North Coast Rail Authority (NCRA) update! Meeting for 7/9/14 in Ukiah.

The meeting started out with a presentation by North Western Pacific Corporation (NWPco) president John Williams celebrating 3 years of successful freight service. Above is the cake and cupcakes.  They survived a Federal Railroad Administration sanction emergency order and have been cleared to do business and are currently making a profit!  Good for them and the economy of Sonoma and Marin counties! (As a side note, NWPco counsel Doug Bosco was on hand to celebrate.  I ran against the former Congressman for the California 1^st District Assembly seat vacated by Dan Hauser in 1995. We both came up short to Virginia Strom- Martin. Doug and I got to catch up a little, but I think we need to meet again at a good Marin County Buffet.) There is still some bad blood between NWPco and Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART). Hope it does not end in litigation.

The first official order of business was discussion of possible action for Windsor to Healdsburg Repairs. NWPco President John Williams stated his goal to get rail service to either Cloverdale, Geyserville or at least to Healdsburg. He proposed his company renovating the rail line 5.3 miles to Healdsburg for 1.25 million. He wanted to start the project in September to keep his workforce busy during some slack freight time. Work was targeted for completion in 6 months to a year. The subject was referred to the Operator ad hoc committee for clear scope of work and finances. Clearly the NWPco was confident that we would find funds to repay, but the Board of Directors was not so much. I asked Mr. Williams how long it would take to repair lines to Cloverdale under optimum conditions and he said to complete that 15 mile stretch would take about 2 years.

The next item was about amending an agreement we had with NWPco over clean-up of our Ukiah properties. At first the clean-up was supposed to take no more than $250,000. Then that threshold was raised to $450,000. Now we were presented with a $571,170 bill! I had asked Mr. Williams publicly what was the actual threshold he would dole out on our behalf to clean this property. He said, “Whatever it takes!” So he has fronted close to $600,000. The theme is pretty consistent. NWPco and the  NCRA financial survival is hooked at the hip.

Up next on the docket was discussion and possible action regarding lease of Willits Cell Tower to Parallel Infrastructure. The Board pretty much agreed that the compensation was inadequate and was sent back to committee to reevaluate.  

And the final conduct of business was the Possible Action of a request for a Quitclaim of Right, title and interest to Charlotte Roush at 1141 Spear Avenue in Arcata. Here is the quick version. Lady wants easements rights to her property that were once a rail spur.  The rail has been long ago abandoned and no physical evidence that it existed.  In 1997 another person filed for the same and it was granted. We did the same with the request to pay for administration of the process. We had paper work on this land back to 1878 when Jasper Janes had a claim and had to pay $50 in “Gold coins in hand!”  For his rights to the property.

Cameron Renner finished the meeting by asking for some sort of variance for his petroleum trucks to not have to do a complete stop on unused railroad tracks. It was refereed to staff for more investigation.