23 NEWS: Railroad Opponents Speak Out For First Time

ONLY ON 23 NEWS: Railroad Opponents Speak Out For First Time

By: Eric O'Brien - Email

Posted: Wed 11:02 PM, Mar 16, 2016

Railroad Opponents Speak Out

Railroad Plan Upsets Some Landowners

R.R. Re-Routes to Boone County

 

Railroad Re-routes to Boone County

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UPDATE: BOONE COUNTY (WIFR) -- People and counties unite in the fight for their land. A tense group is speaking out for the first time since they say they were blindsided, last month, with plans for a major railroad to be built in some of their backyards. Now railroad opponents in Boone County are gaining momentum.

It’s standing room only at a rare Boone County board meeting where hundreds pack into one room, some pouring into the halls, to voice their concerns over a plan to build an $8 billion railroad.

"It's about 200 yards from my property line, so I cannot fight it at all,” said Laurie Bozeman, who says she’s lived in northern Boone County more than 40 years. “They're not going to offer me anything. I'm just going to have to live with the unsightly views of the freight train and it land locks us."

Bozeman recently noticed her land is directly in the path mapped out for the Great Lakes Basin Railroad project, a track connecting Northern Indiana to Southern Wisconsin which designers anticipate will bypass busy traffic in Chicago. According to some of those organizers, that would cut shipping times in half at least they also say it will promote growth in the areas it runs through, but that Bozeman isn’t on board.

"Your home is your security and your safe place to go, and I feel like these guys just think it's okay to come in and take that away,” Bozeman worries. “When we move in, we don't move out. It's our home."

Opponents from some of the other ten counties are also voicing their displeasure, asking a room of nearly 200 to come together as one strong push-back force.

"The thing is I don't want to see this line put anywhere,” LaSalle County’s Carl Zimmerman said. “I don't want it on my neighbors ground, I don't want to shove it into the next county."

"We need to know more,” Susan Sack, who is also from LaSalle County, added. “We need to be able to protect ourselves and our children and our future."

"It goes from Boone County, all the way across and down, it does not touch Dekalb County. I want to know what it is that they said and did that it's not going through their county," Bozeman questioned.
Railroad organizers have already submitted paperwork to the surface transportation board, no hearing has been scheduled as of yet. Boone County says if people want their opinions to be heard they should write letters to the S.T.B.

Some opponents have created a Facebook page to rally support. It can be found by searching “Citizens Against ‘The Great Lakes Basin Railroad’ Project.”

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UPDATE: BOONE COUNTY (WIFR) -- The idea for a new railroad system through Boone County is leaving some families with more questions than answers, many afraid to lose their home.

One landowner says she's been in her Boone County home since 1956 and she just found out a train could soon be chugging straight through her property and there may be nothing she can do about it. Dozens like her said they were too angry to go on camera after hearing the news.

Boone County's board says it's too early to make any judgments. Railroad organizers are expected to hold public hearings by April.

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ROCKFORD (WIFR) – Thousands of jobs could be coming to the Stateline, thanks to a new railroad project expected to bring business from Indiana to Wisconsin and now we’ve learned the 200 plus mile-long Great Lakes Basin Railroad is changing its course.

To the delight of Boone County Chairman Bob Walberg, the Great Lakes Basin Railroad is heading to his neck of the woods. Walberg says it’s a solution to the lack of freight the county has wanted for more than a decade.

“This rail would provide a great economic engine for the economics and freight part of it. And possibly with that extra rail line, it may even get used by passenger if that ever became a reality,” says Walberg.

The route, which previously ran to the west of Rockford, is being moved to the east side of Belvidere because of environmental challenges in Brodhead, Wisconsin. With so many state parks and water obstacles, the prices would have jumped because of added bridges.

Found Frank Patton says everything worked out for the better.

“If we went all the way through, once we got out of Winnebago County, we couldn’t get into Wisconsin. That was the killer. We ended up with a better route I think. It’s all a part of the process,” says Patton.

With the completion of the project still a few years away and the many hoops the rail group will have to jump through, Walberg is not getting too excited.

“We’ve got to regulate our enthusiasm a bit knowing that time will require something like this to take place and also there will need to be a lot of pieces to fall in line. We’ll be anxious to work with everyone on this project,” says Walberg.

Patton says the new maps will be re-drawn in the next few days before 8 to 10 public meetings will be set up along the route, including Rockford.

The founder says if everything remains on schedule, the entire project will be complete in 2019 or 2020.

To view the actual videos go to Channel 23:  http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/Railroad-Re-routes-to-Boone-County-367446171.html?device=phone&c=y

Trump as big a global risk as terrorism: EIU

Trump as big a global risk as terrorism: EIU

By David Reid 2 hours ago

A Donald Trump presidency would be as big a global risk as the rising threat of jihadi terrorism, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

In a list released Thursday, the research team also suggested Trump's rhetoric toward the Middle East will in itself raise the jihadi menace.

"His militaristic tendencies towards the Middle East and ban on all Muslim travel to the US would be a potent recruitment tool for jihadi groups," the EIU said in its global risk assessment.

The research firm says Trump's hostile attitude toward free trade could also prove a worldwide issue.

"In the event of a Trump victory, his hostile attitude to free trade, and alienation of Mexico and China in particular, could escalate rapidly into a trade war," the report said.

The EIU ranking combines impact and probability on a scale rating of 1 to 25, with a Trump presidency scoring a rating of 12.

However, more dangerous events listed include China experiencing a hard landing and a breakdown of the European Union.

The top 10 risks with their scores, are:

• China experiences a hard landing. Score = 20
• Russia's interventions in Ukraine and Syria trigger start of new "cold war." Score = 16
• Currency volatility culminates in an emerging markets corporate debt crisis. Score = 16
• Beset by external and internal pressures, the EU begins to fracture. Score = 15
• "Grexit" is followed by a euro zone break-up. Score = 15
• Donald Trump wins the US presidential election. Score = 12
• The rising threat of jihadi terrorism destabilises the global economy. Score = 12
• The UK votes to leave the EU. Score = 8
• Chinese expansionism prompts a clash of arms in the South China Sea. Score = 8
• A collapse in investment in the oil sector prompts a future oil price shock. Score = 4

The research paper concludes that it doesn't expect Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton in the race to become the next president.

But it suggests a turn of events that could put Trump in the White House.

"There are risks to this forecast, especially in the event of a terrorist attack on US soil or a sudden economic downturn," the report reads.

Meanwhile the Kremlin hit out Thursday at a campaign video promoting Trump, suggesting the video demonized Russia's image.

The clip in question shows Clinton barking like a dog while Putin throws an opponent in a judo bout.

"I saw this clip. I do not know for sure if Vladimir Putin saw it. But our attitude is negative," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a teleconference, according to Reuters.

Peskov said negative comments from U.S. politicians were nothing new.

"It's an open secret for us that demonizing Russia and whatever is linked to Russia is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America's election campaign," he said

Correction: An earlier version misspelled Hillary Clinton's first name

Above is from:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-big-global-risk-terrorism-112926847.html

High-profile primaries don’t go Rauner’s way

High-profile primaries don’t go Rauner’s way

March 16, 2016March 16, 2016 Shane Nicholson 716 Views 0 Comment

Campaigns backed by the governor and his allies’ money swung the other direction Tuesday night.

By Mark Fitton
Illinois News Network

SPRINGFIELD — In Chicago, a Democrat state representative who bucked his party was pummeled in a $6 million primary race despite big money help from conservative circles.

Meanwhile downstate, a GOP state senator who crossed Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and sided with Democrats and public sector unions on a key labor bill withstood a charge from a well-financed challenger endorsed by the governor.

Total spending in that race surpassed $4 million.

The two races were among those cast as nearly direct proxy wars between Rauner and Democratic Speaker of the House Michael Madigan.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, challenger Juliana Stratton had 18,488 votes to Rep. Ken Dunkin’s 8,804 in the 5th District House race.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, incumbent Sen. Sam McCann of Plainview had 20,934 votes to 19,026 for challenger Bryce Benton of Springfield. Benton conceded that race for the 50th District Senate seat about 11:20 p.m. Tuesday night.

Experts say political spending in those races reached unprecedented levels because of what was at stake: leverage and power in the midst of not only a huge budget dispute, but an ideological fight over how state government should operate and the relationship between state government and its employees.

“It’s about these candidates, but it’s also about sending a message to everyone in the legislature … to everybody else who’s going to be voting in the General Assembly for the rest of the year and then who’s going to be on the ballot in the fall,” said campaign-financing expert Kent Redfield.

The message to lawmakers: Stick with your team’s agenda.

Redfield said that applies when it’s Gov. Rauner and his allies trying to unseat McCann, who voted against the governor’s position on an intensely fought labor bill.

“The message becomes that if you go against the governor on something he considers important, you’re looking at $2 million being spent against you in your next primary,” said Redfield, professor emeritus at University of Illinois Springfield.

It also applies when it’s Madigan and his traditional allies, including organized labor, backing Dunkin’s challenger, Redfield said.

On the Democrats’ side of the aisle, the message is that “if you go off the Democratic reservation, so to speak, it’s not necessarily the speaker’s money, but big labor’s money that you’ll have to contend with,” Redfield said.

It was Dunkin who split from Democrats and wouldn’t support Senate Bill 1229, which the Republican governor said would strip him of his constitutional power to bargain contracts on behalf of the state and could yield a payout worth billions to public-sector employee unions.

On the same bill, McCann broke GOP ranks and cast his vote with Democrats, saying he was voting the will of his district.

The spending saw Republican interests break tradition and pool their money not only to target one of their own, McCann, but to support Democrat Dunkin in the House primary.

Jim Nowlan, a former member of the House and one-time GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, said the new wave of huge campaign spending raises the question of whether candidates with big money from a relatively small number of donors become more indebted to those donors than to their districts.

Sarah Brune, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said, “This type of spending has really reduced the voice of local donors in those districts, and that’s something that really alarms us.”

Dan Proft is the head of the Liberty Principles Independent Expenditure Committee, which spent more than $3 million in the effort to dislodge McCann.

Proft also is a cofounder of the Illinois Opportunity Project, which contributed about $1.3 million to Dunkin’s efforts. Proft, however, says he’s no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of that group.

Proft said gathering and spending conservative or free-market money — even if from a relatively small number of wealthy donors — is no different than public-sector labor unions or trial lawyers backing their favored candidates with millions of dollars.

“It’s really simple,” Proft said. “People who believe in a particular philosophy of government and policy are organizing, raising and expending resources on behalf of like-minded candidates.

“People who want to see the same policies advancing are working together. OK, so what happens on the left?” he continued. “I realize they don’t want competition, but that’s tough.”

Analysts say expect even bigger spending come the fall.

Conservatives who can afford to spend are going after a number of targets as they try to wipe out Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

The way the districts are now mapped, perhaps a dozen to 18 House seats could change hands plus another eight to 12 in the Senate, Redfield said.

The GOP wants those seats, he said, and the spending on behalf of the challengers is going to make Democrats and their allies up their financial game.

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–Reporter Julio Rausseo contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Among his other roles, Dan Proft is a senior fellow at the Illinois Policy Institute, the Illinois News Network’s parent organization.

Above is from:  http://rockrivertimes.com/2016/03/16/high-profile-primaries-dont-go-rauners-way/

Residents pack into Boone County Board meeting to voice opposition to railroad

Video available at:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160316/residents-pack-into-boone-county-board-meeting-to-voice-opposition-to-railroad/?Start=2

By Adam Poulisse
Staff writer

Posted Mar. 16, 2016 at 10:43 PM
Updated at 10:47 PM

BELVIDERE — A couple hundred people packed the seats and lined the walls of tonight's Boone County Board meeting to show their disapproval of the proposed Great Lakes Basin Railroad.

Residents from Boone County and beyond attended the meeting and told County Board members the railroad will ruin agricultural resources and deplete property values. Some vowed to start a petition against the railroad, while others have started social media campaigns to gather a collective voice.

Sharon Charlesworth of Garden Prairie told the County Board during public comment she sees "no benefit," and it will disrupt medical and police services, school bus routes, commuter traffic and upset agricultural livelihood.

"It will disrupt everything," she told the Register Star afterward. "This is an agricultural community. Where we live, I'm told, this whole area is supposed to be preserved. It's not supposed to be developed. Yet they're going to run a railroad through it? I don't think so. That's wrong."

The railroad will abut the end of Charlesworth's field, she said.

"My house will shake every time (a train) goes by," she said. "It's wrong."

The railway, the nation's largest in a century, would cost $8 billion and span hundreds of miles. 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.

Though hundreds attended the meeting, only a handful spoke. The crowd often erupted into applause in agreement with the speakers, something Chairman Bob Walberg tried to curb to maintain order.

"People in the community have such pride in our county and pride in their ownership of the county," Walberg said after the meeting. "Any of these people just came to purchase their property or the property came from descendants. Now, they have something they have absolutely no control over coming in and modifying it."

The proposed railroad skirts the southern tip of Winnebago County for its stop at the airport; a previous version that cut through the county was scrapped after backers determined an environmental impact study to assess the effects along the Sugar River in Winnebago and Rock counties would have delayed the project.

Teresa Lapp has lived in Stillman Valley in Winnebago County for 25 years. She said she only found out about the railroad Tuesday night through her neighbor. The railroad will run about 300 feet from her front door, she said.

- "There's a lot of community pride in our homes out there," she said. "It's a very well maintained area. The home value there is $300,000 and up. I really do think that this train is going right where there's toddlers 200 feet away. Everyone's very upset about it."

Lapp said she's meeting with a lawyer on Monday to finalize a petition that she will circulate throughout the community.

"We're looking to get as many signatures as we possibly can," she said.

Carl Zimmerman of LaSalle County attended tonight's board meeting. He created the Facebook group Stop Great Lakes Basin Transportation Proposed Rail Line, which has 378 likes and counting.

"I'm not the person to stand up and say something, usually, but I want to make sure people in our township, our county, were aware, including bordering counties this is affecting," he said.

Zimmerman has joined with BLOCKRICL, which works with landowners to fight for their rights against eminent domain.

Walberg said he sees both sides for and against the argument as both a Boone County landowner and county chairman. However, he said the County Board will likely not announce a position.

"That would just distract from the whole process," he said. "The board would not have one vision or voice. We have 12 members and you'd get 12 different visions."

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

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160316/residents-pack-into-boone-county-board-meeting-to-voice-opposition-to-railroad/?Start=2

 

Ms. Charlesworth’s public comments from the meeting:

The Rhubarb

6 hrs ·

Sharon Charlesworth from Garden Prairie, IL spoke during public comment at the Boone County Board meeting on March 16. Sharon has given The Rhubarb permission ...to post her questions she read at the meeting.

The Rhubarb wishes to thank Sharon Charlesworth.

"Did anyone ask the people of Boone County how they felt about a railroad track that divides the county from north to south?

According to the Great Lakes Basin website there are two main tracks with movement of up to 110 trains per day, at speeds of 70 mph. The railroad intersects all east-west roads in eastern Boone County.

The county will be divided due to the fact of the high number of freight trains traveling the tracks at speeds faster than automobile traffic.

The east-west roads are used by a large number of commuters every day. Their travel time will be lengthened to allow for the freight trains.

How long does it take for an average freight train to cross an intersection?

Due to the fact there will be up to 110 trains per day, how often will trains cross each intersection?

I know from experience freight trains can take an excessive amount of time to cross a road, and for people waiting this can be irritating. This could possibly lead to people trying to 'beat the train'.

How will these tracks effect Boone County?

Disruption of medical services, police services, and school bus routes.

Disruption of automobile commuter traffic.

Disruption of agricultural livelihood.

Some fields are divided by the tracks – loss of accessibility to property, loss of use of property. Boone County is an agricultural community. I have been told that there are areas that are designated not to be developed and yet – the train route goes through these areas.

What will be transported on these railroad cars?

I have heard that garbage from the southeast and chemicals from the north will be traveling on these tracks.

There is a line that travels into Winnebago County, near route 72. Will you be hauling garbage from Chicago and Indiana to the Winnebago Reclamation Services Landfill?

Won’t this effect the semis that haul the garbage? I believe that it takes five or six semis to fill a railroad car. Will the garbage be flying out all over Boone County?

There was an accident in Rockford where a train carrying chemicals derailed, killing people and damaging property. Do we want our children sitting at these crossings multiple times, on a daily basis?

Remember a possible 110 trains per day!

What are the benefits for Boone County?

Will there be new jobs? Highly unlikely, the Great Lakes Basin Railroad will bring the people they need with them.

Please are there any benefits? I see none."

Charlesworth statement from The Rhubarb Facebook;  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=196338750738718&id=193626421009951&fref=nf