Wednesday, September 21, 2016

What are your ELECTED officials doing to stop the rail yard?

Many kids cross the tracks on their way to and from school, for athletic events, after school, and during the summer, what will they do when a train is blocking the tracks for long periods of time? If this rail yard comes in I believe the tracks at the crossings in the Village of Swanton will be blocked more times than not. Where will the kids cross? The overpass on Hallett, which will become an autobahn as the only way across the tracks, will they try to beat the trains which have proven to be deadly in Holland, or will they try to climb through the trains? None of these are good or safe answers and each could be deadly.

While we have these issues hanging over our community what has the Village of Swanton Council done? What they have done is detrimental to stopping this rail yard from coming in. Council has not taken a stand against this; some have said that they appear to be leaning towards wanting it to come in. They have not said NO to the railroad like we at Swanton Township have. Actually the Village of Swanton owns a piece of land that Norfolk Southern needs for the project. Norfolk Southern approached the Village and offered them $25,000 for the land. Did Village Council say the land is not for sale? No, they did not. What they did was put the land up for sale and put it out for bid as advertised in the Swanton Enterprise for the next five weeks.

As a former School Board member I would have been right on the front lines to protect the students but where is the current School Board and Administration? I hear crickets.


I encourage all residents to put pressure on the Village of Swanton Council and the School Board to get on board with Swanton Township in fighting this rail yard.

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