kisses to the cabooses.
There is not $1 of this rail/trail expansion that is not going to come out of taxpayer’s pockets. They sling the phrase “grant money” like it was a gift from a rich uncle. That’s TAX MONEY that COULD be going to infrastructure or police/fire protection
Whether you’re in favor or against, Billy, is mostly irrelevant. The money is earmarked for a trail. Period. The city isn’t paying for the trail. I’ve not been aware of the Park District ever ponying up to fix up Western Avenue, but if you know of when that happened, let us all in on it. I can bitch all I want to about money wasted in Afghanistan and Iraq, and on NASA, but that’s just my opinion. I don’t have a vote, so I move on. I guess what you need to do is to run for the City Council, and make your mark there, right?
David,the adjacent property owners tried to get a say but our mayor would not even return our calls or accept a meeting that Jehan Gordon tried to set up for us.40 homeowners in all and we did not rate a phone call.We were willing to make a deal with the city by letting the homeowners keeping 15 ft and the city taking 70 ft.No deal!! Finally I received a letter from a law firm the city hired to Deal with the property owners.In it was a supposed deed to the Railroad from 1879 from John Birkett.Randy Ray said this makes it legal.But John Birkett died in 1874,the deeds date is from 1876 and it’s file date in Chicago is 1879.At the end of the paper it is signed Jnhon Rikerts..(looks legal though)So prego man just move on? A 50′ by 800′ section of my property is being stolen.Myself and my neighbors will not be able to access garages, backyards and will loose our driveways and a couple stand to loose their garages.It is easy to give such advise when you have nothing to loose.
CW ā Please elaborate on how you are giving up any more of your property now that the rail will be converted to a trail? I cannot seem to make sense of you post and how the trail will take up any more space then the railroad did?
CW- your beef is over 100 years old. The railroad acquired a portion of that Birkett land back in the 1800’s. Presumably there was some compensation involved at that time that made the previous owner happy enough. Regardless, that has been railroad r.o.w. for a long time. If you built a garage on it, or a driveway, or whatever, thats your own darn fault. I don’t understand how a trail is more intrusive than a freight train regarding crossings or proximity to your house.
Prego Man,
You’re enough to depress a Laughing Hyena š
Brett,
For decades, there was usually just one train a day in each direction running on that line, in daylight. The Peoria Park District and Journal Star Editorial Board (also known as Mr. and Mrs. Bike Trail š ) estimated 120,000 trail users each year (perhaps 500-600 average users per day during the warm weather months). One short, slow-moving freight train isn’t going to interrupt anyone’s life but I wouldn’t want that many strangers walking behind my home all day long, and I’m sure CW would agree.
Prego Man says about Galesburg, “There is nothing to attract people to live there.” That’s interesting, considering they have amenities like recreational trails and history museums. Peoria believes that amenities like these attract people to the city, but as Prego points out, it didn’t work in Galesburg. Huh.
The Railroad only used a 10ft strip beside the rail for easement.That is all they had ever used.When our property was laid out Birkett himself owned it,the driveway that leads to my home runs adjacent to the tracks and goes directly to my garage area.This alley way was paved 150′ plus to inside my garage.There were no previous owners to be compensated,after Birkett had completed the home my family purchased it.All the property except for the 10′ ditch beside the tracks has been maintained by my family til today.Occording to the city the tracks were Fully abandoned in 1984.That meant by law the property adjacent to the tracks would revert to the property owner adjacent to the tracks.The city still stands by the abandonment in 1984 today.Now the city wants to build a linear park from the railroad bridge at War Dr to Park St.so they are claiming to own a 100’path along the tracks,which just happens to goes through peoples garages,fences,access to garages that face the tracks, my entire driveway and 650′ of my wooded area i keep as a animal preserve.Since the Mayor refused ALL contact with our group of 40 homeowners I tried to deal with Randy ray.That is when out of the blue this document comes forth stating a purchase price of $1500. The paper was filed in 1879 in Chicago,no seal was present on it. The recorder states the person before her is John Chas. Birkett in 1876 filling out the document and doing the last will of John Birkett sr. who died in Peoria in 1874,and the signature at the bottom is spelled wrong.All of the handwritten document is in the same hand as is the mis-spelled signature.I also have a document signed by the then city manager James Daken, Mayor Carver,and some of the city council acknowledging the fact that the Peoria,Rock island Railroad did NOT own the land under the tracks but only the right to operate until the rail is fully abandoned in which case the property would revert to the land owners adjacent to the rail.This document was from a meeting with the group overseeing the sale of the railroad and they required this signed and dated.I have had people sneak onto my property ,dig holes and pond in stakes,they even walked onto my porch.They went through my wooded ares and dug around in there also.I called Randy Ray who denied it all but later wrote a letter admitting it.I was denied files unless I talked to Randy ray first.Brett my family has taken care of this land for generations, the city has lied,treaspassed and threatened me.Now these tracks are going to be used to store Box cars.David I grew up with the trains going by,but having god knows what kind of people walking by in what used to be my backyard is troubling.
CW, paragraph breaks please!
150, my apologies.
Somewhere in the back of my ancient mind I remember talking to Jack Reeser the late president of P&PU Railroad. A document was discovered that said that the land the tracks ran on would not be reverted to the previous landowners in the event that the tracks were abandoned. This was brought up when P&PU wanted to give up running the Kellar. For some reason I can’t remember exactly who found the document or where it is, but I believe that both P&PU and the City of Peoria have a copy somewhere in their files and were discussing it at that time. If that document could be found it would clear up a lot of things. As generations go by things happen and I do believe that there was originally a 100′ wide swath for the railroad, but people have begun using some of that property over the years not really knowing that it wasn’t theirs. However, that being said there is no reasonable reason that the trail needs a 100′ wide swath. They could compromise with the adjacent landowners and make everyone happy if they really wanted too. Let’s work together instead of all this ME ME ME attitude. Make everyone happy, compromise a little.
C.J. — museums in Galesburg? Hiking trail through the heart of Galesburg? the old railroad station, you’re going to classify as a “museum”?. Maybe there’s a “museum” at Knox College somewhere? Right behind the cleaning closet? And if you’re talking about the hiking trail around the Sandburg junior college, that works great for students. Don’t know that I’d move there for that. I never said I would move to Peoria for the Kellar Branch trail. But it helps. A helluva lot more than what’s there now.
You have to love the way you and guys like David think. always contrary, always digging for even the smallest mealworm to try and prove your “point.” Never admitting you’re wrong or mistaken on anything. It must be great to be perfect, particularly in this day and age. Hats off to your wife for dealing with it.
Special note: I sure as hell wouldn’t be moving to Galesburg based on those lovely photos of the railyards. You tell me which you think might be a bigger attraction for moving there === the lovely railyards or the the trails around Lake Storey?
Time’s up.
Prego — Thanks for the input.
No problem — glad I could help.
All you landowners along the Kellar please check out this website. National Association of Reversionary Property Owners
It may do you a world of good.