Shutdown Could Effect Freight Rail Study Process

As budget negotiations between Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders drag on, the state official in charge of the of a in St. Louis Park says a shutdown could halt all proceedings. 

Frank Pafko, director of the Office of Environmental Stewardship at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, said his office was originally due to make a decision on July 7 on whether a more thorough environmental impact review was needed. With state money slated to run out on Thursday night, he said that timeline was "getting a little complicated."

"We’ve got options," Pafko explained. "The option we’re working towards now is trying to make a decision by June 30. We’re racing and we’ll see."

In the event of a shutdown, Pafko said the MnDOT commissioner could make the decision, as Pafko and his staff were not deemed "essential" state employees. Alternatively, Pafko said, his office could apply for a 15-day extension of the comment review deadline.

Pafko and his office are also currently reviewing the flood of comments on the freight rail reroute proposal submitted by a wide swath of St. Louis Park residents, including the City Council and the school board. Many in the community have voiced concern over the plan—which would re-direct freight traffic from Minneapolis's Kenilworth Corridor to the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern (MN&S) tracks in St. Louis Park to make room for a proposed light rail line—because of safety issues.

In a letter (posted above and at right) submitted as part of this public comment process, the school board said vibration and noise from trains currently using the tracks already disrupts classes held on the track-side of , and throws projection equipment in those classrooms out of focus. The issue makes MnDOT's upcoming decision a tense one for school board members

"I myself don’t know what leverage the school district has, aside from the fact that there will be a negative effect on the high school," said board member Rolf Peterson, who helped draft the letter along with assistant superintendent Bob Laney. 

The letter sent to MnDOT lays out a number of the district's concerns with the current plan, and proposes a number of mitigation measures that could make it better.

"We thought this (letter) was very reasonable," Peterson said. "There were a lot of things we considered, and we thought this list was very reasonable.

Peterson and school board chairwoman Julie Sweitzer said the board did not study the cost of any suggested mitigation measures, including the cost of building new high school classrooms away from the train tracks.