Rural Rail and Stop Signs

A couple rural County issues were in the headlines today. The first environmental in the courts and the second to do with rural intersections and stop signs (after a recent tragedy):

Rail company to pay for fuel spill
Union Pacific has been ordered to pay nearly $80,000 over a 2015 fuel spill near Sidney.

Champaign County Judge Michael Jones signed off on a consent order, which ends a lawsuit brought against the railroad company by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The order states that the railroad company must pay a flat fine of $70,000, plus about another $18,000, to reimburse the state for its expenses related to the cleanup.

In May 2015, a Union Pacific train spilled 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel about one mile south of Sidney. The fuel flowed into the Salt Fork River, according to Madigan’s lawsuit.

The bit on rural intersection stop-signs was from the County Board chairman in the Letters to the Editor highlight box:

Stop signs good response to accidents
In response to the Feb. 25 letter from Ellen Nuss, the Champaign County Board, of which I am the chair, has discussed the problem of vehicular crashes at rural intersections for some time. These discussions included the desire to reduce the number of crashes.

The installation of stop signs has historically significantly reduced the number of crashes at intersections that lack signage indicating the right of way. Stop signs give a clear indication of the right of way at intersections.

Recently, the county received a Highway Safety Improvement Program grant from the Federal Highway Administration through the Illinois Department of Transportation to install two-way stop sign control at all of the rural intersections within Champaign County. The installation of the stop signs should be initiated this summer.

As far as a “mandate,” the board has mandated that the highway department spend the funding for what it is supposed to used for — in this case, the installation of stop signs for increasing safety.

County taxes are being used to pay for 10 percent of this $336,000 project.

The local match, plus the prorated federal taxes that Champaign County citizens pay for this project, amount to a little over 16 cents per county citizen — a very small cost to increase the safety of rural drivers. C. PIUS WEIBEL Chairman, Champaign County Board