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Some CSX Questions Are More Equal Than Others

Posted May 19, 2007 by Billy Townsend

Updated May 19, 2007 at 12:39 PM

Hopefully, George Orwell, wherever he may be, will forgive my mangling of his language. But there may be a hint of Orwell here.

I’m not sure how long it’s been there, but the city of Winter Haven has posted a shiny, extensive Q and A brochure about the CSX rail project on its Web site.

The dual headlines on the piece leap out at me. They read: “On Track With CSX In Winter Haven” and “Planned Rail Hub Important For City’s Future”. What’s missing from those lines? How about the words “Polk County”? Only two of the ensuing parade of questions mentions Polk County at all. None of them address impacts on the remainder of the county. It just highlights how Haven-centric approval of this massive project has been.

You won’t find any of the questions I asked earlier this week of the abstract version of Haven City Manager David Greene, who has refused to discuss this project in any way with PCNB or the Tribune. Here’s the list of my questions, again:

Does the CSX hub have regional impacts?

Does this process represent good planning?

Greene’s reticence seems to filter down through Haven city government. In my earlier post, I mentioned that Greene had referred me to strategic initiatives director Pete Chichetto for comment. Well, Chichetto called me the next morning a few minutes before I came in. I returned his message promptly, and I’m still waiting for him to call me back. This follows an earlier experience I had with Chichetto while I was examining documents in early stage of my CSX reporting. Chichetto didn’t believe that the city of Lakeland had turned down a large CSX project several years ago. We agreed that I would provide him documentation of that decision, and he agreed to get a definitive figure for projected train traffic for Lakeland. I promptly emailed him with an offer to fax the relevant Lakeland documents. He never responded to that email or several others. I eventually had to get the train traffic number directly from CSX.

It’s a small matter in the overall debate, but I think the marketing of this project suggests something about the way Winter Haven city government views the media and the public, generally.

Perhaps PCNB readers out there have additional questions not covered by the glossy Q and A brochure. Let us see them. Please be respectful. We’ll add them to this list, which we’ll continue to post periodically in the hope of getting someone in Haven government to bite.