What’s Ozzie’s disaster plan?

It has taken me two full days to calm down after reading the guest opinion published May 21 from Republican leaning Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and Republican Sen. Michael Baumgartner regarding balancing rail, safety and jobs.

I am becoming accustomed to Republicans dangling jobs in front of us to compensate for a projected project’s potential destruction of our environment and loss of lives locally. What upsets me most is Ozzie’s assertion that our assertion that our public safety will be compromised (if more coal trains come through Spokane) is uninformed. He also claims that our first responders are fully trained and well equipped to respond quickly, etc., etc.

I would like to see his disaster plan. How many first responders and local residents and business employees of beautiful downtown Spokane are projected to lose their lives in a disaster caused by a coal train? How many body bags are in his disaster plan?

Ozzie and Michael say in the column that the focus of the conversation should be on the potential for job creation, etc., etc. Sorry. I live three blocks from railroad tracks in downtown Spokane. I cannot move. My focus is on lives, health and environment locally.

Mary Ellen Kelly Haker

Spokane