With the upcoming increase of rail traffic due to the ethanol plant nearing start up, sometime in July, 08. There are several questions concerning safety issues that have not been adequately addressed. With the proposed train lengths to be about 2 miles long, the safety issue of fire, police, and ambulance service comes readily to ones mind. The main fire department is located on the N.E. side of the rail tracks as well as the St. Helens Police Department and the County Sheriff's office. With rail cars stretching nearly 2 miles, the entire collective group of first responders will be cutoff from the rest of the city/county. Impeding their ability to respond to calls in an urgent manner. The routes that the first responders ultimately must use, will definitely add to their response time, and could possibly be detrimental to the victim's survival. The railroad divides all the local towns along its system. The elected officials of the cities nor the county have not adequately addressed the concerns from Scappoose, St. Helens, and Rainier concerning the safety issues.
At the commissioners meeting I brought up this very issue of emergency response time, I was told by Commissioner Tony Hyde that there is a Rail Safety Study being done. The only problem is that the trains are coming now! And there is no movement by any of the elected officials, railroad, or ethanol plant representatives to address these problems. In my view once again the county has put the cart before the horse and now the entire community will be at added risk because of the hindrance to the first responders.
First of all if the county is hell bent on bringing new industry to the area, why have they not taken the first step and made sure that the local communities that are divided by the railroad have adequate crossings? Why has not ODOT made sure that there is sufficient monies to construct over passes at the main ingress and egress points in these towns? I believe that it is both the county's and the states responsibility to ensure the safety of its citizens.
When I asked my question about the safety issue, Commissioner Rita Bernhard wanted to respond to me, this was Commissioners Bernhard's comment and offered one suggestion to solve the egress and ingress issue for the first responders, Bernhard said that the trains could have contact with the fire department and when the train got close o St. Helens they could call the fire department and the fire department could get their crew and equipment and get across the tracks, and set there until the train went by, then they could go back to the station, after all the trains will only come through three times a week and in the middle of the night. WOW! I could not help myself in replying to her statement, I said: that's stupid! Bernhard's comment is totally ignorant and who ever thought up that idea needs a brain scan to determine if they actually have any gray matter.
Bernhard forgot to mention the two police departments and what they were suppose to do.
Several years ago when Morse Brothers, now Knife River Corp. wanted to run long rock trains through St. Helens, I commented on the same safety issue's, Commissioner Hyde was present at that meeting and assured me that he knew where there was a pot of gold in Salem and not to worry he could get money for an over pass. Now several years later I ask him about that pot of Gold and my answer from Commissioner Hyde was complete denial of his comments, so there is no money for a over pass, there will be no safety guarantees for the public, and the public will have to deal with a 24/7 first responder team that can not respond when called. I guess many would call this PROGRESS.
Watch out taxpayers I would not be surprised if the fire department comes to the taxpayer and asks for a new firehouse because of the ethanol trains, plus we will have the added train cars to move freight from the Tillamook line that was destroyed in the floods. Busy Busy railroad!
My question is why not barge the corn to the ethanol plant?