(The following story by Susan DeMar Lafferty appeared on the Southtown Star website on January 27, 2009.)
CHICAGO — As the battle against the Canadian National Railway’s acquisition of the EJ&E Railroad moves into the courts, New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann said he’s “100 percent” confident that the village made the right decision in rejecting a deal with CN.
“I have yet to have a resident tell me that we should have accepted that less than stellar offer (from the railroad),” Baldermann said during Monday’s village board meeting.
CN reached agreements with several towns, including Frankfort and Mokena, along the 198-mile EJ&E line that encircles the Chicago area from Gary to Waukegan.
The railroad offered to pay to reduce noise from freight trains and establish quiet zones where they could not sound their horns, but New Lenox is holding out for at least one overpass or underpass. It has been estimated that the cost of one grade separation could be at least $30 million.
CN’s proposal to acquire the EJ&E tracks and quadruple freight traffic through affected Southland towns has been approved by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
Locally, the line runs through Chicago Heights, Park Forest, Matteson, Mokena, Frankfort and New Lenox. In New Lenox, the tracks cross five major roads – Schoolhouse, Spencer, Cedar, Nelson and Gougar.
The village is working with Will County, which has jurisdiction over four of the roads. Only Nelson Road is in the village’s hands.
Baldermann said the legal fight against the rail merger is continuing, and a lot of issues still need to be addressed.