Friday, February 12, 2016

North Coast Rail Authority;Cash Poor, Land Rich. Rail With Trail Update.

Interesting North Coast Rail Authority meeting this last week.

At one point in the meeting NCRA Counsel Christopher Neary proclaimed the NCRA could be cash broke within 30 to 90 days. He mentioned not being paid and was worried. The NCRA is currently in the middle of a land sale in Ukiah that would solve a few of our financial issues. Some anticipated payments from North Western Pacific Co. might bail us out for the short term. The NCRA also has more property that might be for sale in the near future.

Arcata City Engineer's Doby Class and Netra Khatri gave a presentation of Phase 2 of the Rail with Trail project, or now known as, "Humboldt Bay Trail North." Phase 1 from Sunset to Highway 255 is complete. All lit and being used! Our action item was for the NCRA to come to a licensing agreement with the City of Arcata to continue the trail from Highway 255 to the Barcut area. (About 3 miles total of trail and rail.) After much discussion and back and forth the NCRA Directors voted yes. 8-0 vote.

The NCRA has a contractor named Parallel Infrastructure that identifies property right a way crossings for the NCRA and bills property owners accordingly. We were voting after the fact of the contractor changing fees without the NCRA directors input. So were officially using the Resolution process to officially adopt the new fee schedule. There were land owners who were not happy with the raises and showed up with Attorney Richard Hicks representing their interests. After much discussion the Directors voted 6-2 to accept the changes, with the 2 Mendocino Directors voting against.    

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