Rail Offer Part of Discussion for Council This Month

The La Crosse city council may have a counter offer on the way to a rail company that wants to build a second set of tracks through part of the city.   A key council committee meets tonight to discuess an offer submitted by Burlington Northern regarding the tracks.  BNSF had offered significant improvements in exchange for the city backing off legal challenges to questions of land ownership.   In the offer from BNSF, that came to the city in May, fifty thousand dollars to remove two unlicensed crossings at the city-owned Forest Hills golf course and a tunnel at the course to go under the tracks.  BNSF wants to add a second, parallel line from about State Road to its yard on the northside.