CAMANCHE, Iowa — The City of Camanche will be rejecting Canadian Pacific Railway's settlement deal after they received an offer of just $200,000.
"We had been in negotiations with them since March, talking about what was going on. And they reached out to us, based on the input that we put on the STB Board website to let them know what our concerns were about train noise blocking crossings and the isolation of half of our community," said Camanche City Administrator Andrew Kida.
"We talked to them about directional horns, which can take place right at the crossings. And the horns don't blast through the whole town. And they had offered to us to consider closing two of our seven crossings. And we put those on the table and said, 'Well, we can have a discussion about that. Let's see what we can get,'" said Kida.
But, the railway gave a final offer of just $200,000.
"Well, they're not really even offering us $200,000. They're, they're offering us $200,000 for their protection to close two crossings. So from that standpoint; they offered other cities; Bettendorf, Davenport, Burlington and a bunch of other cities, they've offered them money for no other consideration other than to not oppose the merger."
That $200,000 deal was for if the city would agree to close two of their seven railroad crossings.
"All seven of our crossings, as I said, have housing attached to the crossings right there; right at the crossings, every single one of them. All of the crossings in Camanche run through heavy residential areas."
The City of Camanche rejected the offer, but that doesn't mean it will stop the trains from coming through their city.
That final decision for the merger is up to federal regulators.