Bobby is currently the General Manager and Assistant Publisher at the Daily Statesman after serving his term as Managing Editor. He wears many hats in the office, including coordinator of all things online, but his real passion is sports.

Trains....I hate them!

Posted Thursday, May 28, 2009, at 2:15 PM

Enough already with the delays on One Mile Road!

If you live in or near Dexter or have ever visited Dexter and had to travel One Mile Road, odds are you have been delayed by a train. Don't you just hate that?

It never fails....wherever I need to go requires crossing the tracks or driving three miles to go under the tracks on Highway 25. By choosing the latter, valuable time is wasted dealing with all of the stop signs and traffic lights. It takes me a good seven minutes to get 50 feet across the railroad tracks if I decide to drive around or on-average, seven minutes to wait the train out. Then of course there are those special days when the train is stopped on the track requiring everyone to drive around. Oh yeah, another gripe is sitting and waiting for the cross guards to rise and the red lights to stop flashing and the conductor of the train is sitting still about 150 feet from the crossing just staring at the traffic backed up with a smirk on his face. Push your button dude! We are sick of it!

I can usually deal with the delay but what about emergency personnel and equipment when precious minutes and even seconds count?

I have heard that the idea of an overpass on One Mile Road was being discussed once but got shot down. Does anyone know why? I would like to see some of that stimulus money put to work here! What do you think?

Comments

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The overpass plan was shot down, someone was going to make a heap of money off the right of way.

-- Posted by Dexterite1 on Thu, May 28, 2009, at 3:55 PM
greer, there were a few people in town that pushed really hard for an overpass and you are right, someone would have made money because they owned the ground. The statement that Dexterit1 made is actually sad because that is what we have become in this country. To shoot down a great idea that will help your community because someone might make a little money on a piece of land that they own. This is just one of many reason that Dexter has not grown in the last 20 years and towns like Jackson, Perryville, and Farmington do grow. These towns take ideas and make them reality. It's really sad for Dexter.

-- Posted by BonScott on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 5:58 AM
Walnut Street would have made an ideal location for an overpass.

-- Posted by Dexterite1 on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 7:40 AM
If I remember correctly,the big gripe wasn't that someone was going to make money off the land but it was going to "down-grade" the amount of money their property was worth!

-- Posted by thatgirl on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 11:17 AM
Bon...remember Dexterite is yellow dog liberal, so there is much wealth envy brewing there I will assume. The project was shot down partly due to this as well, many were/are flat out jealous of the wealth the businessmen proposing the idea have accumulated and they didn't want them to "achieve" any further. It is sick and it is amazing we are building all these multi-million $ buildings around town so that our fancy emergency equipment can hurry up only to sit and stare at some grafitti on a rusted old box car. Project was discussed a few years back Greer.

Just hit me about Walnut St. being a great place for an over pass????? Why not make it a couple streets closer to the UNDERpass on 25 (sarcasm for all you sour liberals). I believe the purpose of the overpass being discussed near One Mile Rd or WEST would be to provide a couple of options a good distance apart from one another.

-- Posted by shannonhoon on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 2:16 PM
How on earth you can turn an overpass topic into a political rant is beyond me, hoon. You are a broken record. Get some new material before you lose your audience completely.

-- Posted by goat lady on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 2:31 PM
Goat, he's right, but maybe a little blunt at times. Why in the world would people care who made money? If it would help the community(which it would tremendously), and it was feasible, then do it. Period. But unfortunately, people get upset if someone is going to make money on land they already to a risk on buying in the first place. It baffles me!

Refer back to my first post if you wonder why the town of Dexter doesn't grow. This gets me almost as fired up as talking about president B.O.

-- Posted by BonScott on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 3:30 PM
I just remembered something about this issue. The land was actually going to be donated, so the city would not have had to pay for any of land on the other side of the creek from Arvin. They were going to have the access point on the right side of Arvin and run it all the way down the backside of Boone Park. FREE OF CHARGE. Oh well, all for not.

-- Posted by BonScott on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 3:41 PM
Good old Dexter could take lesson in working with the railroads from our county seat, Olathe, KS, which is split by both the Frisco, and BNSF, and these tracks run parallel across the main drag, Santa Fe, just west of I-35, and then across Santa Fe again just west of Kansas Ave......the implications were horrific, especially with slow moving heavy coal trains on the BNSF....so, their city fathers teamed with BNSF and their tracks were elevated and passages developed for that end of town, while the Spruce Street underpass was redone so the OFD could get a big truck through it!! Win, win, and oh, by the by, there are numerous spurs off and on serving the industrial areas, which honestly makes the old Mo-Pac and Cotton Belt passages seem like whistle stops...if, and I'm sure there are legitimate public safety issues with the RR's, then City Hall best be talking with UP, et.al. to ease that north/south need, from One Mile east...it can be done, one place or the other....molater, kk

-- Posted by kkcaver47 on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 5:08 PM
And I suppose you're just a 'yellow dog', I didn't say I was against the proposed location, this was the story going around Dexter. You never seem to get your facts straight.

-- Posted by Dexterite1 on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 5:20 PM
Dexterite1, I just gave you the facts in my previous post.

-- Posted by BonScott on Fri, May 29, 2009, at 9:14 PM
I don't know if this is the case in Dexter, but I do know that some small town residents don't want change and will actively work against it. Amazing but true.

-- Posted by goat lady on Sat, May 30, 2009, at 7:50 AM
"All for naught," Bon, sweetie.

-- Posted by goat lady on Sat, May 30, 2009, at 7:52 AM
Thanks GL, I'm always up for a grammar lesson. Although, believe it or not, that was one of my best subjects in school.

-- Posted by BonScott on Sat, May 30, 2009, at 8:27 AM
NOTE To GOAT...how you like them rhyming words?

Bon, Greer, and termite began the talks on the issue of profiting from the overpass. I did not "turn it" ONLY "added it". And if anyone can tell me which "facts" I got wrong, I will stand corrected. I thought this was an opinion site, which would make my "facts" correct.

-- Posted by shannonhoon on Sat, May 30, 2009, at 8:29 AM
BS and GL

And also "nought" and "nowt"

-- Posted by wartz on Mon, Jun 1, 2009, at 5:17 PM
BobbyG, my guess is, you will never see that overpass in town. That was basically the one good chance to do it and the city council blew it.

-- Posted by BonScott on Mon, Jun 1, 2009, at 9:21 PM
Bobby, here's an article from the Statesman during the time of the "overpass" issue.

http://www.dailystatesman.com/story/1000372.html

Basically, it was property owners who did not want it too close to their high-dollar homes that pushed to get it shot down.

There was also some concern around the same time about a modular home neighborhood in the same general area, and the same well-to-do residents not liking the idea of affordable homes nearby.

http://www.dailystatesman.com/story/1000344.html

The two issues were connected and quite the talk of the town at the time.

Since the articles are dated, I'm sure you can look further in that general time frame if you want more information.

-- Posted by Eliza on Fri, Jun 5, 2009, at 7:53 AM
Thanks, Eliza, that's just the info we needed. Reading through the report, sounds like a mess.

I'm curious -- What's the problem with Sells stipulating that the 9 acres he was willing to donate for the overpass would revert back to him within 3 years (if the city didn't build the overpass)? Wouldn't that stipulation ensure that the land was used for the original purpose?

-- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Jun 9, 2009, at 6:25 AM
Please reference one of my previous posts, the city council blew it. They had their chance and now you will probably never see an overpass in downtown Dexter. All because of two people. Good job councilman.

-- Posted by BonScott on Tue, Jun 9, 2009, at 4:00 PM
I'm not commenting on the overpass. Whatever they want to do abt it is ok by me. But...I like trains!! I like when dogs howl at the train whistle!! I like waving at the engineer when the train passes... and I don't mind waiting (well, except when I wait a good while and then the train stops and blocks the road) I just wish there were more cabooses, but you don't hardly see them anymore. And what history there is with the railroad!! Just to go on record, though, I like trains!!

-- Posted by ct on Tue, Jun 9, 2009, at 4:49 PM
Nice, ct! I agree about the cabooses. They were cool! I have to agree about trains, too. The whistles are especially nice when they're about 5 miles away!

-- Posted by goat lady on Thu, Jun 18, 2009, at 3:31 PM
It never fails when we parents are trying to drop off or pick up the kids from school that that dang train is on the tracks! It is highly aggravating but not much we can do about it. There are lots of things that are irritating, like how hard it was to get out of the Southwest Elementary parking lot after school pick up....but it looks like they are working on making a circle drive that will help deal with that problem. At least that is a start.

-- Posted by mizzou_mom on Sun, Jun 28, 2009, at 7:15 PM
I know just what you're saying,but like my parents used to say,"those trains were here before Dexter was"

-- Posted by MOGAL on Wed, Sep 16, 2009, at 9:23 PM

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