The Railroad, the County Commission, & Larry Stutts

We've certainly gotten the comments concerning the proposed $120,000.00 study on a railroad overpass in Sheffield. Many mentioned past projects. While we were aware of several attempts to circumvent traffic problems in the Sheffield/Tuscumbia area, we were fuzzy on specifics. Here's three interesting facts:

1. When state senator Larry Stutts took office in 2014, he stated that an overpass or something similar would be one of his top priorities. That was six years ago. In fact, it was not long before Inspiration Landing was announced. It's hard to say which project is moving faster...or should that be slower.

2. Circa 2003 saw a plan for moving/relocating the rail tracks to bypass any towns. After seven years or so, it was finally buried due to several factors including the Colbert County Commission stating it had no business becoming involved in the matter and refusing to support it. Now the commission is all over the latest overpass pipe dream. What changed? (Note: Many Colbert citizens were opposed to this project due to the property confiscation that was predicted.)

3. Everyone should sit up and take notice of this point! During the study and pre-planning for track relocation, U.S. Sen. Shelby secured five million dollars for the project. Local government was to have provided the remaining almost four million. Just what will taxpayers have to pay to build this overpass? 

Below is a rendering of a proposed overpass from a previous study. To paraphrase Alvin Holmes, what's wrong with the plans we got?