Comment EI-24549
Received or sent (printed as 7/11/2016)
Mr. Dave Navecky Surface Transportation Board Docket # FD#35952 Dear Mr. Navecky, I am a 43 year resident of Boone County, IL and was the first to speak at the scoping meeting held April 19, 2016 in our Belvidere Community Building. I OPPOSE THE GLBRR. I have done extensive reading about Mr. Patton's proposed railroad that he wishes to bring through our community and what he feels is the purpose of this project. Much of this information is news releases through his website or information released from public appearances. NOWHERE have I been able to find either a formal application certified with Mr. Patton signature to the STB or a STATEMENT OF LAND USE certifying his stating his intended use of the property he is saying this rail line will cross; farms, homes, business and nature conservatives. WHEN NO SIGNED AND CERTIFIED APPLICATIONS OR LAND USE PERMIT CAN BE FOUND ON RECORD, IT OPENS THE QUESTION, HOW LEGITIMATE AND LEGAL IS THIS PROJECT MR. PATTON IS PROPOSING? IF these documents exist, can you please tell me where I may obtain a copy of them? For a project this enormous size, there should be certified applications somewhere on file! So far, NO ONE, who has been looking and requesting information, has been helped by your department. After learning that Mr. Patton and his legal council requested and GOT a waiver for the usual mandatory 6 months notification period, which would have been the proper and decent approach in notifying those potential business, residents and landowners who's lives and livelihood would be forever changed, Mr. Patton was allowed to skip this avenue of professional protocol and to verbally bulldoze ahead with his project making many statement he now refutes as a misunderstanding of his comments. Where is the truth in his information? Regarding his PRIVATE" funding, now he says, he will apply for GRANTS. That's OUR money not his! Solving congestion around Chicago, there is no local infrastructure to safely support his rail line and adding it would be too costly for the local communities. CREATE has been working responsibly on this project with the railroads who use the BCR and implementing safe and viable alternatives to the congestion problem. Mr. Patton would create more congestion and endanger more citizens with his route. Has he explained the use of 25 square miles of land???? What is Mr. Patton's REAL intent on obtaining such a large section of land??? Refinery, oil storage yard or quick of property to sell later for a profit at the current owners expense? Who knows……NO ONE! It is about time the OEA request pertinent and specific information from Mr. Patton and his proposed GLBRR. Maybe then everyone will know what his plans really are! WHAT will the GLBT LLC do to protect the people from hazardous spills of chemicals or destructive explosions the Bakken Crude Oil this RR will most certainly carry?????? How will they protect our clean aquifers from their TOXIC spills? We don’t need anymore “speedways” to move HHFT’s (Highly Hazardous Flammable Trains) faster along the tracks. There are still many people who slowly learning about the possibility of loose everything they own and cherish from local newscasts or printed news articles. Originally, those wishing to respond to the STB where given just 10 weeks before the deadline. Now the notification period is extended to July 15, 2016, that's only 4 & 1/2 months to notify and explain to landowners what is scheduled to happen to them, still short of the 6 months normally required. Are you helping to FAST TRACK these citizens out of all they own? WE THE PEOPLE, as those being IMPACTED, would like to know that our United States Government, is acting properly and not giving Mr. Patton and his GLBT a free ride outside the RULES, REGULATIONS and PROTOCOL a project of this size DEMANDS. Respectfully, Toria Funderburg, Belvidere/Boone County, IL"
Submitted by: Toria Funderburg · Citizen of Boone County
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-24549 · back to the docket sheet