This week, I had the opportunity to go to a Green Bay Plan Commission meeting. As some of you might know, committee meetings are the best way to learn about developments before they reach the common council for a final decision.

At the meeting I learned about a portion of Quincy road that was being closed at the direction of the Office Of Railroad Commission.

The planned closure would disrupt at least two business in the area. And you know that Quincy is a traffic artery that allows big semis an alternative to crowding commuters and residents on other roads.

Our problem is that it didn’t matter whether the committee and ultimately the Common Council approve the closure, it was illustrated that the railroad commission would force us to close the roads anyways.

Then what are we doing here? And why don’t the elected officials and appointees of a community get a say in how this is all conducted? That’s wrong.

Now, I get the governmental sequence of authority. And how federal and state agencies can force an issue. But this should have been handled much better than this.

And Green Bay law enforcement has been conducting railroad safety exercises as recently as last week.

What I’m getting at here is that there are likely going to be some inconveniences. And let me tell you, when you delay truckers who are trying to do business, they can be a very animated bunch.

We need agencies outside of our local governments to understand that when they don’t communicate or plan properly, they can affect the events of a great number of people without even knowing it.