 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Christian Author simulcast
Best Selling Christian author Beth Moore will be delivering a live spiritual message to an estimated 80,000 women nationwide and local women will have the opportunity to see the popular Bible teacher. Through a partnership between South Point Baptist Church, Lifeway Women’s Events and Church Communication Network, a simulcast will be broadcast on Aug. 1 and 2 at South Point Baptist Church. Tickets are $30 each and includes light refreshments Friday evening and light lunch on Saturday. For more information, contact South Point Baptist Church at (704)825-9516.
|
|
 |
|
 |
DOT official: trains could roll in 2009
By THOMAS LARK
- Thu, Aug 28, 2008
MOUNT HOLLY—Trains could roll through a new Mount Holly neighborhood as soon as next year.
That’s the word from engineer Steve Head, the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division’s manager of rail corridors.
“Yes,” he said, “we are in the process of evaluating the reactivation of service to the Piedmont & Northern rail line. Specifically, we’re in the procurement process. Our bid solicitation package went out in 2007,” said Head. “They went out to a number of folks, and the bids came in during the fourth quarter of last year.”
Bill Gray, the president of the Ohio Valley Railroad Company’s Carolina Central Division, submitted the winning proposal to the NCDOT to reactivate the 15-mile short line track, which lay dormant for the better part of 20 years, Head said. Since receiving Gray’s proposal, the DOT has been in its due diligence period.
“We have been in evaluating the feasibility of the proposal,” said Head, “and they (Gray’s company) have been doing a lot of the groundwork to secure potential industrial customers on the line in the last few months. They’re confident that an adequate number of customers would locate on the line if it’s reactivated and thus made a profit entity. They’ve reached the conclusion that there’s enough interest from some individual customers, and they want to move forward with the DOT to put this line back in service.”
This week, he added, the DOT is scheduled to negotiate a lease agreement with Carolina Central Railway. If successful, the parties will sign and agree on the agreement’s basic terms.
“It’s fairly complicated,” said Head. “It’s not as simple as signing a lease for a home or something. There’s a number of conditions for railroad service that are very important, such as determining the level of service and what class it will operate on.”
He explained that these classes are four in number:
•Class One refers to a train that travels only at a rate of 10 miles per hour.
•Class Two means a maximum of 25 miles per hour.
•Class Three means traveling in the mid-40s.
•And Class Four refers to high-speed freight over long distances.
“We’re looking at classes One, Two or Three for this line,” said Head.
He added that he has received concerned communications from residents of Rhyne’s Estate and Rhyne’s Trace.
“At least a dozen or so people have expressed sincere concerns about the impact to their neighborhood for this reactivation, and this is reasonable,” said Head. “They’re very kind and good folks. But they see the reactivation of this line as, in their view, having a negative impact on their neighborhood, in terms of it being a very quiet place right now. But with the reactivation of this line, it won’t be as quiet, and they’re worried about their home values.”
Head described Gray and his company as being highly competent:
“We feel that Mr. Gray has great credibility, and his staffers have the expertise to operate a short line railroad.”
Head explained a short line railroad has lower switching services, as opposed to a main line railroad.
“We’ve seen large-scale abandonments of railroads since the early 1980s,” he said. “We purchased this line in 1991 with the intent to preserve it for future transportation. We filed formal documents on this in Gaston County. We’ve done minimal work on the line all these years, occasionally replacing some crossties or doing brush-cutting.”
Head noted that the homes in question are not within the railroad’s 100-foot right-of-way.
“They will request sound walls probably,” he said. “They’ve already mentioned that in their correspondence with me.”
Head stressed that much depends on the successful negotiation of the lease agreement, which “is not a slam-dunk.”
The long, gray line
Gray is optimistic about the reactivation of the railroad.
“We’re tracking well!” he said, smiling. “We’re very excited about the possibilities for new and existing businesses to use our railroad. It will be very efficient, especially in light of fuel prices. We want to create jobs and maintain existing ones in Gaston County. We’ve made great strides with new customers, and we’re going to enable existing customers and their locations to be more efficient.”
Several weeks ago, Gray met with members of the property owners’ association in the neighborhoods in question. Bad feelings toward the Dimmers run high, he said.
“By the sound of some of the comments that were made, it sounds to me like promises were made about their properties that were inaccurate,” said Gray. “It appears that somebody didn’t do his homework—or worse. When the developers or their agents referred to that railroad as abandoned, the state very quickly pointed out the deed on file at the Gaston County Courthouse which states that, no, this railroad was never abandoned. And claiming it was going to become a greenway was absolutely ludicrous.”
Citing his customers, he said trains could roll as soon as March or as late as the autumn of 2009.
“Here’s the first question,” said Gray. “When the developer clearly knew in advance that this line was being held open for railroad purposes, how can he now come back and say, ‘Well, we chose to make unwise decisions, so the state has to pay for our improper conduct and set-up of this housing development’? This is baffling to me. How can he now demand the state put up a buffer zone, when clearly the documentation shows that Mr. Dimmer knew fully well this would be an active rail corridor? The state had the good sense to preserve the corridor as a railroad in its entirety. And it costs them money to maintain it. They had the wisdom to preserve this as basically an asset for the community. And what we’re doing is turning this into a revenue generator for both the county and the state, enabling the creation of new jobs and a new tax base.”
He acknowledged that not everybody is happy with him.
“People appear to be venting on my company,” said Gray, “and I’m trying to bring jobs and new opportunities to this region. They should focus their attention where it needs to be: the people that promised them that their properties were in some reality other than what truly existed.”
He also addressed Dimmer’s charge about hauling hazardous waste and other specifications.
“At this point in time, I haven’t had any customers hauling TIH, or toxic inhalation hazards, such as chlorine or benzene or other hazardous materials,” said Gray. “However, railroads have requirements on the federal level to fulfill common carrier obligations. We have no such customers as yet. But we would be required to accommodate them if so requested. And I’m not talking about nuclear waste—just chemical waste from manufacturing or dye processes.”
The switch for the track would come at the Belmont junction at Cherry Street, at the Belmont-Mount Holly line, said Gray. Trains could conceivably travel at 25-30 miles per hour, he said, while they would travel at lower speeds when switching.
“I don’t know how many trains there would be,” he said. “But it would not be like CSX, running at that volume. Short line railroads are known for a higher responsiveness to customers, and that’s why many industries locate on short line railways. It’s because of that customer focus.”
Gray also pooh-poohed Dimmer’s suggestion about refraining from horn blasts through the neighborhood.
“I don’t have a choice about that. That’s federal law,” he said, explaining that safety issues are involved. “Our intent in this whole thing is not to be bad people but to enable the county to prosper.”
|
|
|
