(The following story by Diane Lacey Allen appeared on The Lakeland Ledger website on October 12.)
BARTOW, Fla. — Lakeland City Commissioner Gow Fields came to Thursday’s meeting of the Polk Transportation Planning Organization to get answers about the state’s plan for future freight and commuter rail.
He didn’t get them.
Instead, he heard more about the proposed CSX shift in freight lines and the background to go with the $491 million sale of 61 miles of track to the Florida Department of Transportation for a commuter line that will benefit the Orlando area.
“It was a regurgitation of the breakdown of the deal and the chronology of it and a recap of the Polk County issues,” Fields said.
The agenda for Thursday’s meeting said the FDOT would talk about the freight line shift, which will put more traffic through downtown Lakeland. But Fields said he expected more, and that the TPO had asked for a statewide overview.
“How are we going to move these people around and how are we going to move freight around … ?” Fields said after the meeting. “There is no long-term plan. That’s what they’re telling us today. And that begs the question of how do you spend a half-billion dollars … It’s like putting in the footers of a house when you’re not sure where the garage goes or the living room because there is no plan.”
For months now, local politicians like Fields have been concerned about the impact of CSX’s plan for a massive rail hub in Winter Haven. Lakeland businesses have been up in arms about the possibility of growing train traffic bisecting downtown and undoing years of renovation.
But Thursday’s meeting did not center on Winter Haven’s rail complex. What has become a predictable parade of speakers against the hub did not materialize at the microphone.
The proposed hub was addressed largely through references to the upcoming developmental review process, which is designed to deal with the facility’s regional impacts.
Reading from a report that recommended an environmental impact study, though, Fields asked whether federal funds were being used for the state’s deal with CSX – a scenario that would prompt such a study. Fred Wise, state rail manager for Florida, said there was no federal money involved.
Fields reminded Wise that taxpayer money was being used.
He said local government couldn’t afford to be so cavalier with funds.
“We’d be nailed to the cross, tarred and feathered and run out of town,” Fields said.
Fields said government needs to be open and responsible. He said the state’s negotiations with CSX did not involve local governments.
He touched on a recent meeting in Lakeland about CSX’s plans, where state Sen. Paula Dockery told civic leaders she had to make a formal public records request to get information.
“A lot of people didn’t know what was going on,” Fields said.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions.”
County Commissioner Jean Reed also pressed for answers on the future of rail traffic, especially the impact of the rail hub on local and state roads from additional trucks entering or leaving the complex.
“Eventually, this is all going to grow larger and larger,” Reed said.
Fields continued to ask how the state was going to tackle the movement of people and freight in the future.
Stanley Cann, secretary for FDOT’s District One, said the state did have a “vision.”
But he did not elaborate.
Fields was particularly interested in the state’s intentions because he said it announced plans for commuter rail in Central Florida during a meeting with officials from counties such as Polk, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco last year.
“This deal was going to bring it (commuter rail) to the doorstep of Polk County, giving the implication that it would continue across the I-4 corridor …,” Fields said.
“Today was for us to hear about what the state’s long-range plan is for movement of freight and people. That’s what we asked for. That’s what today was supposed to be.
“Clearly they said to us, ‘We have a vision,'” Fields said. “But they didn’t go a step farther.”