Ardell Brede: A different rail route is good not just for Mayo,...

Economist Edward Lotterman would have his readers believe that freight trains carrying hazardous materials traveling through downtown Rochester are simply 'annoying' . He would also have readers liken his decision to live in a home near train tracks to the decision of Minnesota's largest private employer, Mayo Clinic, to invest in Rochester and the ...

[Lily]

The following letter presents quite a different perspective in Olmsted & Dodge Counties!!!

The Mayo Clinic has a committee of people who took it upon themselves to dictate public policy and "bypass" public input on their newest railroad proposal. Who are you? Why aren't you directly available to receive letters and phone calls from the parties whose land you propose to impact?

Why aren't you involving the public for other solutions? You conducted your own private corridor study, which circumvented the mandated public process of open informational meetings, notification of affected property owners and availability of maps.

You staged a press release with carefully calculated timing to avoid the input of affected municipalities, townships and landowners while you went to Washington, D.C., to lobby for stimulus money. You emphasized high speed rail in the headlines but your talking points proposed a freight train bypass for four trains a day. You pushed the Olmsted County commissioners to form a Rail Authority to execute eminent domain and taxation power in both Olmsted and Dodge County. Isn't that taxation with out representation? Isn't it interesting that the Rail Authority finally set a date for their first open meeting June 23?

None of you sitting on your Mayo committee are elected officials. You misuse Mayo's power to trample the rights of others. Who are you?

Citizen of Rochester

[Margie Gunderson]

Lily wrote:

The following letter presents quite a different perspective in Olmsted & Dodge Counties!!!
The Mayo Clinic has a committee of people who took it upon themselves to dictate public policy and "bypass" public input on their newest railroad proposal. Who are you? Why aren't you directly available to receive letters and phone calls from the parties whose land you propose to impact?
Why aren't you involving the public for other solutions? You conducted your own private corridor study, which circumvented the mandated public process of open informational meetings, notification of affected property owners and availability of maps.
You staged a press release with carefully calculated timing to avoid the input of affected municipalities, townships and landowners while you went to Washington, D.C., to lobby for stimulus money. You emphasized high speed rail in the headlines but your talking points proposed a freight train bypass for four trains a day. You pushed the Olmsted County commissioners to form a Rail Authority to execute eminent domain and taxation power in both Olmsted and Dodge County. Isn't that taxation with out representation? Isn't it interesting that the Rail Authority finally set a date for their first open meeting June 23?
None of you sitting on your Mayo committee are elected officials. You misuse Mayo's power to trample the rights of others. Who are you?
Citizen of Rochester

That would be like 3M using its influence with Maplewood, esp around the 3M campus area, right? How many Rochester citizens work directly or indirectly for Mayo? Methinks you have no chance. Mayo's vocal chords are pretty strong up here too, esp at the U and the state capitol.

[Affected Property owner]

THe city and now county boards are nothing but puppets for Mayo. Many of the elected officials either work at or have a spouse working at Mayo. This project is unnecessary and nothing more than a way to soothe a bruised ego from the failed 1998 bypass attempt. Secret meetings and gagged elected officials have kept the public (especially affected landowners) in the dark. Many of the big name politicians who "endorsed" this project had no idea what the project was about. Canadian Pacific does not want or need a bypass, in fact they are currently spending upwards of $15 mill to upgrade local tracks. The stories you hear about Mayo being so close to the tracks....THEY have continued to expand TOWARD the RR tracks, even after the previous failed bypass attempt.

The cries of safety and ambulances sitting at crossings are just as valid in the rural areas. I ask Mr Brede...is my family's safety LESS important than city residents? Rochester has taken an all or nothing approach and won't negotiate with the RR at all.....but yet they expect rural landowners to make all the sacrifices. Not everyone works at Mayo or needs them to survive Mr Mayor.

Please contact your State and Federal lawmakers and urge them to NOT support this boondoggle.

[Not Fooled]

"The City of Rochester is unique in that it accounts for 40 percent of the population along the entire DME rail line."
- False
"...even with DME logging accidents at rates four to nine times the national average."
- Ardell, did you forget to mention CP has the safest track record out of all Class I railroads...?
"This issue isn't about shifting safety concerns onto others but rather doing what is best for the region as a whole."
- So why did the Rochester Coalition oppose the idea of taking land from South Dakota farmers, but think it is OK to take land from our very own local farmers?
"Canadian Pacific will realize operational efficiencies in traveling around the city..."
- Explain to me how it is efficient for the CP/DM&E to travel an additional 11 miles on a bypass? This will create added costs in fuel, maintenance, etc. for CP and how will that be paid for? Most likely by the local taxpayers because Rochester/Mayo will have to bribe CP to use the bypass. Also, keep in mind that CP just invested $15 million to upgrade the tracks and all grade crossings through Rochester.
"The Southern Rail Corridor is a multi-phase project aimed at minimizing the threat of increased freight traffic while providing a viable option for high-speed passenger rail to Rochester."
- A study done by Gannett Fleming, which was hired by Mayo, said that the curves in the proposed bypass would not even be capable of handling true high-speed rail.
"Nor can we look at the $325 million cost of the Southern Rail Corridor as an "egregious waste of societal resources."
- But yet we can justify not investing this money in our educational systems? Tuition at a PUBLIC 4 year institution is becoming too expensive for even middle class parents to pay for their child's college education. What will this do for America's youth, our Nation's future?
Ardell, this letter is full of false and misleading statements. I am offended that you, the Mayor of Rochester, are OK with associating your name with these false statements. I sure hope others are smart enough to see through this. Please, when more than 4 trains per day begin traveling through Rochester, just maybe then consider this an issue. Until then, stop wasting our time.

[Notafool]

Ardell Brede, was that tremendous sucking sound I heard some 20 odd years ago you? The Mayo Clinic opened their Arizona and Florida campuses more than 10 years before the DM&E purchase of the Rochester railline and the proposal that followed to upgrade the badly degraded tracks and extend a new one into the Powder River Basin. That decision, based on considering "other options" by Mayo Clinic, had nothing to do with the fact that they were agressively building in Rochester next to its lonely single underused railroad track, which currently carries about 3-4 trains a day, and which, by most objective studies will most likely only have the realistic potential to increase to perhaps 8 a day in the foreseeable future. It had to do with the realization that the fastest growing segment of the health care industry as baby boomers neared their golden years would be the elderly. It had to do with the fact that the fastest growing area for retiring golden year baby boomers is in the warm and sunny south. Minnesota doesn't seem to attract many retirees. Must have something to do with the cold and snow I imagine. Go figure. Believe it or not, Mayo Clinic is a business, and they are ALWAYS considering their options, railroad or no. And yes, for whatever reasons, they don't like the railroad that they have chosen over the years to build next to, and that in the early years they too needed, and which played an integral role in their success because of their proximity to it. It is an interdependent relationship between the rail line, the city, and its businesses.

But just because they don't like having to look at a railroad nextdoor to them doesn't mean that we taxpayers now should be required to foot the bill to purchase them a $325 million tube of eye salve! I've had enough of our elected officials caving in to the pressure of these kind of special interests. Enough is enough!