Multi-Million Dollar Train Station in Dixon: Where do the Mayoral Candidates Stand?

We've been sharing individual questions from a candidate forum held in early October that featured the three Mayoral candidates: incumbent Jack Batchelor and challengers Steve Alexander and Michael Ceremello.

The forum was hosted by the Governmental Affairs Committee of the Dixon Chamber of Commerce. Here is one of the questions: 

What are the Candidates' Positions on a Multi-Million Dollar Train Station in Dixon?

Alexander says he doesn't foresee a train stop in Dixon in his lifetime.

Ceremello explains that he supports serving a majority portion of the community, and that consultants estimate only approximately 100 citizens would use a train stop by 2015, and currently only five to ten would use them. He says he supports something more efficient and fiscally responsible to put in a commuter line or shuttle to run between our city and Davis, not $6 million on the B Street under crossing, $25 million A Street under crossing and $40million on the North 1st Street Crossing.

Batchelor says he is not opposed to a train stop, but priorities must be made. "What do we need to do to make Dixon safer? There are priorities in what we need to do. First, we need to have a safe pedestrian grade separation, then we need to move to the Parkway Blvd separation to then provide safety for emergency response people to get from one side of Dixon to the other side and it will also take some traffic out of the downtown. My priority is to spend money for bicycle and pedestrian safety, grade separation, and an over crossing at Parkway Blvd that connects Pitt School to 113, so to spend that money is better used than potentially having a train stop."

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