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Rep. Hultgren: Metra station top priority

Meets with mayors of Yorkville, Oswego to talk projects funding

February 24, 2011
By Tony Scott

U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield, said this week that funding for a Metra commuter rail station in Oswego is the "number one priority" for the House Transportation Committee this year.

Hultgren met with Oswego Village President Brian LeClercq Tuesday afternoon at the Oswego Park-N-Ride to talk funding of a station at the site near Orchard and Mill roads. Flanked by the news media and Hultgren's staff, LeClercq and Hultgren huddled in the cold and their summit was interrupted once for several minutes by a passing freight train.

Hultgren said he is now a member of the U.S. House of Representative's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and of that committee's rail transportation subcommittee. He said the chairman of the committee visited the district over the weekend and discussed transportation issues with local leaders. "I think this will be, this year, the number one priority for the Transportation Committee," Hultgren said. "Now we move into the Surface Transportation Authorization Bill, where this will fit. I will definitely be keeping you informed, letting you know the help we need to be getting information out to people. Certainly, this has to continue to be driven locally."

LeClercq said all of the area's mayors are "on board" with the Metra station plans. "All the mayors are on board here," he said. "I know we have our own personal interests, but we all agree, if we want this region to prosper, we've got to come together on this, and we are."

LeClercq explained to Hultgren that the intention for the Park-N-Ride site was a future Metra station. "It's an ideal location to serve our communities," LeClercq said. "There are two reasons why I think this is so important to our surrounding communities. Number one, it affords us the opportunity for alternate transportation: to get the cars off the roads, get people using the public transportation to get them safely and effectively to their jobs. Part two of this is. there are many big companies out there that will not locate somewhere if there is not a public transportation option."

He continued, "The reason why all this land is vacant, it is deliberate. It is not designed for more retail shops. We have some here; they are starving for the Metra. But what we're looking at is, maybe some big corporation will consider Oswego, Yorkville, Montgomery as their home. And that will bring really great jobs that will support families, the bigger wages than just part-time retail."

LeClercq gave "a lot of credit" to former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Plano, noting that he "had the vision to put this in the" federal transportation bill. "I guess what I would ask you, congressman, is, where do we go from here?" LeClercq asked Hultgren.

Hultgren said he understood that public transportation - particularly rail transit - is important to the people of the district. "The message I got out of the election in November was the need to create jobs, and to make this a place that's going to be growing, as far as employment, and transportation is so key in that," he said. "The one public transportation (method) that our people understand in the 14th Congressional District is rail. They get that, that if they want to get to Chicago, they're going to look to see if they can get on a train to get down there rather than fighting the traffic to get downtown." Hultgren pledged to LeClercq that he would work to find funding for the Metra station and rail transportation in Kendall County. "I'm fighting for it," he said. "Initial dollars are there. I think I'm in a good spot to be working on this to make sure the money is there, that the vision is there, that this is something that doesn't only benefit Oswego, but it benefits Yorkville, Montgomery, Aurora."

Hultgren said there are "challenging times out there," and that there is no longer the earmark process that was available to House members before the newest Congress was sworn in. "We don't have the earmark process; I think that's a good thing," he said. "It just means we have to work harder to fight for projects in an open way through the committee. That's what I'm going to do on the Transportation Committee."

Burd: Metra would help economic development

Yorkville Mayor Valerie Burd told the City Council Tuesday evening that she had met with both Hultgren and LeClercq and that Hultgren also stressed to her that the Metra project is a priority to him. "He said he'll do everything in his power to move this forward, and this is something really important to both Yorkville and Oswego", she said.

Burd said a Metra station would help the economic development of the area. "I think it would bring a lot of economic development into our town and help encourage people who want to come and visit our recreational facilities, the new (state DNR) whitewater park and the (Raging Waves) water park", she said. "It would make it much easier for people to get to it, and I can't see any downside to it."

Copyright © 2011, The Kendall County Record