The 2019 Documentary "Tread" On Netflix Brings Back A Distance 2004 National News Memory

   I was checking out the Netflix app on my iPhone the other day and the first thing that popped up was this new documentary called, "Tread."  It showed a picture of large monstrous looking bulldozer that actually looked like a tank.

  So, I thought that this documetnary seemed pretty interesting and I decided to check it out.  Tread is a true story that was made into a 2019 documentary where a disgruntled muffler shop repair shop owner and master welder by the name of  Marvin Heemeyer, fortifies a bulldozer and completely destroys a lot of businesses and homes in the small mountain town of Granby, Colo., in 2004.  Like I said in the title of this blog, I vaguely remember something about this briefly in the national news at the time.  At the end of the documentary, it said that this event made world-wide news for one day and then former president Ronald Reagan died the next day and the news story disappeared off the radar screen immediately.

    This guy, Marvin, who lived in Granby, it was said that most people in town liked him at first.  He was not a native to the area and he had only been in town for about 13 years when this crazy thing happened that he did.  Apparently, he had never been married or had any children.  Plus, they said he had worked hard his whole life and probably had saved every penny he had ever made. But apparently the citizens liked him because he did good work at his muffler shop and was an excellent welding and his prices were fair. But in 2001, he had a zoning dispute with the city and his grudge continued to grow.  He even hired a lawyer and who took it to court for him but lost. He shelled out a lot of money in city fines and had paid his lawyer a lot of money to do the court proceedings also.

    Eventually, Marvin auctioned off everything he owned and then rented some garage space where he began to covert this extra large bulldozer into this tank looking thing with cameras on the outside and television screens on the inside so he could see to drive it.  He also had some portal holes in the plates of reinforced steel that he welded together to form the cab over the bulldozer in order to shoot a rifle out the back.  Fornately, no one killed except Marvin himself.  He ended up shooting himself in the head inside the cab after the bulldozer got stuck in the basement of a building during his destructive rampage.  It took law officials several hours with a cutting blow torch to cut through the thick metal plates in order to get to his body.

     I thought this was an interestingly strange documentary.  The documentary also shows some actual video footage from the rampage and also you hear Marvin's voice a lot throughout the documentary when they play the cassette tape recordings of him that they had found after he was dead.  This just goes to show if you're not originally from a certain town and you are not from one of the big money families of the community or one of the movers or shakers/local politicians of the small town, you're best just to do your thing and get a long with people.  However, I do believe as a taxpayer, a local citizen and as an American, that you always have a right to voice your opinions and cast your vote.  But I think the majority of people in America won't turn a bulldozer into a tank and try to bulldoze a town down even if they are disgruntled.  At least I hope not.  I think there was definitely some major mental illness going on with Marvin at the time but the citizens of Granby didn't recognize it or they didn't want to do anything about it because they knew he was really angry and resentful.  Also, maybe in the back of their minds, they knew he eventually would probably loose it one way or another.

   But in my mind, on the other hand, rioting, looting and burning down buildings on the streets of America like we're seeing these days, this is not okay with me either.  Because this destructive type of behavior seems very crazy to me also like what Marvin did in 2004.  Either way, I think it's all insane.  Violence and destruction is not the answer for injustice.  Peaceful protest, yes.  But as far as the other is concern, no.

Trains, Lawyers, CSX And The Fight For Bowling Green's Robinson Avenue Crossing

     I have lived in Bowling Green, Ky, (Pop. 65,000) for almost 30 years now.

And 18 of those years, I have lived six houses down from some train tracks owned by CSX Transportation of Jacksonville, Fla. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARC4D1dKkD4  CSX operates its many trains that travel up and down the railroads pulling railcars filled with tons and tons of cargo. Who knows what's passing by our neighborhood in the middle of the night?  It's could be railroad cars full of nuclear waste or parts of a nuclear warhead for all I know. lol. But I am used to hearing the trains passing through our neighborhood at night or during the daytime and I hardly even notice them blowing their loud horns anymore. It has become something in the back of my subconscious mind and part of  my dream's landscape when I am sound asleep. My wife, Patty and I, use the Greenway (a wide public sidewalk) that runs along the CSX tracks and Creason Avenue just about everyday.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMs5LD0Wq3c  We walk our Australian Shepherd, "Jude" on it and I ride my bicycle up and down the Greenway, riding all the way down and back from Western Kentucky University which is about a mile from my house.  Usually, a train or two passes by when I am on the Greenway which is a very usual and normal occurrence to say the least.  To me, the CSX train tracks and trains are synonymous with the City of Bowling Green and its citizens.  The trains here have a long history and have been traveling through our city for many, many years. Bowling Green even has a restored L&N Depot now called "The Historic Railpark and Museum" https://historicrailpark.com/ where you can pay to take tours of the building and go aboard some parked rail cars next to the depot. We have lots of train lovers in this part of Southern Kentucky.

 However, some trouble started arising during the last year or two, when the citizens of Bowling Green noticed that CSX was beginning to block some busy road crossings more often than usual such as Emmett Avenue and Robinson Avenue that lead to Russellville Road just off Creason Avenue.  CSX always blocked them some but not as often it seems lately.  I began posting pics of the Emmett Avenue road crossing being blocked CSX on Twitter and tagged local newspaper journalist and photographer, Joe Imel {@joeimel} who now has 37,000 followers.  I was doing it as a PSA (public service announcement) to let people know that the road is blocked and that they should make a detour.

 I think some followers appreciated it but I know a lot of followers would get angry when they found out that CSX was blocking the crossroads again.  It seems like the Robinson Avenue crossing was always being blocked.  It's about a mile down the street from the Emmett Road crossing close to my house.  However, in May of this year, the City of Bowling Green had made a deal with CSX to sell them a portion of land for $50,000 at the Robinson Avenue at-grade crossing and to allow them to closed it off this summer without the citizens knowing about it until our local newspaper, the Bowling Green Daily News published a story regarding the closure. The reason for the closing of Robinson Avenue is that CSX claims that they are running some longer trains now and they need to more trains that run from Indianapolis to Nashville. So the need for "passing" or "side" tracks has also increased to allow the trains to pass each other as they travel in opposite directions.  Apparently, the City of Bowling Green had tried get CSX back away from closing the crossing at Robinson Avenue after they realized it had caused an uproar with a lot of its citizens.
     Naturally, a lot of citizens especially those who lived in a neighborhood known as "Cedar Ridge" and in the WKU general area which is basically next to the tracks separated by Creason Avenue and a Greenway  where people walk and ride bicycles between Western Kentucky University and WKU's South Campus were upset.  Mainly, the residents became upset with the city over this because they felt that they were not informed first before the deal was made with CSX.  Also, Kelly Thompson who also lives in the neighborhood, is a local lawyer and a judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, where he represents the 2nd Appellate District, Division 2, filed a lawsuit against CSX and the City of Bowling Green.

     Then it was announced in September that several businesses on the Russellville Road which just across the tracks had join the lawsuit.  But for now though, I understand, CSX has decided not to close the crossing. Bottom line is that CSX had originally said it would close the crossing at Robinson Avenue although the city sought a temporary injunction to prohibit the railroad from closing the street.  I made a video of the Robinson Avenue crossing this past summer on my blog's Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/acriticfromthesouth/
     In a motion filed in Warren Circuit Court recently, CSX said it would refrain from closing the crossing until the court had ruled on the railroad's motion. So Robinson Avenue will stay open at least until the next court date which is set for November 7.  Yay or nay, I will make the proper adjustments and take the necessary short cuts on certain streets to get where I am going if Robinson Avenue is closed.  And course, I will obey the speed limit and watch out for pedestrians, dogs, cats, children playing and squirrels while driving through our beautiful neighborhoods. But I am like most citizens who live in our neighborhood, I do hope that CSX and the City of Bowling Green as well as our area residents, can come to agreement to keep the Robinson Avenue crossing open. Because it's a very important function to our network of city streets, neighborhoods and business districts which are close by.