Friday is the deadline to submit comments on the train through Easton. Nice to know that an agency that pays bonuses for on time performances to train operators who weren't on time and who loses millions in a ticket scam wants to run trash trains through town. Makes you wonder how seriously they'll take the issue of mitigation. Or how about the Army Corps of Engineers performance along the Mississippi? That should fill you with confidence also.
There have been many excellent letters to the editor on the train in the Easton Journal, but most miss an important part of the state's plan: "smart" growth. The trainiacs see North Easton as a target for more intensive development. With sewerage available in North Easton, won't pressure increase to develop 40R projects in the Historic District? Remember that our cash strapped town received a substantial bonus from the state to approve the Queset on the Brook 40R development, and remember also that the cost of town services will increase if the train cuts through the heart of our town.
Meanwhile the Historical Society must already be calculating whether it's possible to have a meeting place and museum next to an active train platform that plans to use its parking lot for a "drop and go." The T has already told the Society it's not their job to police illegal parking so there may be more dropping than going. Always said paint the arches gold and the train station would make a great McDonalds.
We invariably hear from the T that people love to live near train transportation. We better hope that they want to live really, really close to train transportation because the greatest payback for the town's participation in the Beacon project at the Shovel Shop depends on people being willing to buy condominiums there in the future. Let's see: passenger trains, freight trains, trash trains, blocked intersections, traffic, noise, "grab and go" crime, rubbish on the platform. Not going to be showing that in the prospectus for the project any time soon, I bet.
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A curiosity shop is a place of odds and ends in a wide range of categories. One never knows what one will find on any visit, and that is the goal of this blog. Here you'll find postings on doings around Easton, the world's environment, history, recipes, fly fishing, books, music, and movies with many other things thrown in as well. Hope you enjoy it and keep coming back.
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