During this recession, Lancaster taxpayers are being asked to spend up to $32 million to move a railroad yard to expand Franklin & Marshall’s campus.
Alternate sites would cost much less and not endanger public health, but aren’t even considered!
(Senator Arlen Specter thinks it’s OK to carelessly spend your money for his friends’ private projects. We think that’s just plain WRONG.)
F&M and General Hospital want to spend tens of millions digging up and moving a dump containing asbestos so that this deafening eye-sore can be moved adjacent to residential neighborhoods. The yard will be expanded from the existing two-track yard to FIFTEEN.
The Rail Road Action and Advisory Committee (TRRAAC) has asked the project partners and our government officials for an independent study of equally good sites that don’t require moving a dump. TRRAAC has also asked for Norfolk Southern’s original expansion plan, copies of the economic impact analysis, environmental impact studies including impact noise and air quality studies, and a $700,000 PennDOT study paid for by our tax dollars, and still hasn’t received them.
The response: a stone wall of misinformation, disingenuous statements, and downright fabrications to TRRAAC and government officials!
Meanwhile, the Lancaster Newspaper group (their partner in the grant-sponsoring Economic Development Council) repeatedly falsifies information, fails to publish retractions, and refuses to expose the outrages that have been taking place.
Here are several examples:
- Lancaster Newspapers reporting “approval” of $4M in federal air pollution funding when it was only a recommendation. The real vote is this Monday, April 27. Call Commissioner Martin between 8 am and 11 am and ask him to vote no. Attend the meeting at 12:30pm Monday at 150 North Queen Street, 7th Floor.
- Never asking for the original expansion plans for the rail yard that did not include the dump
- Failure to report on how stormwater potentially contaminated with asbestos may be sent to the sewage treatment plant.
- Failure to report evidence of dumping foundry slag and sand in the township dump in 1980, after DEP claims there is no evidence of dumping after 1962.
- Blindly accepting F&M’s claims of 55,000 truck trips eliminated annually, thousands of jobs created and millions in tax revenues without ever seeing any documentation
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Log onto www.trraac.com and look at the proposed alternative sites that would accomplish the project partners’ expansion goals with reduced taxpayer dollars.
Call County Commissioner Scott Martin at 299-8300 before 11 am on Monday, April 27th. Tell him that you want him to vote “no” on CMAQ money or at least delay the funding until an independent study on alternative sites is issued. Ask him for a public hearing and independent analysis of purported air pollution reductions. Attend the April 27th meeting at 150 N. Queen Street at 12:30 pm.
Email or call Senator Specter and tell him you want your tax dollars used for public benefit, not private gain, and he could lose your vote in the up-coming elections. Tell him we know Keith Orris of F&M is hosting a fund raiser for him. Ask him to mandate an independent study of alternate locations. [email protected] or 782-3951.
Email or call Senator Casey and tell him you want him to rethink his initial support for this private use of public funds. Ask him to mandate an independent study. [email protected] (202) 224-6324
Email or call Representatives Mike Sturla (295-3157) and John Bear (626-1776 or [email protected] ), and tell them you do not support their votes on this project in an ‘under the wire’ method and ask them to support an independent study.
Write a ‘Letter to the editor’ for the Intell ([email protected]), New Era ([email protected])and Sunday News ([email protected]). Tell them you are sickened by their publishers’ corrupt behavior and lack of disclosure about this project. The public has a right to transparency and the truth. Then cancel your subscription!
Write a check to TRRAAC, P.O. Box 4155, Lancaster, PA 17604-4155. Also, volunteer your services. We can’t stand up against these bullies by ourselves.
DO WE OPPOSE RELOCATION OF THE RAIL YARD? NO!
Lancaster’s growth is important to us all. But decisions should be made in the open and in the interest of the public…not conceived behind closed doors and rammed through at exorbitant expense by a powerful, self serving few.
Should our $32 million be spent without considering alternatives, safer and cheaper locations? WE DON’T THINK SO! Do you?
