CITY HANDLING OF NAHANT MARSH TRAIN DERAILMENT UNDERSCORES DISREGARD FOR COMMUNICATION
Davenport, September 12…. In a news release issued today, mayoral candidate and Iowa State Representative Ken Croken lambasted the city’s crisis management practice as “unprofessional and dangerous.” Croken said: “It has been clearly established that the failure of city officials to communicate the imminent collapse of The Davenport apartment building resulted in the catastrophic loss of life, limb and property. What is truly remarkable is that these same officials learned nothing from the tragedy as demonstrated by their handling of the Canadian Pacific train derailment just 30 days later.”
Croken went on to reference the 21-car derailment of a Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad train in western Davenport on Tuesday, June 27. The incident occurred on or very near land managed by the Nahant Marsh Education Center. According to Croken, this includes some of the most fragile wetland environment in the region. The following afternoon Nahant Marsh staff discovered the overturned cars, including one labeled “liquified petroleum gas” and three cars containing liquid asphalt. At that time, Nahant Marsh staff contacted The Quad-City Times seeking information regarding the derailment. In turn, the newspaper contacted CPKC for details and a story was posted to the newspaper’s website later that day. In response to questions at the following Davenport City Council meeting, Mayor Mike Matson said he had been notified immediately of the derailment and was in conversations with CPKS. Yet, he failed, again, to notify the public.
Croken said: “Just as with the Davenport apartment collapse, the city failed to inform the general public, nearby residents, the Nahant Marsh staff and the hundreds of visitors to the Education Center that the accident had occurred and the presence of potentially hazardous liquids nearby. It was a clear threat to public safety.” Once again, the city failed in its responsibility to protect the people of Davenport. I can only suspect it was done in hopes of avoiding public criticism for the city’s agreement earlier in June not to oppose the CPKC merger.”
Croken is a former Scott County Supervisor and currently represents Iowa House District 97, consisting of much of central and eastern Davenport. He is a lawyer and currently serves as adjunct faculty at St. Ambrose University. Until his retirement in 2017, Croken was the chief marketing and government relations officer at Genesis Health System and is a past member of the Quad City River Bandits baseball club ownership group. Prior to moving to Davenport more than 20 years ago, Croken held a number of executive and managerial positions with organizations, such as Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in New York City; IBM Corporation in Dallas, New York, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.; legal aid organizations in Connecticut and Florida; Save the Children Federation in Connecticut; and, the United States Congress, among others.