Comment EI-25894
Received or sent (printed as 3/30/2017)
March 30, 2017 To The Surface Transportation Board; This letter is in reference to STB (Finance Docket) FD #35952. I am the Transportation/Maintenance/Safety Director for Kings Consolidated School District 144. This is a small district and the staff here wears many different hats. We had an information meeting concerning the Great Lakes Basin Transportation, LLC Railroad (GLBT). I’m writing in hopes that you will not allow this PRIVATE FIRM to build this Toll Railroad through Kings, Ogle County, Illinois. As the Transportation Director granting the GLBT to build this Railroad will put a deeper hardship on this School District. It will add an additional 45-60 minutes a day to current 45 minute bus routes, with the closing of the rural roads (the GLBT has projected) that our buses have traveled and used for over 60 years. It will add approx. 4000-5000 extra miles a year to our buses with no compensation. This does not reflect any time the Railroad would need to stop and could potentially block 2 or 3 State Highways. As the Safety Director for the School District by Illinois State Law and by the direction of the Illinois Superintendent we are required to have a Safety Plan in place in the event of an emergency. Our current plans have some coverage in the event of any issue with the Illinois Rail Net which is within 500 feet of the school property, but the current use of this track has little to no impact on the school due to its limited use. If the GBLT is allowed to build their track according to their current plan it would pass within a quarter of a mile of the School District and at 60-100 trains (approx. 1 train every 20 minutes) a day using this track would become a 24/7 issue in the safety and well being of our students and staff in the event of a chemical or other toxin that could be released by an accident or a derailment. If such an accident would happen it would also affect the response time to the emergency, it would affect the school and the Ogle County’s Emergency Command Center. It will affect the response of the Fire Station which is 6 miles away but instead of taking 15 minutes to respond it could 15 minutes to 30 minutes or longer. The same would hold true of the Ogle County Sheriff Office and its response time. But these 3 government bodies would also find it hard to respond to any emergency here at the school with the projected route and road closures that the GBLT has chosen. The safety of the students at this school or any other District should be paramount to any decision made to allow the GBLT to build its Toll Railroad. The staff and the little over 100 residents who live in Kings of which I am one of these residents also have to consider the effects the GBLT would have on us and quality of life. We feel that this is a Private firm trying to make money off the residents of Kings and the surrounding areas. The GBLT would not bring a great influx of money for the Kings area but it would just add to the burden by taking high quality farm land out of production as well as burden these same farmers to pay their bills with the loss of acreage and access to farm land that the GBLT would pass through leaving access limited or nonexistent. Many of us feel the GBLT has not thought out or considered what they are trying to do or the impact it will have in the 3 states they plan to come through. The GBLT is only looking at making a profit on their part and not it would cost the States, Counties, or School Districts they would be affecting. Please do not allow the GBLT to build this railroad on its current planned route. Respectfully Submitted, Douglas E. Wood Kings Consolidated School District 144 Transportation/Maintenance/Safety Director
Submitted by: Doug Wood · Kings Consolidated School District 144
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-25894 · back to the docket sheet