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Santa Cruz RTC April 6 mtg. Davenport segments.
Author: Rail Trail Truth
Date: 04-07-2017 - 11:56
What a day! Here's an update on all things rail in Santa Cruz county:
1. Closed session with legal counsel triggered by Brian Peoples' threat to sue if RTC applies for FEMA funds.
2. RTC unanimous open vote to apply for FEMA funds. :-)
3. Gail McNulty spoke as new full-time executive director of anti-rail "Great Santa Cruz Trail" group. Giggles ensued as she fumbled her way through comments related to topics about which she knows absolutely nothing. Her areas of study at university include music and "design thinking and happiness studies". Yes, you read that right.
4. Preliminary surveys mistook the location of the ROW for parts of the stretch of the line between Santa Cruz and Davenport. The current tracks are nearer the coast than the original line that constituted the ROW center line, so we're left with less space for the trail than originally thought.
5. Some of the $24M in funds will be lost if we don't decide soon on one of three solutions:
Option One: Keep the trail on the coastal side, need to do some land swapping, higher cost than planned but it keeps the funding and gets built soon.
Option Two: Remove Tracks, build a narrow trail in it's place, would take forever and lose funds.
Option Three: Move trail to inland side, would cost more, probably won't be selected.
6. Brian Peoples objected strongly to the RTC sending George Dondero to the APTA Rail Conference in a few months. The RTC voted unanimously to send George Dondero to the APTA Rail Conference in a few months.
All in all, a very good day for rail and trail fans in Santa Cruz county!
1. Closed session with legal counsel triggered by Brian Peoples' threat to sue if RTC applies for FEMA funds.
2. RTC unanimous open vote to apply for FEMA funds. :-)
3. Gail McNulty spoke as new full-time executive director of anti-rail "Great Santa Cruz Trail" group. Giggles ensued as she fumbled her way through comments related to topics about which she knows absolutely nothing. Her areas of study at university include music and "design thinking and happiness studies". Yes, you read that right.
4. Preliminary surveys mistook the location of the ROW for parts of the stretch of the line between Santa Cruz and Davenport. The current tracks are nearer the coast than the original line that constituted the ROW center line, so we're left with less space for the trail than originally thought.
5. Some of the $24M in funds will be lost if we don't decide soon on one of three solutions:
Option One: Keep the trail on the coastal side, need to do some land swapping, higher cost than planned but it keeps the funding and gets built soon.
Option Two: Remove Tracks, build a narrow trail in it's place, would take forever and lose funds.
Option Three: Move trail to inland side, would cost more, probably won't be selected.
6. Brian Peoples objected strongly to the RTC sending George Dondero to the APTA Rail Conference in a few months. The RTC voted unanimously to send George Dondero to the APTA Rail Conference in a few months.
All in all, a very good day for rail and trail fans in Santa Cruz county!
Santa Cruz RTC April 6 mtg. Davenport segments.