Officials meet to discuss Winchester switching yard
By Lindsey Kovacevich, KPIC NewsROSEBURG, Ore. -- City and county officials, along with Oregon state representatives and Rail America, got together Wednesday to discuss the sudden freeze on grant money that was going to be used in finishing the Winchester switching yard north of Roseburg. Roseburg City Manager Eric Swanson said he has tried to get in contact with the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) for some answers, and they will not give any feedback. They wrote a statement, that Swanson says was very vague and didn't give any concrete answers. He expresses how important the switching yard is to the city and county, as well as the state, and the effects it will have if it's not finished. "We'll continue to have traffic congestion problems, and it will impact our business community greatly. We will also have a considerable amount of public safety issues. both for our police and fire and just the safety around the rail corridor with a lot of kids that walk back a forth through this area. What this project represented was a project that would benefit the community both from an economic development perspective as well as public safety." The construction is projected to only take 90 more days to complete, and Rail America representatives said they are willing to complete construction once they get the funds. Rail America made it clear they were in support of the switching yard and were surprised about the freeze of funds. They say they have also attempted to contact the OTC wiithout success. Swanson added, "This project will benefit the region, the state and short rail companies. And Roseburg Forest Products and several major employers here in the community. This is one of these that's going to be a real negative for the community. Hopefully we can send a message that this is something they need to reconsider and move forward." Swanson has asked State Senator Jeff Kruse to help with contacts in talking to the Governor to get it resolved. Kruse said at the meeting that the switching yard was not made to deal with today's problems, but tomorrow's issues. |
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