HOMER – Business is growing at the Bunge grain mill in Homer, and the resulting increase in traffic has raised safety concerns at the nearest railway crossing on Maple Street.

In response to a request from the company to close that crossing, the village's Streets and Alleys Committee will put forth a recommendation to the village of a seasonal barricade during peak harvest months.

Bunge North America, with mills in Canada and the United States, is the world's largest corn dry miller and America's second largest processor of soybeans.

Homer plant manager Michael Myrick said the plant has increased its processing volume by 20 percent over the last two years. He said a proposed expansion of the plant would mean an additional 20 percent to 40 percent growth in business, with more train and truck traffic.

At Monday's committee meeting, Mayor David Lucas said the plant expansion would cost $5 million; Myrick declined to confirm that figure.

Myrick said ethanol production has put an increased demand on mills, and the Homer plant is ideally located to take advantage of that need. The recent closure of a soy mill in Danville would also likely add to business at the Homer plant, he said.

"We have a major expansion going on, and we expect business to continue to grow," said Myrick.

Citing safety as the only reason behind the request, Myrick asked the committee – trustees Pat Butler, Guy James and Roy Woodmansee – to consider a cement barricade at the Maple Street crossing at the Norfolk Southern tracks. He said vehicles regularly go around the lowered signal barricades when grain carts are on the line, and he said schoolchildren and other pedestrians aren't cautious when crossing the tracks. He said the railroad would support the proposed closure.

Committee members each expressed a concern for safety at the Maple Street crossing but said a permanent closure would not be in the best interest of the town. Maple Street is one of only three crossings and is the nearest crossing to the village park.

James pointed out the crossing would leave pedestrians no place east of Main Street to cross the railway, and that might not solve the illegal-crossing safety issues.

Lucas said he was initially opposed to the closure, until he learned that the new set-up would enable faster train loading and thus, fewer traffic stops at the railway crossing on Main Street. He said there is an incentive to the village to accommodate the mill's expansion. Since the mill is within the village's TIF district, the village would see increased revenue which could be used to beautify the area.

Lucas said a temporary closure during harvest months would be a good compromise. He said there is no possibility of installing a new crossing further east of Maple Street, since there are more tracks there. He said a new crossing to the west of Main Street on Josephine Street would be a possibility, as would a raised pedestrian crossing at Maple.

Myrick said engineering is complete on the proposed development that would more than double the plant's processing capacity, enabling the facility to handle 75-car trains in 15-car increments. Construction could start this winter, with completion by September of next year. Myrick said the new system would interfere less with traffic on Illinois 49 than is now the case, since trains would no longer have to be broken up, and sections of them parked. And he said better dust control systems would be installed, to minimize impact on the village.

The proposed development, however, would increase truck traffic in and out of the plant, since more raw product would be processed at the mill, he said.

The committee approved three proposals to be put before the village board for consideration at its next meeting on Sept. 20. First, the village will petition the railway to install longer barriers or additional barriers to make it impossible to drive through the crossing when the signal has activated. The village would also petition the railway to install signal lights a block out from the tracks on either side of the crossing, at Maple and First and at Coffeen and Carolyn, to prevent drivers on Main Street from trying to beat oncoming trains by taking the next crossing. Third, an ordinance will be proposed that would seasonally close the Maple Street crossing with temporary barricades.