Don Kirk is apparently now a Revrun. This is his post from this morning on the JSS2 list


I'm not familiar with the East Side of Oregon, but I've heard that
the UP freights are still traveling through Klamath Falls, but using
the BNSF to travel further North. Does BNSF also go to Klamath, or
is there a spur of some type that connects UP and BNSF, to make the
UP Klamath use possible?

I'm CEO of OTM and not a historian (but working to become one); and
this is a question that I feel important. Also, is anyone foaming
the BNSF, with all the extra movement; and does it now look like
streetcar service on the BNSF. I'm at my home in Redding, CA (until
Monday); and UP operations here looks back to normal. A freight is
passing as I type this (oops passed now).

------ I Don't Own OTM & Who Does ------ (Below)

Someone online I don't think I even know, is character bashing me and
OTM as "my Pipe-Dream". "I don't own OTM". I'm it's CEO. I had let
people think I owned it, while I was get it off the ground; but the
non-profit Redding, CA Street Ministry "Christian Way Baptist Church
Corporation" came up with the idea; when I was wanting to open a
simple railroad museum. Their knowing my love for preservation; and
some of their love for cars and horse-drawn wagons/buggies made way
to expand my small museum idea into a full, multi-mode transportation
museum. CWBC will keep owning OTM until we set-up an Oregon
Transportation Museum non-profit religious corporation; later this
summer.

I am a board member of the street ministry, but only one of 5 board
members. As a railfan having a small museum underway, and my also
being a small businessman, the board hired me as CEO of OTM. OTM is
not "my" pipe dream, but a project thought-out and planned by the
ministry. They didn't have the funds readily available to open OTM,
so I have (myself) been holding events to raise funds, (some I'm
giving the museum and others I'm loaning the museum), to get OTM up
and running, and again, I Do Not Own OTM. What I own, is a house in
Redding, CA; and a substantial $ amount of transportation items, that
I'll either loan OTM, or sell to OTM "at my cost"; and I've ebay
receipts for the majority of them, to prove costs. It would be
illigial for me to sell things to a nonprofit (for a profit), that
I'm a board member of. Anyone saying that I'm scamming, and that OTM
won't open, is accusing a Baptist church of scamming; and anyone
knowing the Baptist religion, knows that such actions are "not"
tolerated. The ministry wants to add a chapel (for weddings) at OTM,
and an amphatheatre at which outdoor services can be held (besides
other non religious events). As well, they want to place a large
lighted cross on the museum grounds and also have the chapel staffed
with volunteer Christian volunteer laypersons, to talk to anyone who
asks questions about the chapel and or religion.

Until recently I have not disclosed all this, as the religious part
will "not" be the focus of OTM, but confined to a small area of OTM.
The purpose is to preserve history, educate people; and make OTM a
place that people can have "clean, wholesome" fun at; and if they
come to the chapel part, the ministry will be there to assist them;
and if they desire council them. I am a minister of CWBC; but not
the head minister, nor a full-time street minister. If you go to the
CA Sec of State Business Search and type in the name Christian Way
Baptist Church, you'll see it was formed on March 8, 2006; and I'm
the contact agent for it.

OTM has now hired a Disney type Imagineering Team, that will take
over much of what I've been doing (public speaking, fundraising &
planning); as my health requires my spending 2-3 weeks each month in
Redding, seeing Doctors and taking tests. While in Redding, I also
work on helping to operate the second-hand furniture and
auctioneering businesses I own; as well as work on remodeling my home.

Rev. Don Kirk