Boone County farmers opposed to Great Lakes Basin Railroad project

 

 

 

Mar. 5, 2016 at 8:29 PM

GARDEN PRAIRIE — A 60-acre farm near Marengo and Denny roads has been in the Daniels family for generations.

It's been a place of solitude and a fertile place to raise cattle and grow corn, alfalfa and soybeans.

"We've spent generations here," Ang Daniels said. "I know nothing other than this area."

Now, she believes the farm is threatened by the proposed Great Lakes Basin Railroad that would slice through the family's property, affecting farmland and causing unwanted noise.

"We chose to live in a rural area, not an urban area," said Daniels, 53. "I do believe it will affect property values."

The $8 billion, 281-mile loop would be the nation's largest railroad project in more than a century. The plan, in its current form, would extend an existing railroad linking Milwaukee and Brodhead, Wisconsin, to a new line through Boone County — with a western spur at the Chicago Rockford International Airport — then south to Lee County and east to Indiana before ending north in Michigan City, Indiana.

The route would bypass Chicago and thus provide quicker transportation of goods from coast to coast. The project's backers say they'll finance the railroad privately. However, they'll have to acquire vast stretches of private land via eminent domain — the right of a government or its agent to take property at fair market value for public use.

That concerns farmers and residents in Boone County who say the project would scar the land, disrupt natural resources and cause property values to plummet.

"I understand you have to have infrastructure, but that's why you have towns," Daniels said. "Farmland is for farming."

An earlier version of the railroad snaked through Winnebago County, but was scrapped after backers determined an environmental impact study to assess the effects along the Sugar River and Winnebago and Rock counties would have delayed the project.

Frank Patton, CEO of Great Lakes Basin Transportation Corp., said he'd like to start building the railway by 2019. He said the project will be a boon to the farming industry.

"What we're trying to do is modernize the logistics system, not just for agriculture but for the entire (railroad) system," Patton said. "In our minds, the farmers are one of the groups that are the big winners."

The railroad, he said, will carry grain, corn, ethanol and the products that derive from them.

About 20 people gathered Wednesday to discuss the project during a Boone County Planning, Zoning and Building Committee meeting. Farmers and other county residents expressed concerns about the impact the project could have on their lives.

Committee Chairman Denny Ellingson said he shares some of the concerns.

"Personally, I think they looked at a map and went, 'This is the least-populated area, so the least people will fight it,' and just drew the line there," Ellingson said.

Daniels told the committee the railroad will "totally distort Boone County as a farming community."

"This is the some of the most fertile ground in the state of Illinois — look at any of the reports," she said. "I understand we have to look at economic development. But at some point, we have to preserve our farmland, because you don't ever get that back. You don't grow that again next year. (When) it's gone, it's gone, and that's my concern."

More meetings will take place, but dates are undetermined.

Patton, meanwhile, defended the concept of eminent domain.

"Without eminent domain, we wouldn't have any roads, we wouldn't have any forest preserves, we wouldn't have anything that is built on land that someone else at one time owned," Patton said. "If people don't like the law, they can change it. That's what democracy is all about. Eminent domain goes back to Abraham Lincoln."

Committee members and county residents said they didn't know the Great Lakes Basin Railroad proposal existed. Patton contends the plan has been discussed publicly for two years.

Last fall, he pitched the project to the Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning board of directors. A Google Earth document detailing the project will be available on the Great Lakes Basin Railroad website in coming days.

"We are trying to be as transparent as possible," Patton said. "We've received ongoing tremendous support from the agricultural (community). They believe (the railroad) will much more efficiently move agricultural products to the user."

For 35 years, Lee Bozeman, 67, has owned 10 acres on Edson Road south of Capron. He rents out seven acres to a local farmer who plants corn or soybeans. He said the railroad would be about 200 feet from his property.

"I don't see any economic (benefit) here in Boone County," Bozeman said. "Boone County won't be getting any dollars out of this."

An oil pipeline buried in Bonus Township in 2007 and upgraded last year caused little consternation, because they "don't see it, don't hear it," Bozeman said.

Kathi Waite owns five acres on Edson Road where she's raising a horse, a cow and chickens. She said the railroad will either run through her property or just west of it.

"If it hits our property, we'll end up losing our home. If they skirt our property, it's going to basically make it impossible to sell our home," Waite said. "Our property is going to devalue. No one wants to live like that."

Waite also is worried about chemical spills.

"This is all farm country out here with very fertile soil," she said. "(If) those chemicals spill into the ground, who knows what could happen?"

Waite said residents should band together to oppose the project.

"This is an issue that is not going to go down without a fight," she said. "I really think some kind of committee has to be formed by Boone County so that we can at least try to fight this. I don't know if it'll do any good."

Adam Poulisse: 815-987-1344; apoulisse@rrstar.com; @adampoulisse

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