Gregg Witt of Carver sent in this letter to the editor about the possible abandonment of the downtown Carver and Chaska railroad line.

What are your thoughts?

Another piece of history to vanish?

I am saddened by the thought of losing another piece of Chaska and Carver history with the abandonment of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks through Chaska.

The tone of the statements by Chaska city officials that it would create opportunities, or open up parcels for development, draws a picture in my mind of a flock of hungry buzzards circling high above the savanna waiting to prey on the aged and injured water buffalo.

I suppose if there was more emphasis on utilizing the right of way for a possible trail to link our expanding cities, I may not have painted such a picture of greed. There is just something magical about trains and that feeling of connecting with the past that they give me. Am I the only one that feels this way?

Just look at the opportunity they give us to ponder life’s questions while we sit at the crossing listening to the behemoth’s clicking and clunking as it slowly passes. What a great way to slow life down!

Yes, I probably would have been the only one complaining about the railroad killing the steamboat traffic back in the 1800s too. Hey, I can’t help it. In my perfect world, everything would be restored to original, not replaced.

City dwellers would be living and doing business in beautifully restored buildings with all the modern upgrades; clapboard homes perfectly restored down to the porcelain door knobs with central air, Chaska brick warehouses with sodium light fixtures and electric garage door openers. The development with shiny new homes and businesses would encircle these historic structures and we would all live in harmony … oops, just had to slap myself.

I realize there may be a few flaws with this plan that would have to be worked out, but you catch my drift. Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to development; I just feel that certain things that give us a link to the past are worth salvaging and having to put up with. If ordinances were written and enforced prohibiting property owners from neglect, we wouldn’t have to put up with blight.

Will the trucking plan really work for United Sugars? I wonder just how competitive to rail service can it really be.

Just what is the trucking equivalent of three switches a week is anyway? I’m sure that Audubon road users wouldn’t even notice. Why not put the transfer station on the controversial Ohnsorg corner? It is so much closer. That way, city officials would only be chasing two businesses out of town instead of three, and could start seeing an immediate return on their investment!

I guess I have to think positive. After all, it is only a few people’s lifeblood. And look at the United Sugars parcel; just think what could be done with that!

Endless possibilities for city officials to ponder should their plan eventually fail.

I truly hope their plan works. I would hate to see another Chaska landmark of 100-plus years go.