Comment EI-22787
Received or sent (printed as 5/14/2016)
I would like to express my concern for the proposed rail project running through south Porter County. As a retired teacher at Morgan Twp. School, I am deeply troubled by the impact on our students and faculty. Because it is a rural small school, the majority of our middle and high school students either drive themselves or are driven by parents on a regular basis. We also have a large number of high school students who drive to other schools for vocational education. These are new teenage drivers who unfortunately are prone to take risks and drive distracted. Crossing railroad tracks on a daily basis increases the risk for tragic accidents. In addition, Morgan School is part of a 3-school corporation, so that moving the tracks 10 miles to the north or south will put them near other rural schools with similar populations. Those students who do ride the bus are already subject to long bus rides due to limited funding and a shortage of drivers. Railroad crossings will only increase these drive times and cause further logistical headaches in getting students to class on time. Also, I can tell you from experience that outside noise is a huge distraction to the classroom. These are K-12 schools so imagine the difficulties of redirecting attention from train whistles every 15 minutes. Finally, our Morgan Fire Station is located on the school grounds, meaning emergency response will be negatively affected by train crossings. I would ask that this project be rerouted to an area with less detriment to education and traffic safety. Thank you for your time. Angela Snow
Submitted by: Angela Snow · Valparaiso, 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-22787 · back to the docket sheet