Glenview Offers Rent Support to Blighted Shermer Road Businesses
Businesses affected by the fatal train derailment last summer will get financial help from the village until a replacement bridge is rebuilt.
Village of Glenview trustees have agreed to fund a $360,000 escrow account that will help several businesses near Shermer and Willow roads pay rent until a new Union Pacific bridge is built in 18 to 20 months, the Glenview Announcements reports.
After the Union Pacific bridge collapsed in July, killing two drivers and blocking Shermer Rd. at the Northbrook-Glenview border, nearby businesses have seen sales cut by almost 50 percent because of the traffic obstruction.
“This was a rare and unusual tragedy that impacted those businesses," Don Owen, Glenview deputy village manager, told Glenview Announcements. "The village felt it was important and necessary to keep them operating up to the next two years.”
It will take almost two years to build the new bridge, which Union Pacific will fund.
Read Patch's full coverage of the train derailment and bridge collapse here.
NHL
8:27 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
maybe the UP should kick in for this---it was their train that derailed, and their bridge that collapsed that caused this tragic mess.....
Stan Golovchuk
10:19 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
Thanks for the comment, NHL. Union Pacific was paying claims to affected businesses for the first few months after the derailment. More details in this story from August. http://patch.com/A-xt3r
Billy
11:15 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
Lordy, two years to complete? That's insane. I'm sorry, I realize there are many logistics involved in this, but there's no reason anything such as a bridge this size should take two years to complete. The Empire State Building was built in a year in a half, for crying out loud, and that was over 80 years ago. I betcha it'll go over schedule and budget as well.