Comment EI-4015
Received or sent (printed as 1/24/2008)
I was at the January 9 meeting in Barrington. I have written to all local papers and the Tribune. We will never stop protesting the descration to our community and the risk to our open spaces. I rode the Metra for years to Chicago. My daughter attended Barrington High School. She always crossed the EJ&E tracks at least 4 times a day and I constantly worried about her safety and her friends. We lived through the Fox River Grove Train disaster one stop from Barrington's stop. My brother in law is dying of a disease he got from working on the railroad, Churg-Strauss disease which is destroying his vascular syste4ms and lungs. He was at thousands of train derailments and many were involving hazardous materials. He is dying at 52. Michael was an executive and he will not sue the railroad but he knows it destroyed his life. My brother in law David is retired as an Train Engineer. He was devastated by wrecks and poor conditions in Indiana on the rail systems. He is an alcoholic now and for a short while he took a management position to deal with litigation matters after train wrecks. My brother Dennis is in Atlanta for the railroad now. he was injured right out of college and his back will never be the same from a train collision in the yard. He works on the chemicals in the labs for the engines. My nephew works for the railroad too. They know the truth and the risks. I lived between two tracks in Indiana from age 6 to age 20. It took me 20 to 30 minutes per train each time we got caught and sometimes longer. Emergency services could not reach our house when my little brother's appendix burst and he almost died from a ruptured appendix, surviving the infestion after weeks. A neighbor died on the tracks who lived near us...too many trains in multiple directions and he crossed too soon. Kids would put coins on the tracks and get close and watch them get hit and flattened for fun. My little brother Mark got his shoe caught in the tracks behind our house in Indiana. We had 12 tracks behind the alley and he was only 3 and went over the fence. I was 5 and got him loose but had to leave the4 shoe behind. I was too afraid to tell my mother he almost died ever. I know all of this sounds like nothing to you, but this is something that needs to be underground and not near open spaces and places where kids can get easy access to the lines. I like the local train to get to work. I would prefer light rail, clean and more efficient and faster. I hope some day we get it. I have taken trains all over Europe and they are a good way to get around. It is not just not in my back yard concerns. I really believe you will destroy this community and we work too hard to get here and provide open land and greenery and clean air, water and a good environment. You will be destroying our way of life, our economy and our market values and some people will die from this. There is more bad than good to come from this. The Chicago rails will be filled anyway. We have a good place to live and you will be destroying one fo the best schools in the state and one of the economically vibrant towns left in the state. Please know I will continue to fight as long as I can and never willoingly acquiesce.
Submitted by: Barbara Kemp · Barrington Hills, Illinois
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
CN WebNew Draft Kemp Jan 08.doc ↓
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-35087/comment/EI-4015
File docketyard.org/document/cef849231bf4a5bf821b67a3422b2c2321e1012e3d4cd9177b05cbadb04e2e3f.bin · back to the docket sheet