PEORIA HEIGHTS – The village of Peoria Heights has a new strategy to get Pioneer Industrial Railway Co. off the Kellar Branch line so it can be turned into a hike and bike trail.
In a March 31 letter, Pioneer was told that unless it lives up to its 1984 contract and repairs drainage issues, presumably at a high cost, it will be in default of the agreement and can be kicked off the line.
That could clear the way for the trail that’s been planned for two decades, and that offers the Heights the economic development that inevitably follows such a trail.
In an April 8 news conference, Heights mayor Mark Allen outlined this new strategy. Failure to comply with the terms of the lease would be grounds for terminating it, he said, quoting a U.S. Surface Transportation Board ruling.
The village owns a 2-mile section of the rail line. The remainder of the 8-mile line is owned by the city of Peoria, which critics say has been less than aggressive in pursuing the trail.
So the Heights must take the lead. “We’re going to take the bull by the horns,” he said.
“The seeds are there to take care of this problem,” Allen said. “it’s a wasted resource for the Heights. We have a bigger stake in it than Peoria.”
Pioneer president Mike Carr attended the news conference and afterward admitted that only two rail cars, both going to Carver Lumber Co., have passed through the Heights recently, though another is scheduled soon.
He said Pioneer will live up the contract, adding he’s “ecstatic” that the Heights recognizes it as valid. But he also questioned what needed to be done to solve drainage problems. “I’d like to work with them on it,” he said.
Allen said he’s had a dozen complaints in three years from residents living near the tracks. The letter includes supporting photographs showing erosion.
Pioneer has no other customers on the line, and no prospects for any new customers, Carr said, though it keeps looking for new customers. It wants to keep the line open because it links with eight other rail lines along Peoria’s riverfront, he said.
Peoria built a spur on the western end of the line to link to a rail line there, but Carver has complained about increased costs from using it.
Carr said he supports a trail beside the rail line, and that option is under study by a committee. But a previous study concluded the right of way is too steep and narrow, and the costs of such a trail would be prohibitive.
Sending the trail off onto city streets where the rail line right of way is too steep or narrow defeats the purpose of such a trail, Allen said.
A $59 million development planned in the Heights along the Kellar line will come to fruition more quickly if a trail is built, Allen said. Another development at Junction City is also being planned. “There really is a lot at stake here,” developer Alexis Khazzam, who attended the news conference, said.
Former Peoria mayor Jim Maloof attended the news conference and praised the effort. “I complement Mayor Allen for his leadership and the Village Board for taking a stand on this issue and moving it forward,” he said to applause. “This is such a vital economic development tool for our whole area,” he said, because the Kellar trail will provide a link to other area trails.
“Trails are the best neighborhood stimulus in the entire nation,” Maloof said.
Allen said, “Carver Lumber, don’t hold us hostage for losing $25,000. That’s chump change.” That’s the increased cost Carver Lumber is said to have incurred from using the western connection, he said.
Without a customer on the line, Pioneer would have difficulty convincing the STB that the line should not be abandoned.
Allen said even if Pioneer repairs the drainage issues, the economic development issue might also influence the STB, which most recently ruled 2-1 against abandonment. “All we need in one vote,” he said.
Carr said the village also ought to take on Central Illinois Rail, which has been operating on the west end of the line and storing “10 (rail) cars with hazardous material in them” there. That section is in the city of Peoria.
Allen said the village plans to take on one rail company at a time.
He rejected suggestions from the audience that the village perform a “Meigs Field” solution and tear up the rails.
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