Kane County Board sends message about EJ&E sale
The Kane County Board sent out a message regarding how it feels about the pending sale of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Tuesday, but it wasn't stern enough for some elected officials.
Kane County's resolution is the first in the area to not outright reject the sale. Lake, DuPage and Will counties have denounced the sale because of concerns about how a fivefold increase in freight train traffic will impact their communities.
Kane County's resolution evolved several times in the last month. Each new version stripped a little more of the feel that Kane County supported the sale, and added more detail about concerns.
The final version took the word "support" out of the document completely and added a lengthy list of roads that will experience major traffic blockages. The resolution also calls for the company set to purchase the railroad, Canadian National, to be required to fund the construction of underpasses and overpasses at all major arterial roadways the train traffic will impact.
But that wasn't enough for six county board members who voted against the resolution for being too wimpy.
County Board Member Arlene Shoemaker, from Aurora, said she knows too many people who will be greatly inconvenienced by the additional trains to support any resolution that doesn't reject the sale. She said she feared municipalities and the county will end up on the hook for building the costly underpasses and overpasses.
"Communities should not have to put a cent into it," Shoemaker said. "All of us who live in the area will be greatly inconvenienced. I don't see how anybody who's on the periphery of this situation can vote for it."
Fifteen county board members did vote for it, enough for the resolution to pass.
"My only problem with the obstructionists is you're really making this a ('not in my backyard) issue," said Bill Wyatt, who chairs the committee that wrote the original draft of the resolution. "We're trying to create a win-win situation here. I see opportunities. The railroads are asking us for something."
Wyatt, from Aurora, said that puts the county in a bargaining position to get major improvements such as money to build underpasses and overpasses.
"What we're saying is, absent that money, say no," Wyatt explained. "But if you can do it, do it."
Indeed, the strengthened wording did win over board members who had opposed the resolution up until Tuesday, such as Gerald Jones, from Aurora. Jones said the new version is much stronger and sends the right message to the Surface Transportation Board, which will ultimately decide if the sale goes through.
"I think some members of this board felt that dealing with the Surface Transportation Board was like dealing with Goliath," Jones said. "I still believe we need to have that battle."
Casting "no" votes were: Deborah Allan, of Elgin; Paul Greviskes, of Aurora; Sylvia Leonberger, of Aurora, Jim Mitchell, of North Aurora; Barbara Wojnicki, of St. Charles; and Shoemaker.