Grant Park High School is the scheduled setting for a Tuesday, March 21st meeting to provide updated information on the proposed Great Lakes Basin Transportation rail project. The meeting will begin at 6 pm.

The project has generated a lot of interest. Earlier meetings had people and groups speaking for and against.
The Illinois Farm Bureau will be in attendance at this meeting to address legal issues.

The proposed rail line extends through the northern part of Kankakee County for more than 41 miles. The route is proposed to be 200 feet wide, which translates into about 1,000 acres of land, mostly farm land, consumed. Along with the 1,000 acres of land taken by the rail route, there also would be a number of parcels affected by being severed, landlocked or otherwise that become remnants unfeasible or uneconomical to be farmed.

The project narrative provided by GLBT includes a proposed "railport" situated between the villages of Manteno and Grant Park. The railport appears to encompass about 23 square miles of land. At about 640-acres-per-square-mile section, that would be another 14,720 acres consumed.

94.1 WGFA