Another Ohio city takes action against remotes
CLEVELAND, April 3 -- The City of Maple Heights, Ohio is the 12th U.S. city to take action against remote control locomotives. The city of Maple Heights is an eastern suburb of Cleveland.
The Maple Heights action is a "resolution encouraging members of the Ohio State Legislature to introduce and pass legislation addressing security and safety concerns surrounding the use of remote control locomotives and encouraging state and federal agencies that regulate railroad operations to work with the Department of Homeland Security to establish regulations addressing safety and security concerns arising from the use and operation of remote control locomotives, and declaring an emergency."
The resolution is an emergency measure for the city and took effect as soon as it was approved by the mayor in March.
The resolution came about after a speech by Ohio State Legislative Board Chairman Jim Ong at the Cleveland Central Labor Council in February. Ong was joined at that meeting by BLE Division 3 (Cleveland) Legislative Representative Bill Ellert and Rich Nieman of BLE Division 3, who are both delegates to the Labor Council. At the meeting, they met Maple Heights City Councilman Richard Taylor, who brought the matter up with the mayor of Maple Heights. The resolution was jointly introduced by Taylor and Mayor Santo T. Incorvaia.
Chairman Ong would like to thank Brothers Ellert and Nieman for their hard work. He would also like to thank Mayor Incorvaia and Councilman Taylor and the other co-sponsors of the resolution.
Maple Heights joins Bakersfield, Calif., Beardstown, Ill., Baton Rouge, La., Shreveport, La., Detroit, Mich., Marysville, Mich., Boston, Mass., Cleveland, Ohio, Pine Bluff, Ark., North Little Rock, Ark. and Woodbridge, N.J. in passing resolutions against remote control locomotives. Also, four U.S. counties have passed resolutions banning remote control trains — Cuyahoga and Huron Counties in Ohio, Whitley County in Kentucky, and Unicoi County in Tenn.
For a PDF copy of the resolution, click here:
http://www.ble.org/pr/pdf/mapleheights.pdf
Thursday, April 03, 2003
bentley@ble.org
