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4 | October 5, 2017 | The Lockport Legend NEWS
lockportlegend.com
Main Street Lockport introduces
CN Railroad Garden to public
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Brittany Kapa
Assistant Editor
As bees and butterflies
buzzed about the new Canadian
National Railroad
sustainable garden, so did
Lockport City officials responsible
for making that
new garden possible.
Lockport City officials
welcomed Jim Kvedaras,
director of U.S. Government
Affairs for CN Railroad;
Marvin Miller, past president
from America in Bloom; and
William H. Hahn, arborist
from Environmental Design
Group, all of whom made
the project possible.
The new sustainable garden
was presented for the
first time Thursday, Sept. 28,
at its location off 10th Street
and the Illinois and Michigan
canal in Lockport. The
garden was made possible
by the CN EcoConnexions
From the Ground Up grant
provided by CN Railroad,
as previously reported on by
The Legend.
“The whole idea was to
plant sustainable gardens
and trees in the towns where
their trains go through,” said
Tina Keller, Main Street
Lockport president.
The garden has really
taken to the space and Keller
said the plants have flourished
there.
“It has a little ways to go
but it’s filling in pretty well,”
Keller said.
The City of Lockport
matched the amount of the
CN Railroad grant, which allowed
Main Street Lockport
to add a few other features
to the area. A stone walkway
was added where commuters
frequently cross, a stone
wall close to the canal that
was sagging was righted and
the stone stairway leading
down to that canal was updated
with new limestone.
Keller said they didn’t use
Garden presentation attendees (left to right) Jim Kvedaras,
from CN Railroad, Dr. Marvin Miller, from America in Bloom,
Tina Keller, Main Street Lockport president, William H. Hahn,
from Environmental Design Group, Ben Benson, Lockport
City administrator, and John Connor, Illinois’ 85th District
representative, pose for a photo in front of the new CN Railroad
garden in the south Public Landing parking lot Thursday,
Sept. 28. photos by Brittany Kapa/22nd Century Media
The plaque in the CN Railroad garden informs the public
which organizations contributed to the garden and when it
was established.
all of the money in the grant
and are planning on adding
additional sustainable trees
to the area as needed.
The grant offered by CN
Railroad was introduced to
the United States four years
ago after successful runs in
Canada and Europe.
“Generally speaking, this
is a manifestation of something
a former CEO of ours
started a number of years
ago,” Kvedaras said. “He
recognized that the railroad
industry, and CN in particular,
consumes a certain number
of hardwood rail ties.
“I think it’s 600,000 per
year, that was the generally
accepted number, of the consumption
of ties. He thought
the way to give back – this
was during the early days of
the sustainability initiatives
– was to offer something to
those towns that lie along the
railway line.”
Plants native to the Midwest,
such as milkweed,
were used in the garden.
Taller grass plants were
placed toward the back of
the garden, closer to the railway,
so when they grow out
they can provide a sort of
natural fence line. Common
Please see CN, 10