May 5th, 2008
Last spring, Heartland Community Church undertook a huge volunteer project and cleaned, fixed and repainted two grade schools and some East High School classrooms.
This year’s project will be much bigger. Heartland congregants learned Sunday that come June, they’ll be refurbishing Ellen Stiles School, the westernmost school in the district, they’ll keep plugging away on East, and they’ll take on Flinn Middle School — the whole thing.
Heartlanders will also install doors and side panels on scores of toilet stalls in schools throughout the Rockford School District.
No tax dollars are used, all the materials are bought by the church or donated. Heartland is hoping for 5,000 volunteers to get the job done in about a week.
May 1st, 2008
Some quick thoughts on the NICTI commuter rail report that was delivered Wednesday by TransSystems, the group’s pricey consultant.
Ahem. Three million U.S. and state tax dollars to discover what we already knew all along? Yep. That’s how much we are spending to learn the obvious — the route with the most ridership is the one that goes through Belvidere, Marengo, Huntley! Ya think?
Tell me, where do I go to sign up to be a consultant?
Well, duh! Belvidere is where this conversation began way back in 1997. I know, I was there. Dick Durbin was a newly-minted U.S. senator who came to Chrysler City to listen to area leaders discuss their belief that the region needed commuter trains. Chicagolanders had begun moving to Boone, continued to work in the burbs and downtown Chicago, but were chagrinned to learn there was no commuter train close by.
Now, the report that was issued has some good points, but the elephant in the room is the sloooooowwwww speed. People need to get to downtown Clhicago in approximately the same time as it takes them to drive. And that’s faster than 2.5 hours. For most of us, that’s just too long. Second, many people won’t undergo the hassle of transfering to another train in the Elgin area to get to Chicago.
What’s needed is through train service to Union Station, whether that’s by contracting with Metra to run the trains out here, or by securing running rights and operating the trains ourselves.
However, all this is going to require a big local committment, funding-wise, because the U.S. government is in the hands of the road lobby, right up to the secretary of transportation, Mary Peters. And if John McCain is elected president, you can forget about any money for passenger rail. He’s solidly against it! Don’t know what the Hillster and Barack would do about rail money — they’ve not said word one about it.
In states where new commuter train services have been built, voters have enacted statewide sales taxes to pay for the services. The taxes range from a quarter percent to one percent. New trains are rolling in Salt Lake City, Portland, Denver, Houston, Alberquerque and many other cities.
We’ve pretty much maxed out our sales tax in Rockford and Machesney Park, although voters could conceivably favor a quarter percent tax for a decent and fast commuter service to Chicagoland.
What I’m curious about is how committed local leaders are to moving the train down the track. Will they do the heavy lifting needed to advance this idea? I mean, they’ve been promising for years that the train is just five years away. And it’s still true today. It’s always five years away. Waiting for the train around here is like Waiting For Godot.
I’m pretty sure we won’t get much help from the state of Illinois and I’ll be surprised if our legislative delegation in Springfield expends energy on commuter rail. They’ll provide lip service and shout “Choo Choo!” and that’s the extent of their support.
It will be up to city and county leaders, Boone County Chairwoman Cathy Ward, Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton, Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey and Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen to get this commuter train from its current HO gauge model to the real, lifesize McCoy.
Of course, the federal government’s hostility toward passenger rail could change in January, especially if Democrats increase their majorities in the House and Senate. Durbin, the Senate majority whip, is the second most powerful senator in the land, and he’s a strong advocate for rail service. It was Durbin, remember, who initiated the move to return Amtrak service to northern Illinois. Note: the Quad Cities people are far ahead of Rockford and Belvidere when it comes to making a united case for Amtrak service.
There’s no reason why we can’t do what NICTI members suggest and use the Belvidere route for both Amtrak and commuter trains. That’s what happens in Los Angeles, where you can board one of Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliners, or a MetroLink commuter train, with a common ticket.
