An article from Tuesday, quoted in full since things tend to disappear from the P-B website rather quickly: http://www.postbulletin.com/news/storie ... id=1500145
Olmsted County's divide on the railroad bypass issue remains as easy to see as a seating chart.
On Monday, at the first meeting of a state-brokered committee to discuss potential answers to the vexing bypass issue, the pro-city interests sat on one side of the auditorium at the Rochester Public Library, and the anti-bypass crowd sat on the other.
"It looks like we've got management on one side, and labor on the other side," said Jan Throndson, a Rochester resident and candidate for city council president in the fall election.
"If you can't intermingle among yourselves ... it does not work that way," Throndson said.
At least the two sides of locals are on equal footing. The study, funded by a $487,000 federal grant administered by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, is intended to analyze the past, present and imagined future of freight rail traffic through Minnesota's third-largest city and determine whether a bypass route — either north or south of town — is warranted, or whether in-city mitigation can assuage Mayo Clinic's concerns about potentially increased rail traffic through the heart of downtown.
"I want to make sure Rochester remains an inviting community," said Nora O'Sullivan, who represents Mayo Clinic on the committee, named the Southern Rail Corridor Planning Advisory Committee, which will follow a five-month course to its end.
The committee will meet four times through November, and three open houses are planned. The next meeting will be an open house at 5 p.m. July 9 at the Rochester International Event Center, near the Rochester International Airport.
Some members of the committee had questions about the purpose of the group.
"My question as a citizen is, who wants what now?" said Glenn Faith, a resident of the inner-city Kutzky Park neighborhood. "Is the railroad pushing for more traffic?"
"No one is really pushing us right now," said Chuck Michael, who represents the Olmsted County Railroad Association. "That's a good time to ask some questions. There's really no plan. There's really no outlook."
"We've got a rail line that goes right through the center of town. What's that going to look like 50 years from now?" Michael said.
Monday's two-hour meeting, attended by about 60 people, was mostly just to introduce committee members to one another and the public, and to set basic procedures for the group as it holds further meetings.
In addition to the Project Advisory Committee, there is a Technical Advisory Committee, made up of professionals including the Rochester, Olmsted County and Dodge County engineers.
Working in tandem, the groups mean to identify "the most promising alternatives" for further study under federal guidelines, Michael said.
"To receive that (federal) funding, you have to go through a process," Michael said. "This is the beginning of that process."
One issue, Michael said, is at what point does Rochester rail traffic rise to the level that grade separations — overpasses or underpasses — become necessary on busy streets such as Broadway or East Circle Drive.