(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Carson Walker on November 8.)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Brookings voters rejected a community partnership agreement with the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad on Tuesday, making it and Rochester, Minn., the only two cities on the line without a deal.
In March, the Brookings City Council voted 6-1 to approve the arrangement with the railroad, which wants to upgrade and extend its line.
Opponents then gathered enough signatures to refer the issue to a public vote.
The DM&E, which earlier moved its headquarters from Brookings to Sioux Falls, already runs trains on aging tracks throughout the region.
If the estimated $6 billion expansion project goes through, the DM&E would become only the seventh large-scale Class 1 railroad in the country.
The plan is to upgrade its 600-mile line through Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming and add 260 miles of new track to Wyoming’s Powder River Basin so it can transport clean-burning coal to power plants to the east, using several dozen trains a day. Transporting corn-based ethanol and other agricultural products also is part of the plan.
The federal government’s Surface Transportation Board signed off on the proposal in February.
The Federal Railroad Administration has accepted public comments on the DM&E’s application for a $2.3 billion loan. Next it will review the comments and rule on the environmental aspects of the project. The FRA then has 90 days to approve or deny the loan.
Brookings Mayor Scott Munsterman said earlier that a vote against the agreement won’t keep trains from going through town, won’t make DM&E pay more or force a bypass around the city.
He said it would add several safety measures not required by the government. DM&E agreed to pay for the local cost of upgraded warning devices on five major streets, which would allow trains to go through town without blowing the whistle, Munsterman said. The federal government would pay the rest.
Karen Cardenas, one of the opponents, has said the agreement doesn’t do enough to address other issues, such as train noise, pollution and vibration, and there’s no guarantee the whistle won’t blow.
With most of the votes counted early Wednesday morning, the agreement failed 56 percent to 44 percent.