Comment EI-22229
Received or sent (printed as 4/24/2016)
[hebron] I respectfully request that the STB deny the above referenced project for the following reasons: 1. Transportation Systems There are already alternate projects such as CREATE to improve rail efficiency, and alternatives such as Great Lakes shipping and existing rail lines. It a threat to funding for existing transportation and maintenance; there is much concern that public funding will be sought and compete with existing stretched transportation maintenance objectives. 2. Safety The railroad will pass directly by public schools in Lowell IN and near communities with young children. The project lacks funding for all but occasional overpasses and therefore necessarily will substantially affect fire and emergency and electrical repair vehicles including route 231 and county line road in our community. People moved to our community in order to be able commute to Chicago from a rural setting but the railroad cuts through that link (route 231) in a highly disruptive fashion. 3. Land Use Our farm and our neighbor farm (Jan Austin) are operated as part of the adjacent Wolf Bros Farm, all of which will be put out of business because the rail directly bisects the Wolf Bros land disrupting accessbility and economics of the combined dairy / field-crop operation. We invested in many improvements in the farm when we moved here recently including a barn and fencing for our livestock and drainage tile for our crop fields, which will now be a lost improvement. 4. Recreation The existing recreation path adjacent to 231 (a hiking, horseback, atv trail planted with orchard) currently used (by us and the community) as an access route to the local state park (Stony Run State park) and Veterans memorial will be bisected and rendered uncrossable by foot / horse / or atv. 5. Biological Resources, and 6. water resources We are in a wetland area. Approximately half of our farm is maintained as a seasonal wetland and nesting ground for waterfowl, with 3 permanent ponds and several acres of seasonal marsh. These could become either permanently flooded or drained due to the impact of the railroad blocking and disrupting a major portion of the Kanakee watershed of which we are a part. 10. Noise and Vibration, and 14. Aesthetics The predicted rate of trains will introduce substantial noise and vibration through not only our own community but to those adjacent to us on the path of the railroad where it passes directly by schools, and to official wetlands preservation area (Tom Sporre Wildlife Area).
Submitted by: Phillips Hamilton · Far Horizons · hebron, in
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.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-35952/comment/EI-22229 · back to the docket sheet