Editorial does not represent objectors

To the editor: I am responding to your editorial on Dec. 19 regarding the purchase of the EJ&E by Canadian National.

How insulting and patronizing of you to call the residents of the Barrington communities "whiners." You tout the merits of this merger and give no thought to what it will do to this community.

If you had ever been in the village of Barrington when a freight is going through you would observe the complete blockage of traffic on three major roadways. No emergency vehicles can get past, let alone school buses or cars. Traffic going through this village from McHenry, Lake, DuPage, Kane and Cook counties comes to a complete standstill.

Yes, the proposed purchase and increase in freight traffic through Barrington might decrease freight traffic in other areas, but those areas are not only used to it, they have the infrastructure to deal with more freight trains.

Barrington does not. More than 15 freight trains a day will cripple this community so totally that it will become a ghost town. Businesses will leave. Homeowners will leave. No one will want to own a home in the village if they can't drive through it. This increase in the number of freight trains through Barrington will effectively wipe our "core," our "downtown" off the map. Had you thought about that?

Had you thought about how many subscribers to your paper live in our area? Have you given them the courtesy of considering their side of this?

Before you insult us all for "wailing" or "whining," you might try to see it from our perspective. Over a thousand people came to the Canadian National presentation with intelligent and thoughtful questions and well-founded, genuine concerns for this community. You are supposed to be a local newspaper but you certainly do not represent the sentiments of this local majority.

Trustee Lauren DeJesu

Lake Barrington