 |
Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 04/21/07
Author: Larry W. Grant
Date: 04-21-2007 - 00:09
Railroad Newsline for Saturday, April 21, 2007
Compiled by Larry W. Grant
In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006
RAIL NEWS
TEEN ARRESTED IN AMTRAK WEST ATTACK TIED TO WEST SACRAMENTO GANG
WEST SACRAMENTO, CA -- A teenager accused of assaulting an Amtrak engineer earlier this week belonged to a West Sacramento gang that was under court order not to assemble, authorities said Thursday.
The 17-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday for throwing rocks and bottles in an apparent robbery attempt. Authorities say he was part of a mob that forced the Capitol Corridor train to stop by standing on the tracks Monday night.
He pleaded not guilty Thursday in Yolo County Superior Court to 17 charges. They included attempted murder, train robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem, criminal street gang activity and battery with serious bodily injury, according to the district attorney's office.
The teenager also was charged with violating a court order that prohibits members of the Broderick Boys, a West Sacramento street gang, from hanging out together and staying out after a 22:00 curfew.
The train, which originated in San Jose, was nearing the end of its run in Sacramento when the attack occurred. The engineer was taken to University of California, Davis Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for head injuries and possible internal injuries. - The Associated Press, The Sacramento Bee
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD CHARGED WITH ASSAULT, ATTEMPTED MURDER AND TRAIN ROBBERY WILL BE TIRED AS AN ADULT
WEST SACRAMENTO, CA -- The 17-year-old boy from West Sacramento who was arrested Tuesday on probable cause of 14 felony charges in relation to Monday's Amtrak engineer and conductor assault will be tried as an adult.
Daniel Jacob Bonge's arraignment took place on Thursday in Department 9 of the Yolo County Courthouse on the charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem, train robbery and criminal street gang activity.
The train, which originated in San Jose, was nearing the end of its run in Sacramento when the incident occurred at about 22:30 hours on Monday.
The attack on the Amtrak Capitol Corridor passenger train occurred within the Safety Zone established by the injunction imposed on the Broderick Boys which forbids members of the gang from committing a number of acts in a specified area of West Sacramento.
The engineer was taken to the UC Davis Medical Center, where he was treated for head injuries and possible internal injuries.
The suspect allegedly was part of a mob that had forced the Capitol Corridor train to stop by standing on the tracks Monday night. The engineer opened a door when the group threatened a conductor, and they dragged him out and assaulted him, authorities said. - The Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA), courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr
BNSF ISSUES PRB COAL UPDATE FOR APRIL 20, 2007
Coal Train Loadings Recovering From Winter Weather Issues
The pace of BNSF coal train loadings in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming and Montana are recovering from the effects of winter weather on mines in late March 2007, although intermittent mine issues continued through the first half of April 2007.
Average April BNSF daily train loadings for the PRB stand at 50.5 trains per day through April 15, 2007, compared with an April average of 48.9 trains per day through April 15, 2006. Mine issues resulted in the loss of an average of 12.4 loading opportunities per day during the first 15 days of April 2007.
Year-to-date through April 15, 2007, BNSF has loaded a total daily average of 48.7 trains in the PRB, up 2 percent from the 47.9 trains loaded through the same period in 2006.
System-wide, BNSF has loaded a total of 81.4 million tons through April 15, 2007, approximately 3 percent above the 2006 year-to-date total of 79.0 million tons.
Electric Power Coal Stocks Up Year Over Year
Total electric power sector coal stocks increased between January 2006 and January 2007 by 31.8 million tons (30.4 percent), according to the Electric Power Monthly report issued April 16, 2007, by the federal Energy Information Administration.
Comparing January 2007 to the same month of the prior year, total electric power sector coal stocks have now increased for 13 months in a row, according to EIA. Stocks of subbituminous coal, the kind mined in the PRB, grew by 19.0 million tons between January 2006 and January 2007 (from 46.5 to 65.5 million tons, a 40.8 percent rise). - BNSF Service Advisory
CN SHUTS DOWN RAIL OPERATIONS IN TORONTO-MONTREAL CORRIDOR FOR SAFETY REASONS FOLLOWING ILLEGAL BLOCKADE BY FIRST NATION PROTESTORS
MONTREAL, QC -- The Canadian National Railway announced today a shutdown of rail operations in its Toronto-Montreal corridor, including an embargo on all freight and passenger traffic, to ensure the safety of its employees and the traveling public. The shutdown follows an illegal blockade of CN's double-track main line west of Napanee, ON, by some members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation.
The blockade has seriously disrupted freight and passenger service in the busiest rail corridor on CN's system -- the Montreal-Toronto line accommodates on a daily basis an average of 25 CN freight trains and 22 VIA Rail Canada Inc. passenger trains.
CN earlier today obtained an interim injunction from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordering protestors to remove the blockade immediately.
The injunction has been served on the protestors. CN is concerned that the Ontario government has not ensured enforcement of the court order to allow train traffic to resume in this very important corridor. CN hopes to be able to restore service as soon as possible for its customers. - Mark Hallman, CN News Release
FORT WORTH RAILWAY LANDS RIGHT TO BUY IN LOGISTICS HUB
DALLAS, TX -- The developer of the Dallas Logistics Hub has reached an agreement with a unit of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. that gives the Fort Worth-based railroad the right to buy land within the transportation development in southern Dallas County.
BNSF said it is still evaluating whether to develop an intermodal facility at the logistics hub being developed by the Allen Group, a San Diego-based developer.
The railroad also underlined its commitment to its existing intermodal operation in Fort Worth's Alliance development.
"BNSF believes metroplex growth patterns and geography may warrant its participation in the Alliance and Dallas facilities in order to best serve its customers," the company said.
Backers say the 6,000-acre Dallas Logistics Hub is a huge growth opportunity for North Texas, as soaring trade with Asian countries and just-in-time supply chain management spur demand for transportation services.
The hub is in southern Dallas County, with easy access to Interstates 20, 35E and 45. Union Pacific Corp. opened a terminal there in 2005.
"If BNSF uses its option and constructs an intermodal facility here, it would be the first logistics park in North America to house two intermodal facilities operated by the two largest U.S. freight rail carriers," said Edward Romanov, president and chief operating officer of the Allen Group.
Competition between the Dallas Logistics Hub and the 11,600-acre Alliance development is expected to increase, analysts said. But if trade grows as quickly as expected, the two rivals could both prosper.
"Naturally there's going to be competition," said Terry Pohlen, director of the Center for Logistics Education and Research at the University of North Texas. "However, when you really look at the amount of growth that's projected for the region, you need the capabilities. Overall, it's going to mean more business." - Brendan M. Case, The Dallas Morning News
REGULATORS CITE ALASKA RAILROAD
ANCHORAGE, AK -- The Alaska Railroad Corp. failed to prevent unacceptable levels of sooty dust at its Seward coal loading center from drifting across the seaside town, regulators said this week after investigating complaints from scores of residents.
"I think everyone can agree this is the worst year ever," said Bob Morgan of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The agency cited the state-owned railroad for two emissions violations following an inspection of the 34-acre facility 75 miles south of Anchorage.
Residents say coal exposure has been a low-level problem since the mid-1980s. That's when coal began being stockpiled, then loaded onto ships by conveyor at the north end of the picturesque tourist town, which had an estimated 336,000 visitors last year, including thousands of cruise ship passengers. The railroad acquired the coal facility in 2003. The railroad builds up a coal pile of 30,000 to 40,000 tons, moving in a trainload carrying as much as 7,000 tons every two or three days.
But for about six weeks this winter -- just as a new contract operator was stepping in -- strong winds and a long dry spell caused a heavier dusting that settled on boats and parking lots and was visible in the air, according to locals. The coal itself also was drier because of arid conditions in Alaska's interior, where the Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy is located.
"It's the worst I've seen, absolutely the worst, without a doubt," said 18-year resident Ron Long, operations manager for Renown Tours, a local charter boat company.
"Mother Nature was very unforgiving," said Mark Mitchell, head of the railroad's health, safety and environmental division.
After receiving numerous residential complaints, DEC regulators launched an investigation in late February and found the facility had filters called baghouses and spray bars to reduce dust, but the "spray bars are not used in freezing temperatures and the baghouses have not been operated," regulators said in their three-page citation.
"The railroad stated the baghouse units are not used because they are poorly engineered and often generate more dust," regulators wrote in an inspection report. "Water supplied spray bars are located ahead of transfer points; however in the fall, before freeze-up, the spray bars are removed and placed in storage."
The violations of state air quality regulations say the railroad failed to take reasonable precautions to control fugitive emissions and allowed pollution that's harmful to health and properties.
The railroad was ordered to take immediate steps to cut down on the dust, which has since been quelled by rains. The state imposed a May 15 deadline for a long-term plan for reducing emissions.
Railroad officials said future solutions could include replacing equipment with improved technology if economically feasible. Another possibility is spraying the coal with nontoxic compounds, said Steve Denton, general manager of operator Aurora Energy Services. Immediate measures include spraying the coal with water and holding up trains during windy conditions.
The railroad also has created a task force involving Aurora and Seward residents in response to the problem. The task force held its first meeting last week.
"The high wind event was an opportunity for us to dig in deeper," said Ernie Piper, the railroad's head of safety and operations. "We want to get to a state of good repair that's acceptable to the community."
The DEC response represents progress in a statewide effort from several environmental groups, said Russ Maddox, a board member of the Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance, a citizen group in Seward. Maddox and others have lobbied the state for two years to tighten and better define the "reasonable precautions" measurement used in such pollution cases.
"I'm cautiously optimistic," Maddox said. "I've been through the process with fugitive dust cases in the past and I frankly don't have a lot of faith of the system. But I'm hoping the location and public awareness will elevate this issue and allow it to be taken care of expeditiously." - Rachel D'Oro, The Associated Press, The Houston Chronicle
AMTRAK ROUTE TOPIC AT MEETING
ROCKFORD, IL -- Residents get two more weeks to weigh in on where Amtrak should go in northern Illinois. There's a public informational meeting Tuesday night at Rockford College about the three proposed routes to restore service from Chicago through Rockford to Dubuque, Iowa.
Residents can ask questions and make comment on their preference. Comments will be taken until May 4, and a route won't be chosen before then.
The Illinois Department of Transportation will make the decision. The state will be funding the bulk of the project to the tune of $22 million to $62 million at the start and at least $2.5 million a year in subsidies.
Leaders in Winnebago and Boone counties said last week they'll support whichever route the state chooses, but stopped short of choosing one of the three.
"We certainly want to give as many people an opportunity to weigh in as possible rather than rushing to make a decision," IDOT spokesman Mike Claffey said Thursday. He said IDOT will choose a route "in the near future" but wouldn't set a timeline.
Amtrak officials say service could be restored as early as the end of 2009. Service stopped on the Black Hawk line from Chicago to Dubuque in 1981.
According to an Amtrak feasibility study, the cheapest and fastest route would be that old line, which goes through Elmhurst and Genoa to Rockford. It would also serve twice as many passengers as the other two.
The other two would use Metra tracks from Chicago to Elgin. One would go through Marengo, Belvidere and Rockford; the other would go through Davis Junction and past Chicago/Rockford International Airport.
All three routes would use the same tracks through Freeport and Galena to Dubuque.
The chosen route would include about five stations between Dubuque and Chicago's Union Station, including the possibility of two stations in Rockford. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the study doesn't favor specific ones and the railroad is open to hearing from the public on locations.
Once a route is chosen, Amtrak will work with the freight railroads and, if needed, Metra on agreements for sharing their tracks. Other issues to be worked out including finding rail cars to refurbish and getting local money for stations.
Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Don Manzullo have spearheaded the efforts to bring back Amtrak. A Durbin spokeswoman said the senator commends IDOT's open process and the support local leaders have shown. - Thomas V. Bona, The Rockford Register Star
RAILAMERICA RESTRUCTURES ORGANIZATION … AGAIN
BOCA RATON, FL -- Saying the change will improve operations, RailAmerica has said it will reorganize into five operating regions from its current three business units. The catch? The short line and regional railroad company shifted into the three business units, from five regions and two corridors, in June.
John Giles, chief executive officer at Boca Raton-based RailAmerica, said the changes will allow quicker responses to the needs of each road and each employee.
"I believe we will quickly see improved effectiveness and productivity, the introduction and execution of new programs and significant assistance in problem solving," Giles said. "These new territories will be more manageable in size, scope and complexity."
When it made its changes 10 months ago, RailAmerica named three regional presidents and eliminated about 20 upper and middle management positions.
The newest changes call for regional vice presidents to lead each unit. The company did not say whether it will increase other staff.
Two regional presidents are keeping their leadership roles in the new structure -- Jan Polley, formerly president of the company's eastern business unit, and Ray E. Stephens, formerly president of the company's western business unit.
Polley, an eight-year RailAmerica veteran is now to lead the company's northeast region. Before RailAmerica, Polley spent 24 years with Canadian National in the operating department.
His region includes Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway, Ottawa Valley Railroad, the Southern Ontario Railway, Goderich-Exeter Railway, the Massena Terminal Railroad, Connecticut Southern Railroad and New England Central Railroad.
Stephens, a two-year RailAmerica veteran is now to lead the company's central region. Before he joined RailAmerica, Stephens worked for Burlington Northern Santa Fe in the operating department.
His region includes Otter Tail Valley Railroad; Kyle Railroad; Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad; Bauxite & Northern Railroad; Kiamichi Railroad; Texas Northern Railroad; Dallas, Garland & Northeastern Railroad; the Rockdale, Sandow & Southern Railroad; and Point Comfort & Northern Railroad.
The other regional leaders are:
· Robert "Bob" Jones for the west region. Jones has worked for RailAmerica for four years. Before that, he worked for Union Pacific for 30 years in a variety of operating management positions. His region is to include Cascade & Columbia River Railroad; Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad; California Northern Railroad; Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad; San Joaquin Valley Railroad; Ventura County Railroad; Arizona & California Railroad; Lahaina, Kaanapali and Pacific Railroad; and San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad.
· John "Brad" Ovitt for the midwest region. Ott was formerly vice president of operations for RailAmerica's central region. The a six-year RailAmerica employee started his railroad career in 1987 on the former Central Vermont Railroad. His region is to include Grand Rapids Eastern Railroad; Mid-Michigan Railroad; Michigan Shore Railroad; Huron & Eastern Railway; Indiana & Ohio Railway; Central Railroad of Indiana; Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway; Central Railroad of Indianapolis; and Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Eastern Railroad.
· Peter A. Touesnard for the southeast region. Touesnard was formerly vice president of operations for RailAmerica's eastern business unit. He has been with RailAmerica for 10 years and is a veteran of both the steamship and trucking industries. His region is to include Indiana Southern Railroad, Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway, Eastern Alabama Railway, Carolina Piedmont Railroad, South Carolina Central Railroad, Virginia Southern Railroad, North Carolina & Virginia Railroad and the Chesapeake & Albemarle Railroad.
When RailAmerica last restructured its operations, it was a publicly traded company. Since, then, an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC has paid about $1.1 billion for the 42-railroad firm. - The South Florida Business Journal
TRANSPORTATION PROFESSIONALS SUPPORT REVIEW OF RAIL ROUTE
FAIRBANKS, AK -- A pair of retired engineers and a former state transportation manager on Thursday backed local lawmakers' effort to accelerate a review of a possible reroute of future train trips south of Fairbanks' city core.
The Alaska Railroad Corp. has said it hopes to eliminate road-to-rail intersections in the area by realigning track - possibly by building new track south of town to let trains "bypass" the city center. It already plans to reroute some track on Fort Wainwright Army post, although local lawmakers have opposed the plan if it anchors train traffic in populated residential neighborhoods - and shifts potential funding away from the larger, long-discussed realignment project.
The three retired transportation professionals told a Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce committee Thursday that railroad officials seem to be avoiding the proposed southern bypass option. One of them, former Alaska Department of Transportation maintenance manager Don Lowell, asked the committee to support local lawmakers' request that the expensive bypass option be included in an environmental study of the larger realignment project.
Disagreement between the railroad and Fairbanks-area officials over the realignment plan led to a series of political standoffs last year. The railroad, however, is currently working with the Fairbanks North Star Borough to change the realignment project's scope.
"It provides a framework for everybody to be in agreement on how to move forward," railroad spokesman Tim Thompson said of an agreement being drafted by the organizations.
Whatever course the agreement ultimately spells out, it should give the southern bypass option - one of three laid out by railroad officials last summer - a fair shake, John Phillips, an engineer with the city of Fairbanks from 1977 to 1988, said Thursday.
"It made sense in 1985, and it makes even more sense today," Phillips said of the bypass route, referring to a study conducted two decades ago by local planners. The option, he noted, would almost eliminate road-to-rail intersections in the Fairbanks community.
Local officials have concerns that the bypass option has been shelved by the Alaska Railroad Corp., which is planning to break ground on the Fort Wainwright project this summer. That project aims to eliminate road-to-rail crossings on the post.
Railroad officials have estimated the bypass, which under one plan would send trains down the median of a beefed-up Parks Highway, could cost as much as $450 million. - Chris Eshleman, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
CN PLANNING SAFETY BLITZ IN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
JACKSON, MS -- Railway company Canadian National will be in Jackson, Mississippi next week to emphasize deadly risks of trespassing on railroad property in recognition of Rail Safety Week.
While statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration show a decrease in accidents and fatalities at railroad crossings during the past 10 years, incidents due to trespassing have remained constant.
CN, which has multiple lines in Jackson, plans to have police officers conduct a safety blitz on Mitchell Street on Friday between 09:00 and 10:00 hours to alert drivers to the importance of safety at crossings. CN officers plan to speak with drivers and distribute flyers.
Trespassing incidents claimed 530 lives in the United States in 2006 while fatalities due to crossing collisions were down to 362, reflecting a steady improvement during the same period. Statistics show that in 2006, 53 percent of trespassing incidents resulted in death, a 14.5 percent increase from 2005.
"Railroad properties are extremely large and spread out and it is very difficult to stop trespassing. Enforcement is not enough -- education can help reduce fatalities. This is why we are increasing our efforts to inform people of the very serious risks they take when trespassing," CN Police Chief Bob Keane said.
Trespassing includes walking, playing or running on or beside railroad tracks; driving a bike, car, ATV or any other vehicle on or beside railroad tracks; taking a shortcut across railroad tracks or railroad property or entering railroad yards at any time. - The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
MAN KILLED AT COLORADO RAILROAD YARD
A worker was killed in an industrial accident early Thursday in the BNSF Railway Company yards in Adams County, Colorado.
Joseph L. Coverdale, 58, of Wheat Ridge, was using a tractor to move a trailer carrying a loaded container in the rail yards at West 53rd Avenue and Fox Street.
Coverdale was making a sharp U-turn to back the trailer into a parking spot when the accident happened, authorities said.
Investigators believe the container was not fastened down to the trailer and started to slip off during the turn, which lifted the front of the tractor off the ground.
The container came off and slid to rest on its right side, and the tractor came back down to the ground, said Trooper Gilbert Mares, a spokesman for the State Patrol.
The force of the fall caused the driver, who was unrestrained, to hit the steering wheel, causing the fatal injuries, Mares said.
Coverdale, a subcontractor, was found several hours later by another employee, Mares said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating. - Marilyn Robinson, The Rocky Mountain News
WEEKLY FREIGHT RAILROAD TRAFFIC IS UP AND INTERMODAL IS DOWN, REPORTS THE AAR
WASHINGTON, DC -- Freight traffic on United States railroads mixed for the week ending April 14, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported Thursday.
The AAR said that intermodal volume totaled 223,126 trailers or containers for the week ending April 14, which was down 3.6 percent from the corresponding week in 2006. Intermodal container volume was down 0.6 percent, and intermodal trailer volume was down 13.2 percent.
And carload freight, which does not include intermodal data, totaled 338,550 cars for the week, up 0.5 percent from the same week last year. Carload loadings were up 1.5 percent in the west and down 0.6 percent in the east. The AAR said total volume was estimated at 34.6 billion ton-miles, which is up 2.4 percent from 2006. The AAR added that these yearly comparisons to the same week last week include Good Friday, which is a holiday for most U.S. railroads.
Of the 19 carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR, 11 were down from last year, with lumber and wood products down 15.0 percent and primary forest products down 14.5 percent. Petroleum and chemical products had the best year-over-year weekly performances with increases of 16.4 percent and 9.2 percent, respectively.
Cumulative volume for the first 15 weeks of 2007 totaled 4,783,604 carloads, which was down 4.5 percent from the same week in 2006, said the AAR. Trailers or containers -- at 3,381,157 -- was off 0.5 percent and total volume of an estimated 486.6 billion ton-miles was down 3.1 percent year-over-year. - Logistics Management
RISING FUEL COSTS A BURDEN ON TRUCKERS AND RAILROADS ... AND THEIR CUSTOMERS
The increasing cost of fuel affects not only the day-to-day driver and commuter, but it has a definite impact on the local and regional freight industry.
From Freightliner purchases to the coast-to-coast delivery of merchandise, everyone is feeling the pain, said Danny Sousa, regional manager for Hercules Forwarding Inc., a shipping company with hubs all over the United States and Canada.
"We feel it in the pocket like anyone else does," said Sousa. "We try to pass it down along to the consumer through fuel surcharges. If I benefit from fuel costs going down, so do my customers."
Hercules is a multi-mode trucking company, which means it utilizes three modes of transportation: rail, express teams consisting of at least two drivers and solo drivers. Rail is used primarily when the cost is more advantageous to the company for longer hauls.
"We take into account all variables prior to deciding to ship by rail, express teams or solo," said Sousa. "However, rail doesn't work for everyone."
He said although a surcharge is given to the customer, it protects everyone.
"If fuel cost were lower I don't need one (a surcharge)," said Sousa.
Consumers are feeling the pinch from increased freight costs, said Rick Worthen, general manager for Kenworth Sales in Reno.
Consumers not only pay the added fuel costs at the pump, but they pay for it each time any shipped merchandise is purchased.
"If everyone would park their vehicles for just three days, it would hit them (oil companies) hard. They wouldn't have anywhere to store it (the fuel)," said Worthen. "Between the EPA and oil companies - they run this county."
Worthen said sales are down by 75 percent because of the new standards.
The additional requirements by the EPA have increased the cost of a new truck by nearly $20,000 per truck, said Allen Carey, owner Carey Transport of Fallon.
He said the added requirements cost more but the efficiency is degraded.
"Consumers pay approximately 30 percent more on all delivered products - it's an alarming cost," said Carey. "Most products are delivered unless a person makes or grows their own, and that is rare."
He said it's only going to get worse as the country continues to grow.
"We would love to find an alternative fuel," said Carey.
The Nevada Legislature is considering another tax for the trucking industry referred to as a weight-distance tax, said Carey. This tax is based on the weight in a truck versus the distance it will travel. The proposed amount will be approximately 15 cents per mile, according to a statement by Nevada Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"We're already taxed in many ways, now the Legislature wants to add another tax on the trucking industry to help pay for road maintenance," he said. "Ultimately, this will again trickle down to the consumer."
Mark Davis, director regional public affairs for Union Pacific Railroad, said the railroad saw an increase in rail transport last year.
Although locomotives consume diesel fuel as well as trucks, one train can transport 280 trucks at one time, making them more fuel efficient.
Most transports by train are deliveries more than 400 miles, he said.
"Where you get your fuel efficiency is because of the metal to metal ... once the train begins and gains speed, inertia takes over and gives very little resistance," said Davis. "A truck traveling 60 miles per hour needs several hundred feet to stop, while a train at the same speed takes a mile and a half to stop."
The Union Pacific Railroad consumes 3.35 million gallons of diesel fuel per day, he said. A one-penny increase can cost the railroad more than $3 million dollars in one day.
The change has not been solely due to fuel increases, he said. The change has been the combination of higher fuel taxes, increased EPA regulations and the increased fuel cost.
"The last several years we have seen record freight growth across the board," said Davis. "However, it has trailed off now due to economics." - Viktoria Pearson, The Nevada Appeal
'TRESTLES' BRIDGE TO UNDERGO MAJOR REPAIRS
SAN ONOFRE, CA -- The North County Transit District will spend $300,000 to repair the wooden railroad bridge known as Trestles that is the gateway to the famous surfing spot of the same name.
The district board approved the contract Thursday after staff reported 17 defective pilings on the bridge, located at San Onofre State Beach on the San Diego-Orange County line.
Tom Lichterman, the district's director of rail services, said the company that maintains the tracks, TransitAmerica Services Inc., will replace or repair 11 of the 17 support pilings and four cross beams
The 926-foot bridge across San Mateo Creek was built in 1941. The northernmost 558 feet of track are supported by timber pilings and horizontal crossbeams.
The bridge is engineered so the trestle can support the track and trains even if some pilings are defective. The district owns 60 miles of track between Orange County and downtown San Diego, and 22 miles of track between Oceanside and Escondido. - NBC-TV 7/39, San Diego, CA
NO-WHISTLE ZONE WORK TO CLOSE RAIL CROSSING
FARGO, ND -- A $7.5 million Fargo-Moorhead project that would silence train whistles downtown is expected to be complete by the end of fall if not sooner.
The two cities will construct a number of centerline medians and dual railroad-crossing arms designed to prevent drivers from circumventing lowered railroad crossing gates. On Monday, construction begins to close one railroad crossing in Fargo and three in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Fencing along the railways will block track access to pedestrians, and some aesthetic improvements will also be made.
When completed, the quiet zone will be the longest such zone in the nation, said Kristy Schmidt, project engineer for Fargo's part of the undertaking.
The project is designed to enhance safety, said Moorhead City Engineer Bob Zimmerman.
"There has been a history" of individuals and vehicles being struck by trains in both Fargo and Moorhead, Zimmerman said.
In addition to the safety benefits, the project is also expected to "enhance downtown development by eliminating the whistle noise," Zimmerman said.
The quiet zone will extend from the Red River to North University Drive in Fargo and from the Red River to 14th Street in Moorhead.
Project costs for Moorhead will total $5.5 million. And Fargo's cost will be at least $2 million, Schmidt said.
The project has been a long time coming as the cities have been pursuing a quiet zone for seven years, Schmidt said.
She expects construction efforts on the Fargo side of the river to begin at the end of the month. Work on the Moorhead side begins Monday.
The quiet zone is a joint project so whistles will not be silenced until after both cities complete construction.
Moorhead has more work to do than their neighbors to the west, but Zimmerman said the project could be done before fall.
Train whistles could still be sounded in the quiet zone in the event that a train engineer spots something on the track.
The following Moorhead crossings will be closed Monday: Sixth Street between Center and Main avenues; 10th Street between Center Ave. and Main avenues; and 10th Street between Center Avenue and First Avenue North. On Fargo's north side, the Seventh Street crossing between Fourth and Sixth avenues will be closed.
Dilworth is also working toward a quiet zone. The city will hold a public hearing related to the project at 18:00 hours Monday. The project would require modifications to one crossing, Dilworth City Administrator Ken Parke said. - J. Shane Mercer, The Fargo Forum
TRANSIT NEWS
CEDAR PARK CONSIDERS ITS RAIL STOP OPTIONS
Graphic here:
[www.impactnewspaper.com]
CEDAR PARK, TX -- Cedar Park might become home to a MetroRail station even though the city is not in Capital Metro's district. City staff met several times this spring to discuss a possible Capital Metro-led feasibility study that would explore adding a station in Cedar Park.
The possibility of becoming a stop on the new commuter rail line was first considered in 2004 when then Mayor Bob Antle explored options for Capital Metro to add a station in Cedar Park for the commuter line that will run from Leander to downtown Austin. Voters in Austin and Leander had just approved the MetroRail. Since Cedar Park was not a member of Capital Metro's district, there would be no stop in the city. Antle believed his residents needed the same transportation alternatives.
"We already have a rail line owned by Capital Metro and a bus facility, literally right behind it," Antle said. "We have everything we need but a ticket booth."
Capital Metro's policy is that in order for a city to receive public transportation, the city must pay one-cent per sales tax dollar. Cedar Park citizens voted to withdraw from Capital Metro in 1999, choosing to designate the $4 million contribution for capital improvement and economic development projects.
While mayor, Antle met with Leander's Mayor John Cowman and Capital Metro President Fred Gilliam. At the time, they discussed different compensation possibilities, but never found a mutually agreeable option.
Antle decided not to run for mayor again in 2005 after learning of his father's terminal illness, which took him out of the state for most of the next year, and the initiative never progressed. However, he still feels strongly that his city needs MetroRail.
"Capital Metro is a great fit for Cedar Park," he said. "We could have a tremendous amount of ridership."
He said the other stops north of RM 620 do not have immediate population density.
"We have 50,000 anxious potential riders literally within three miles of our stop," Antle said.
With the commuter rail service set to begin in 2008, Capital Metro has begun discussions with the city again.
4A/4B Corporation
Shaune Haas, owner of Cedar Perk Coffee Company and former president of the city's 4A Corporation, believes the city must consider the importance of gaining a rail station. She fears the city might isolate itself because of traffic congestion and with little employment opportunities remaining in the city, residents could move to the north or south.
"Cedar Park has to be very direct in what their direction is or Leander is going to be way ahead of us," she said. "We have no growing room, and if we don't plan, we will not have any partnerships."
Voters decided in 1999 to dedicate their one cent to a 4A Corporation, which promotes economic development, and a 4B Corporation, designed to fund capital improvement projects.
Graphic here:
[www.impactnewspaper.com]
These entities support potential employer incentives and funds for a future entertainment center in addition to transportation systems, streets, roads, public parks and sports facilities.
Because the state legislature caps how much a city can collect in sales tax and Cedar Park has reached its limit, that leaves no money to give Capital Metro, Haas said, which makes joining the Capital Metro district a non-viable option.
"A partnership with Capital Metro would be very valuable," Haas said. "How we make it work, I don't have an answer to that."
According to Jose Madrigal, assistant city manager, the city already tried paying Capital Metro the required amount and found it too expensive.
"We're not interested in joining Capital Metro," Madrigal said. "We are okay with partnerships. In the 2005-2006 fiscal year we received around $2 million for both 4A and 4B-$4 million is a lot to give."
The Past
In 1985, Cedar Park joined the newly organized Capital Metro, along with other cities like Austin and Leander. Of the 178 votes cast, 101 favored joining with Capital Metro, while 77 opposed the venture.
For more than a decade, Cedar Park continued to participate and a park-and-ride was built behind the old Albertson's store on US 183.
Then in 1999, the city conducted a survey and learned they had 120 riders during the week with 36 actually living in Cedar Park.
"It became the joke, and I am not sure how much truth there is to it, that we could buy each rider a BMW cheaper than working with Capital Metro," Madrigal said.
The city projected they would contribute more than $1 million dollars to Capital Metro.
According to their ridership survey, each rider cost $160,000 per year. These studies led voters to leave Capital Metro in 1999.
The Future
Now Cedar Park is considering how to evolve a new and unique relationship with Capital Metro.
It may be a few months before Capital Metro begins the feasibility study, if they even decide to do it, but Madrigal hopes they will find a compatible solution outside the traditional model.
"One cent is a lot to give up," he said. - Christi Snow, Community Impact Newspaper (Austin, TX)
KEEP AN OPEN MIND ABOUT LIGHT RAIL, EX-MAYOR TELLS SCOTTSDALE
SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- Scottsdale should take steps to learn about the Valley's light-rail system and keep an open mind on whether to join it, former Phoenix mayor Skip Rimsza advises.
Rimsza, who advocated the system now under construction between downtown Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, said Scottsdale would benefit from the "icebreaker" work and infrastructure that other Valley cities have done so far.
"If you don't, in my opinion, start today, you're simply delaying the inevitable," Rimsza told the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce's Partner Council during a light-rail debate Thursday.
The chamber's board of directors this spring endorsed either light rail or modern streetcars for Scottsdale, but left the choice of location for fixed rail to city officials.
But rail opponents called the system costly and disruptive and said it would do little to relieve congestion and air pollution.
John Semmens of Chandler, a public-policy researcher, said light rail will handle less than 1 percent of traffic but its costs would be spread over the majority of taxpayers.
Mike Fernandez, owner of Pottery Paradise in downtown Scottsdale, warned that light rail brings higher crime rates and makes it more difficult for customers and tourists to get to businesses.
"Why should we inflict this on ourselves, our customers and our visitors?" Fernandez said.
David Bentler, a former member of the Scottsdale's Transportation Commission, suggested that modern streetcars like those in Portland, Ore., fit the bill for Scottsdale. Smaller and cheaper than light rail, they also can travel in mixed traffic and their tracks can be built more quickly, he said.
"Scottsdale . . . is known for its innovations and is the kind of community others want to emulate," Bentler said. "But we can't rest on our laurels."
Rimsza warned that the longer Scottsdale waits, the less federal funding it will likely get for a rail system. He recommended that the city join the Valley's light-rail board to tap its expertise, and start its own study on types of vehicles and ways to connect to the rest of the system.
Future leaders would then have a knowledge base for choosing where to put lines and what system to buy, he said.
Participants differed on light rail's impact on workforce mobility and on tourism, two key issues for the business community.
Semmens said buses would accomplish the mobility goals, while Bentler said Scottsdale's long, narrow geography would allow a single line to provide access to the whole city.
For tourists, Bentler said, rail would provide an easy connection between airports, restaurants and resorts. But Semmens said he doubted tourists come to a city because of its transit system. - Jane Larson, The Arizona Republic
TRACKS LAID FOR DEVELOPMENTS
Photo here:
[cll.bizjournals.com]
Caption reads: The Santa Clara Caltrain depot may be expanded as part of a plan to turn 250 acres beside the Mineta San Jose International Airport into a transit-based workers village. (Dennis G. Hendricks - The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal)
A flea-bitten industrial hub on the San Jose-Santa Clara border could evolve into a transit-based workers village under a plan to remake 250 acres of largely underused property, some of it ringing the Mineta San Jose International Airport.
The project, spearheaded by the two cities and the VTA, is expected to unfold over the next decade. It includes a proposed BART station and expansion of an existing Caltrain depot on either side of Union Pacific railroad lines. It also encompasses part of 75 acres along Coleman Avenue that the city of San Jose bought for $81.5 million several years ago. The property is commonly referenced by the name of its previous owner, FMC Corp. - Sharon Simonson, The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal
LAGNIAPPE (Something extra, not always railroad related, for Saturdays only)
SANTA FE ELEMENTARY: BUILD ON THE TRACKS OF HISTORY
CLEBURNE, TX -- Cleburne ISD has a tradition of naming elementary schools after educators and Cleburne residents. The Adams, Irving, Coleman, Gerard, Cooke, Marti and the former Fulton and J.N. Long schools dot the city. Schools named after educators are all over the city, except in one part: east Cleburne, home to Santa Fe Elementary.
Santa Fe’s roots lie not in one person but in the history of Cleburne.
In the 1870s, Cleburne was growing and prospering, which naturally led businesses and residents to take notice. In 1873, the ever-expanding Santa Fe railroad company formed the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, constructing railroad lines from Galveston and Houston to Fort Worth and Dallas, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
The tracks running through Cleburne were completed in 1881 and ran from Fort Worth to Temple. Later, additional tracks running to Weatherford were completed, prompting even more growth.
Between 1873 and 1890, just years after Cleburne became an established railroad junction, the city’s population jumped about 530 percent to slightly more than 3,700 people, according to census records.
Growth continued for the city, and in 1913 the school district embarked on an extensive building campaign under the leadership of Cleburne education’s “Three Horsemen” -- Superintendent Emmett Brown, high school Principal J.G. Dunlap and Assistant Principal W.S. Ownsby, according to former Cleburne ISD Superintendent Ernest Guinn’s thesis on city education.
The campaign included the construction of the first Irving, Long and Santa Fe schools. Each was completed in 1915.
Over the years the Santa Fe school was renovated several times and was added on to, even changing from a primary to a kindergarten campus in 1975.
In 2003 the campus was closed, but this summer a new Santa Fe Elementary is scheduled to open off of Fergason Road near U.S. 67. It will house kindergarten through fifth grade.
Though the old Santa Fe site is out of commission, it stands as a symbol of what spurred the populace to first come and settle in the city of Cleburne. - Philip Navarette, The Cleburne Times-Review
CARLINVILLE RESIDENT OBSESSED WITH SAVING TOWN'S SEARS HOUSES
CARLINVILLE, IL -- She speaks with the fervor of a woman possessed. In the cadence of a grange hall auctioneer, Laurie Flori jabs a finger at each house on her street, every one ordered from Sears, Roebuck and Co.
"That's a Carlin," she pronounces. "That's a Whitehall. That's a Warrenton. That's a Lebanon."
Starting nearly a century ago, these stately names were bestowed upon a modest line of homes that could be purchased by mail. To Flori, they are verses in a hymn to working-class America, to a time when things were built better and cost less, when everything in the Sears catalog looked bigger and better than ordinary life.
For a while, the American dream shimmered on those pages, just as obtainable as a pair of work boots or dungarees.
A house of one's own. Outhouse and plumbing extra. A great deal of assembly required.
Flori's worship of these houses has been known to propel her right up the porch steps of people she's never met to proclaim they have history in their joists and it's their civic duty to preserve it.
Sometimes the folks are intrigued. Sometimes they have no idea what she's going on about, and couldn't care less.
Always, this stout, mile-a-minute talker is a woman obsessed -- by houses that during a 32-year span could be sent away for and ordered on credit. Houses that arrived with precut lumber and numbered for easy assembly, with 750 pounds of nails and enough paint for two coats.
She is not alone. Across the country, otherwise ordinary people have been transformed by obsession into identifying and preserving "kit houses" from Sears. They drive through unfamiliar neighborhoods armed with flashlights and fervor, searching for a telling detail of a specific model -- the gabled roof of the Warrenton, the dormer windows of the Medford.
They pound the doors of strangers, seeking admittance to their basements, searching for exposed beams with telltale Sears assembly numbers.
"It's like King Tut and the Titanic," said Marilyn Raschka, who used to cover the bedlam of Beirut as a foreign correspondent and now lives in Hartford, Wis. "It's utterly fascinating."
"It's history," said Rebecca Hunter, a historian who lectures on preservation and lives in Elgin, Illinois. "It's part of our heritage."
Flori, true to her nature, is more blunt. "The only way I can explain it," she says, and falls into laughter, "is that it's like a cult."
All are fighting to identify and preserve whatever is left of the estimated 100,000 houses sold by Sears. It is not easy. No one knows where all of them are because Sears, over the years, destroyed most of its sales records. So people like Raschka and Hunter and Flori rely on their wits to seek out houses and authenticate them.
Other companies offered catalog homes, including Montgomery Ward and the Michigan-based Aladdin Co. But it is Sears that gets the most attention.
The city of Carlinville is a special case. It encompasses nine blocks of nothing but Sears houses, the largest concentration in the country. The homes constituted a $1 million order placed by Standard Oil of Indiana in 1918. The fuel giant purchased nearly 200 dwellings to house an influx of miners and managers for 400-foot-shafts it was sinking in southern Illinois.
They called this new neighborhood the Standard Addition. They built a park and schools nearby. The city extended its limits so water and sewer lines could greet new homeowners.
Young Carlinville was in love. Here were symbols of prosperity and security for a small town in southern Illinois. Here was the promise of better times ahead. In brand new homes, courtesy of the Sears catalog -- whose copies traveled their own journey, in-house to outhouse.
The American dream arrived in scores and scores of boxes, crammed with doorknobs and oak doors, manhandled into box cars, then pulled by steam engine across ribbons of railroad track pushing West.
The price was cheap. The materials were not. Cypress shingles, bronze door hinges, glazed windows, granite bathtubs. They came in styles and shapes and sizes befitting a wealthy farm owner. They also came in smaller sizes, at prices affordable to even an immigrant coal miner.
They carried evocative names such as The Montrose, a seven-room, one-bath Eastern colonial with green shutters, flower boxes and a hooded gable entrance. "Justly considered a beautiful home in any community, no matter how exclusive," said the catalog.
They were sold from 1926 to 1929, at prices ranging from $2,923 to $3,324. Sears estimated its prices were 30 percent to 40 percent lower than market rates.
Then there was Modern Home No. 55MP22, priced at about $400. It was a three-room cottage too small to qualify as even a shotgun shack. Sears boasted the house could be raised in eight hours, from floorboards to window shades, and offered photographic proof.
Sears offered its own mortgages. Over time, it would offer mortgages for land as well, even though it was purchased separately. Regional lumber mills went up near transportation hubs to keep up with demand.
But then came the Great Depression, and the houses-by-mail boom went bust. Working-class Americans defaulted on their Sears mortgages. Families went even farther West, to California, where it was said there were jobs picking crops.
In 1940, Sears got out of the business of making life-size dollhouses.
And despite the adoration from people like Flori, the place of Sears homes in architectural history is decidedly modest, just like the houses.
Their blueprints were hybrids of what was popular at the time -- Craftsman-style bungalows, Dutch colonials, mansard roofs. Sears was "marketing something to the broad population," said Paul Lusignan, spokesman for the National Register of Historic Places. "It was very common."
Sears architects never aspired to the heights of Greene & Greene or Frank Lloyd Wright. Simply put, they mostly designed common houses for common people.
Standard Oil bought nine models for Carlinville's Standard Addition, all of them two-story homes of five to six rooms, plus a lavatory. If one preferred an outhouse, such accommodations were available for an additional $41.
Carlinville construction began in 1918, after a special spur of the Chicago & Alton Railroad was laid to accommodate the new homes. One house usually occupied two boxcars, and home deliveries were staggered, designed to deliver supplies as they were needed. First came building paper, lumber, nails, and framing. The final shipment brought millwork and a bathtub.
A horse or a mule dragged wagon load after wagon load to large lots averaging 47 feet by 144 feet.
At extra cost, Sears also provided contractors and building supervisors, "Hercules Heating Systems," built-in bookcases with leaded glass doors and electrical appliances.
At the mines, hundreds were hired to mine coal veins in the waning months of World War I, when many men were still overseas. Immigrants came by the thousands, fresh off trans-Atlantic ships and lured by good wages -- about $6 a day when most company mines paid only by the number of tons a man could heave into a coal car.
Standard Oil also carried the new homes' mortgages, 10-year notes payable at $30 to $40 per month.
The town surged in size and wealth. New businesses opened. And for a time, life in Carlinville seemed as good as the pages of any catalog.
Then, seven years later, Standard Oil up and left. The mines went still. The gasoline company had discovered it could buy coal cheaper than paying men to haul it out of the ground. And that was that.
The miners abandoned their Sears homes and their mortgages and moved to another coal dig. Every home loan fell into foreclosure, and the city still owed for water and sewer lines extended to a now-empty neighborhood.
The deserted houses stood silent and derelict. Years later, Standard Oil auctioned the blighted houses at rock-bottom prices ranging from $400 to $500.
It has been more than 60 years since the company left town, and still there remains a bitter vein of disappointment, deep as the now-capped mines. It helps fuel Laurie Flori's desire to save every neglected Sears house she can find.
The self-appointed curator of Carlinville is sometimes an annoyance.
"With some of the people, I'm not popular and I don't care," she says. "When they die, what are they going to say? I can say I really tried."
To Flori, "trying" means that she has snapped pictures of Addition homes she considers "trashy," printed copies, and distributed the photographs like wanted posters to the City Council in hopes its members would make the residents step to.
"What she wants is for all the houses to look as nice as when they were first built," said Mayor Robert Schwab, who answers his own phone in City Hall. "But one man's trash is another man's treasure."
Flori and her husband, David, moved to Carlinville in the 1980s from a nearby town. David Flori had grown up in the Addition, and wanted to go home. They paid $18,000 for a Roseberry model, with a wide front porch and an intersecting gable roof.
Little by little, Flori redid the inside until the small house was restored.
Flori remembers how some tried to talk her out of coming to this side of town. "People told us not to buy in the Standard Addition. They said, `Oh, that's the slum area.'"
She wrinkles her nose.
"I set out to change that," she said. "A Sears home is something to be proud of." - Deborah Hastings, The Associated Press, The Carbondale Southern Illinoisan
IT'S A RAT RACE, AND THE RATS ARE WINNING...OR AT LEAST HOLDING THEIR OWN
CICERO, IL -- Rats -- they've been the scourge of Cicero for years. Cyanide gas couldn't get rid of them, so now the town is trying a lethal mix of birdseed and oatmeal laced with blood thinner. The animals gnaw, scamper and reek, and, some legends have it, attack people in broad daylight.
"I'm a little scared of them myself," joked Larry Dominick, Cicero's burly town president.
Dominick, like town presidents before him, made a campaign promise to control the rodents. Even with stepped-up eradication efforts since Dominick was elected in May 2005 - the wily scavengers appear to have gained almost a mystical hold on the blue-collar town.
And despite recent reports that rats aren't the evil little monsters they sometimes appear to be -- scientists have shown they have the ability to giggle -- Cicero leaders aren't laughing: they want the rodents dead. The crackdown is so serious that town leaders recently voted to increase spending on rat control by 340 percent this year, to the tune of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars, an almost unheard-of amount for a town of Cicero's size.
That $704,000 pays for an increase in the number of full-time members of the rodent-control department - called the Rat Patrol - from 9 to 11. It also includes a $150,000 contract with a private pest-control company.
Cicero's spending far outstrips the rodent-control budgets of neighboring Berwyn and Oak Park, whose rat allotments combined for 2007 are about $25,000.
To be sure, Cicero has more residents to clean up after -- 83,539 people according to the 2005 census -- or approximately 30,000 more than either Berwyn or Oak Park.
But take Chicago, whose population is 32 times bigger than Cicero's. Chicago will spend $8,966,445 this year to eradicate rats, or roughly $3.32 per person. Cicero will spend $8.43 per person.
Dominick says Cicero residents don't care about the cost, "as long as we get rid of the rats."
As you might expect, rats aren't exactly civic boosters.
In 1971, the town unleashed deadly cyanide gas to kill the animals, a practice that -- like strychnine poison -- later fell out of favor. The chief sanitarian for the Cicero Health Department said at the time that he hoped that the colorless gas would help destroy the idea that the town was "overrun with rats."
It didn't. In 1984, more than 70 Cicero residents stormed a meeting to complain about a "heavy traffic of rats" marauding about on the northeast side.
Twenty years later, the town fielded 872 rat complaints.
On a recent afternoon, members of Cicero's Rat Patrol fanned out into the alley of the 2400 block of 50th Avenue, where a resident had called to complain that rats had overrun her garage. As a patrol member drew closer, he spotted tiny footprints and several burrows surrounding the one-car structure. A nearby brown trash container bore chew marks, exposing a section of the lid.
It's impossible to gauge with any precision how many rats are lurking about, said Victor Garcia, director of Rodent Control for the town. But in a year's time, experts say, a single pair can produce 200 offspring.
Much of the Rat Patrol's work is administrative - fielding calls, then visiting sites in search of evidence. If they find rats, patrol members summon exterminators to lay bait. The town and private exterminators only treat outdoor rats, not the animals who take refuge inside people's homes.
Since January, exterminators have set out 3,000 bait stations in town, Garcia said. Exterminators also pack the burrows with a tasty scoop of toxic bird seed and oatmeal. The neon-blue treat is laced with an anti-coagulant that makes rats bleed to death after about five days. Experts say the delay keeps the rats -- and their pals -- from pinpointing the deadly food source.
Poison alone will not keep the rat population down, said Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist in Indiana who holds a PhD in vertebrate pest management from Purdue University. He said poisoning must be accompanied by a serious effort at removing food sources as well as plugging up hiding places.
"Rats are the barometers of the health of urban areas," Corrigan said. "If we keep a city organized and use the Dumpsters as we are supposed to, rats will not be able to survive."
To be sure, cities draw rats. Chicago was especially hit hard in the late 1970s, when the rat population exploded. In 1978, the city reported 245 cases in which people were bitten by rats. In recent years, bites in Chicago are much less frequent -- there are perhaps a handful a year, said Matt Smith, chief spokesman for Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation. Smith credited, among other things, more rat-resistant garbage containers and better baiting techniques.
But in Cicero, Dominick said rat woes still trump just about any other complaint he hears from residents. He said the town is flush with ideal rodent breeding grounds, from railroad tracks to vast, vacant areas overrun with tall grass.
Rat tales abound in Cicero -- barbecues interrupted by swarms of hungry rodents, a kid attacked by a rat on a playground, a resident who enjoyed feeding the animals corn flakes by hand. But documentation is scarce.
David Boyle, a community activist who has lived in Cicero since 1982, blames overcrowding, pet owners who don't clean up after their dogs and "grandmas who like to feed the pigeons."
"We are coming from way behind, and we need to spend significant money," he said.
But Ramiro Gonzalez, town president before Dominick came into office, said the answer isn't increased spending.
"The problem is not going anywhere unless the people stop feeding the rats," he said. "It doesn't matter how much you invest in technology and poison."
Dominick is betting the city's heavily funded rat crusade will work.
And if it doesn't?
"There's always stray cats," he said. - Sara Olkon, The Chicago Tribune
THE END
| Subject | Written By | Date/Time (PST) |
|---|---|---|
 Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 04/21/07 |
Larry W. Grant | 04-21-2007 - 00:09 |