Progress Illinois

GOP congressional candidate Marty Ozinga decided this week to stop tiptoeing around a controversial proposal to sell the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (EJ&E) Railway to Canadian National Railway (CN) and state his support for the $300 million deal.

But as the Southtown Star reported yesterday, Ozinga's backing comes with a caveat.

In response to local residents who oppose the sale because it would bring increased train traffic, noise pollution, and safety concerns, Ozinga will "amend" a letter that one of his companies sent to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) last November stating that it "strongly supports" the sale. In this amendment, Ozinga will reportedly stipulate that his support hinges on CN addressing community concerns by furnishing "underpasses or overpasses, or other means of securing the safety of the towns so freight traffic does not divide the communities."

That sort of concession would come with a hefty price tag, says New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann who estimates that it would cost upwards of $150 million just to build enough overpasses to ease traffic congestion in his 14-square-mile town.

"I don't think there's anything that CN can do that can make this acceptable to us," said Baldermann, who won this year's GOP primary for the open 11th District seat. (He dropped out of the general election early on and was replaced on the ballot by Ozinga.) "There's no way that CN is going to be able to mitigate all of the issues that the communities have. It would cost them ten times the price of the sale."

The Regional Answer to Canadian National (TRAC), a coalition of local leaders led by Frankfort Mayor Jim Holland in opposition to the sale, is banking on a piece of federal legislation for protection. This measure, which has garnered bipartisan support in Congress, would require STB to reject CN's application if it could be demonstrated that compromises to community safety outweigh transportation benefits for the region.

In an effort to contrast herself with Ozinga, 11th District Democratic candidate Debbie Halvorson is circulating a letter she sent to the STB on April 1 stating her opposition to the deal. Her campaign has argued that Ozinga's early support shows that the Homer Glen concrete magnate is more concerned about defending his company's "bottom line" than the residents and community leaders who have come out in large numbers against the proposal.