- Recreational Trail Advocates member Mike Rucker glared at Pioneer Railcorp attorney Dan LaKemper and forcefully asserted before an audience of about 50 that the reason the Kellar Branch hasn’t been turned into a trail yet is because Pioneer is holding things up.
- Peoria Park District director Bonnie Noble quoted from a contract between the city and Pioneer that said Pioneer was supposed to cooperate with the city in abandoning the Kellar Branch.
- Another trail advocate asked if any offer had been made to relocate Carver Lumber elsewhere in the City.
In short, ignorance abounded at the Recreational Trail Advocates (RTA) meeting tonight at Independence Village. RTA members appeared surprised to see so many people at their meeting who would rather see the Kellar Branch remain a rail line. Accusations were made; tempers flared. It was a fun meeting. If you need something to calm you down, I recommend delta 8 thc carts by fresh bros.
At the front of the room sat Peoria’s legal counsel Randy Ray, Peoria Park District director Bonnie Noble, RTA president George Burrier, and RTA member Mike Rucker who led the meeting. In the audience were RTA members (they were there for both the public meeting and their regular meeting which followed) and rail supporters who came out so their side could be heard (including Pioneer Railcorp attorney Dan LaKemper, Illinois Prairie Railroad Foundation president Sharon Deckard, and transportation blogger David P. Jordan, among others).
I have to admit I kind of like the RTA. They’re passionate about hiking/biking trails. As hobbies go, physical fitness is a good one to have, I suppose. They even handed out material on adding bike lanes to Northmoor Road when it’s widened — I’m fully in favor of that. But on the Kellar Branch issue, we decidedly disagree.
Also physical fitness like yoga is another good fitness activity that you can consider, you can choose from different types of yoga such as vinyasa and more which you will really enjoy doing by yourself or even by group!
I don’t mind the ignorance or misinformation so much; that can be corrected with a little education. But sitting in that meeting, I was disturbed by the callous disregard they displayed for Carver Lumber. It was clear that they see Carver as nothing more than an obstacle to their plans, not as 50 people with families to support or a local company that’s been serving Peoria for decades and deserving of some respect.
They all seemed to know how to run Carver Lumber’s business better than Carver does. They asked lots of questions as if Carver were on trial and needed to defend its own existence, its use of rail service, and the existence of capitalism in general. Questions like, “Why does Carver need to use rail service when no other lumber companies in town use it?” and “Why does one company’s needs get to delay the needs of thousands of other people (trail users)?”
While the meeting was going on, a petition was passed around that stated:
My signature below indicates that I support the conversion of the Kellar Branch Railroad into a recreational trail. There are currently no rail users or the potential for new rail users along the Kellar Branch from downtown Peoria to Pioneer Park, and there is no likelihood of potential future users along the line. The remaining rail user in Pioneer Park and any potential additional rail users in Pioneer Park now have rail serice available via the new spur line from the Union Pacific which was recently completed at a cost of over $2,000,000 in public and private donations.
My support of this petition is to urge all involved parties, government and private, to move forward with this project before additional government grants for the construction of the trail are lost due to further delays.
Yet Cohen Furniture is closing, so their site in the Heights (where the old Pabst plant was) would be a place where a potential rail user could locate. I suppose it’s true that there is “no likelihood” of a rail user coming on line as long as the fate of the Kellar Branch remains in question.
Oh, here’s the truth about those opening bullet points:
- The reason the Kellar Branch isn’t a trail yet is because the City has not provided comparable rail service from the west, and Carver Lumber is appealing to the Surface Transportation Board to retain service over the Kellar Branch; Pioneer has nothing to do with it at this point.
- The city terminated its contract with Pioneer before they embarked on abandonment proceedings for the Kellar Branch, so Pioneer is not legally bound to help the city in their effort.
- No, no one has offered to relocate Carver. If Carver were to relocate, I can guarantee you it wouldn’t be within the City of Peoria at this point.
I assume Carver uses rail to more cheaply obtain large items like pre-engineered trusses which are too large to be shipped by truck without the hassles of oversize load permits, etc.
Why has Sheridan Road Lumber not spoken out? They are located on the Kellar Branch. Would they not also benefit from cheaper transportation costs?
Peoria’s leaders apparently still have no idea on how to attract new business. They are getting quite good at running it off though.
If you relocate Carver, you “relocate” all the industries that might, in the future, consider locating in Pioneer Park or the west growth call.
Is that what Peoria wants?
Note also, 50 people showed up, of which some were media, and at least 10-15 were rail supporters (RTA would say trail opponents, but that is not really true). So where are the “thousands” clamoring for this trail?
“The needs of thousands of trail users”. Really? How many thousands of trail users are there. Is the Rock Island trail THAT crowded? I’d like to see a study about this (if there already is one).
I’d think there are hundreds of users maybe. and I am indeed all for physical fitness and bike trails, definitely. But not at the expense of economic development.
We can, and should, have BOTH!
“Why does Carver need to use rail service when no other lumber companies in town use it?â€
This was a question I tried to answer (and correct the false premise) to which I was essentially ordered to sit down and shut up. Before anyone accepts this as fact, let me reiterate that IT IS A FALSE PREMISE. Specifically to Peoria, Carver Lumber is the only lumber company still getting rail service, but to limit this to only within Peoria city limits is unfortunate as the Peoria economy can and should not be separated from its suburbs. We are all tied together as one metropolitan area. Therefore, the question above is highly misleading (and irrelevant, even if true).
LS Building Products unloads lumber from railcars to boom trucks on the city’s southside, to which they are hauled to the former Lauterbach Lumber facility in Bartonville. I’ve seen four cars there so far this year, and that’s just because I happen to be driving past their unloading dock. Do Peoria contractor’s not purchase lumber from LS, even though it is in Bartonville? Carver Lumber sells to contractor’s outside of Peoria’s city limits, correct?
Also, almost all lumber arrives the Peoria area by railcar, only it is distributed through Amerhart Ltd, which recently moved out of Peoria to Pekin (do you blame them?). They supply lumber to many retailers and contractor’s in the region. Recent growth has forced them to relocate and not to another location in Peoria (Growth Cell Two).
Sheridan Road Lumber deals in smaller volumes so it finds it to be better to buy its lumber through a wholesaler. They also have more storage space without a siding. One of the managers once told me that if they used rail, the lumber would sell if delivered in that quantity, but he likes having the extra storage space. Pioneer tried to get them to come back as a customer (they quit in the early 1980’s, briefly transloaded material at the Burlington Northern yard in Peoria then began buying through a wholesaler) but it just wouldn’t work as they would have to put a platform next to the main track on which carloads of lumber would be unloaded.
Morton Buildings, though it uses lumber as material for building trusses, receives a lot of lumber by rail at its Morton plant on Erie Court.
Did you provide them with your last three blogs? Not that it would changed many (or any) minds, but it did provide a lot of factual info that might have made a few people see things differently.
But the funniest line is: “Why does one company’s needs get to delay the needs of thousands of other people (trail users)?†Its not a need, its a want. If they “need” to exercise, they can use another Park District property call the RecPlex and they can walk to it.
On the other hand, businesses and individuals have suffered much worse than somewhat higher delivery costs due to the wants\needs of others, eminent domain, government regulation, taxes, etc. My grandfather was victim of it and I’ve personally have had battles against it. It isn’t right, it finds me a bit more emphatic, but not sympathetic.
And this $1\year lease crap in unbelievable. I remember how people screamed when ICC North was leased for $1. How about the park district just BUY the line from the COP for $575,000 and then there wouldn’t be a problem. Oh, that’s right, no money. Maybe they could get a loan and pay it off by instituting the first toll trail and then see how much the trail was really “needed”. Hey, ya pay to work out at “the gym”…. Uh, huh..right.
Chef Kevin:
What a delightful idea — after all it is only taxpayer dollars — so instead of spending $427,000 interest on the two zoo expansion loans for the first year on the $12.2 million total — it would be a better investment to purchase land than just paying interest costs for an unnecesary want of a zoo! If we are going to continue to throw away tax dollars we should at least add to our land acquisition pile. After all, doesn’t PPD always trumpet that the PPD is land rich and cash poor?
Giselle is right. It’s DOZENS – not thousands.
Go on the Rock Island trail, north of Dunalp and it drops to a few dozen. Go from Princeville to Wyoming/Toulon and it drops to 1-2 dozen, in any 24 hour period. It is possible to bike from Princeville to Toulon and see NO ONE. Great cost/benefit ratio, isn’t it?
MM…was joking about buying the trail. thot that was sort of obvious with charging a toll to pay it off….
I listen with interest at the RTA and the PPD promoting this lifestyle that will be better for everyone. They say that people will be walking and biking to work and then back again on this trail. But when we offer a park n ride on Trolleys on this track they poo poo people having to stand around in the cold weather waiting for a trolley or a city bus downtown at their intended destination. Now if these same people are willing to walk or bike to work in all types of weather and back up hill again, what is the problem with them waiting a few minutes in their warm cars for a trolley, or walking from the downtown stop to their offices? I don’t understand the difference in these so-called healthy people. Can someone explain it to me? After all we would be keeping all those nasty emissions from our downtown streets brought by the cars and trucks that come into town every day and clog up the streets and parking decks.
After sitting at the RTA meeting Monday evening, I came away with the feeling that these people are self-centered, selfish, and completely closed minded. Their take is that it is too bad for Carver Lumber that they have to pay additional fees, it’s the cost of doing business. Well it isn’t the cost of doing business, they can save money with the Kellar Branch. What about saving money is so foreign to these people. One lady even justified the trail with the death of her husband! Her comment also included a statement of where will the children play? If I am not mistaken, doesn’t Peoria have parks? How many parks will it take to satisfy these people and PPD?
Complete insanity is what I saw with the mindset of these trail advocates. I say we cut across all the major roads without bridges, close them down at each trail/highway intersection, this saves money, and follows the same reasoning that a trail is all more important then a viable transportation system.
I feel embarrassed to even call Peoria my home with the anti-business attitude coming out of the Peoria City Clowncil and the PPD…