Clinton City Council Unanimously approves deal with Canadian Pacific

CLINTON, Iowa (KWQC) - The Clinton City Council unanimously approved a settlement with Canadian Pacific, pending its merger with Kansas City Southern.

As part of the deal made on Tuesday night, the city could potentially receive $1 million from the railway. Of those funds, $100,000 would be used toward the permanent closure of the crossing on 21st Avenue North.

City Administrator Matt Brooke said closing that particular crossing is part of an ongoing process.

“We’d already closed a lot of [the crossings],” Brooke said. “[The crossing at 21st Avenue North] we’ve been watching ... closely. It’s not used as much. So we were a little less concerned, but part of the caution tape is they actually raised the track in some areas, and then we still have to do some modifications.”

No residents spoke during public comment, on what’s been a controversial topic for other cities down the river.

Brooke expects the city to use the funds to mitigate any safety concerns brought on by a merger, including adding 12 more quiet zones to the city.

“We know what the speed that they come in, with those closures, with those quiet zones, with two arms on either side, with the lights and not able to turn around that that will actually make the flow and increase really not noticed,” Brooke said.

In a statement to TV6 News, Canadian Pacific spokesman, Andy comings thanked city leaders for their work.

“We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with another Iowa community,” Cummings wrote. “We’d like to thank Clinton city leaders for their time and efforts to reach this outcome.”

If the merger goes through, the city can expect trains to increase from 10 to 25 a day. Brooke said this is a potential boost to business.

“When we see an increase of traffic, we think that’s a blessing for commerce in our country,” Brooke said.” [It’s the] first ever [route] moving from the southern part, you know, down to Mexico all the way to Canada.”

The Surface Transportation Board will decide on the merger sometime this winter.

With Tuesday’s deal, Canadian Pacific has reached settlements totaling just under $18 million with Quad City Area governments

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