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Railroad Newsline for Monday, April 09,02007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

BNSF COAL TRAIN DERAILS AT OLDEN, MISSOURI

At approximately 02:00 hours CT Saturday, April 7, 2007 BNSF Railway Company train C BKMMHS0-72 derailed 33 cars blocking the single main track at Olden, Missouri. This location is approximately 102 miles east of Springfield, Missouri.

The current estimate for restoring the main track back to service is 05:00 hours CT, April 8, 2007.

Customer may experience delays between 24 and 36 hours. - BNSF Service Advisory

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RAILROAD CROSSINGS CRITICIZED: ROAD SAFETY IS AN ISSUE IN UNION PACIFIC PLANS

PHOENIX, AZ -- As Union Pacific rapidly lays its second, parallel track across the southwest Valley and southern Arizona, state officials are raising concern that more than 50 planned road crossings need to be safer.

The Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees rail-safety issues in the state, has scheduled a special public hearing Thursday to examine the issue.

Because of a boom in business, primarily from Chinese companies shipping containers from the West Coast throughout the United States, Union Pacific's rail traffic across the state has soared during the past five years. The railroad company also wants to build a large rail-switching yard near Picacho Peak and has been in talks with the State Land Department about acquiring land for that project.

Commissioners Kris Mayes and Bill Mundell say the railroad is in for some tough discussions on the subject of trying to complete the rail across the state, since the commission must approve the design of rail crossings.

"We really need to slow this train down and understand which of these crossings need to have overpasses and underpasses," Mayes said. "We are going to be asking for future projected traffic counts from the road authorities in all these crossing areas."

Mundell said that in many of the crossing areas, such as those near Queen Creek and Maricopa, "they are going to go from 40 to 40,000 vehicles crossing the tracks in future years."

"I'm very concerned that we are going to have a lot of death and injury if we don't address this issue now. Not only that, but it will save taxpayers millions of dollars if safe crossings are constructed now rather than later," Mundell said.

Union Pacific representatives could not be reached on Friday.

But in a letter to the commission, Chris Peterson, director of government affairs for Union Pacific, wrote that all of the at-grade crossings will have gates and lights and that the company expects to spend about $16 million on that end of the project. Peterson also wrote that the company plans to spend $2.5 million on concrete upgrades at the crossings and that other safety features are being considered.

"I find it very surprising that UP has no plans to do anything but lights and gates," Mayes said. "This will undergo a lot of scrutiny, and we will be looking at each of these crossings, one by one."

Another big issue is who will pay for overpasses and underpasses. In the past, the cost burden has fallen on Arizona towns to pay 95 percent of construction projects and Union Pacific only 5 percent.

Other states like California and Illinois now require that the railroad pay half or more of such projects when public-safety issues are paramount, according to Corporation Commission documents.

"This has to change here," Mundell said. "The citizens of Arizona should not be having to foot nearly the entire bill for private enterprise when they should be paying a great deal of it themselves. We need a legislative remedy." - Mark Shaffer, The Arizona Republic

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TRAIN TOWN: RAILROAD DRIVES GROWTH

Photo here:

[cnjonline.com]

Caption reads: BNSF Railway is Curry County’s eighth largest employer with a workforce of about 500 men and women. About 90 to 100 trains roll through Clovis each day, according to railway officials. (CNJ Staff Photo: Andy DeLese)

CLOVIS, NM - The railroad saved Tom Carter. He may have starved. He may have turned his back on the empty plains.

But the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway gave birth to the city of Clovis, New Mexico 100 years ago, and Carter snagged a job.

This year, Clovis celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Back in 1905, Carter was homesteading west of Melrose. He came from Oklahoma for the free land, but discovered unyielding skies, said his grandson, Randy Dunson. Rain records then were slim, and based on exceptionally wet years in eastern New Mexico, said Dunson.

Unable to farm, homesteaders left.

“It was just impossible to make a living,” Dunson said.

“My family jokes they (my grandparents) were the last two, but they were too poor to leave,” Dunson said.

As the Carters tried to eke a living from the land, railway officials were searching for a new transcontinental railroad route, as well as a central location for train maintenance and crew lodging.

On the existing route through northern New Mexico’s Raton Pass, trains were slowed by mountains. Railway officials wanted a flatter and less costly alternative.

The new route, which crosses through central New Mexico to California, was named the Belen Cutoff. With the route mapped out, railway officials were left to choose its central site.

Melrose, Portales and Texico were considered. An area later named Clovis was chosen.

The fledgling towns competed to become the host of the railroad site, according to Dunson, who has traced Clovis’ railroad history.

“This was going to be a big deal for any town that could get a railroad terminal. ... That’s a lot of money,” Dunson said.

“If it wasn’t for the railroad,” said Phil Williams, owner of the Clovis Depot Model Train Museum, “Clovis wouldn’t be here.”

Various factors led the other sites to be ruled out: Water in Melrose was unsuitable for steam locomotives; Texico was too close to the Amarillo terminal; and Portales, for some unknown reason, was considered only for a short period.

Railway officials purchased the first land for the Clovis town site in 1906.

Homesteader Clayton Reed and his sister Nellie each sold a 160-acre quarter section for $2,500 apiece. Reed paid $18 for the land.

The railway hired Carter in 1916 as a track maintenance man. He stayed with the company for 28 years. His son and grandson, Dunson, followed in his footsteps.

In 1996, the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with Burlington Northern to become the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, now BNSF Railway Company.

The rumble of trains -- now propelled by diesel fuel -- still marks life in the plains town of Clovis, which has steadily grown to include roughly 32,800 residents, according to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Agriculture also continues to define Clovis, alongside newer industries.

Some 60,000 dairy cows call Curry County home along with thousands of beef cattle and several feedlots. Wheat, cotton, corn and vegetables are the main crops grown in the area.

During World War II, the military set its sights on Clovis. Pilots were trained at a tiny Army Air Corps field. That operation has evolved into Cannon Air Force Base, which is now Curry County’s largest employer, with 4,000 military and civilian personnel.

Another chapter at Cannon will begin in October when training for F-16 jet pilots officially ends and the base becomes the home of the Air Force 16th Special Operations Wing.

BNSF is the county’s eighth largest employer, according to the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce.

The BNSF Clovis terminal remains one of the busiest in the country, with 90 to 100 trains passing through each day, according to Clovis terminal superintendent Ricky Smith.

The spirit of Clovis’ early settlers, buoyed by the railroad that sustained them, survives in its new generations, according to Williams.

“One of the characteristics of towns along the railroad is a very strong entrepreneurial desire,” he said.

“People who came here wanted to make a fortune however they could do it,” Williams said. - Marlena Hartz, The Clovis News Journal

Five names you might not know from Clovis history:

• Clayton Reed: He was farming his land — about the site where First Baptist Church stands today — in October of 1906 when he was approached by a Santa Fe Railway official. “He wanted to buy my claim,” Reed wrote in a 1962 letter to his grandchildren. By month's end, Reed had sold 160 acres to the railroad, which established Clovis on the site.

• Nellie Moore: She was one of New Mexico's leading civil rights activists in the 1960s. Former Gov. David Cargo described her as "kind of gentle, but she was also forceful." Moore's daughter, Susie (Mitchell) Small, was Clovis' first black justice of the peace, winning a write-in campaign in 1967.

• J. Harvey Wilson: He was chairman of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce in 1948. Under his leadership, Clovis convinced military officials in Washington to reopen a glider training facility west of town that had been used during World War II. The site today is home to Cannon Air Force Base.

• Rito Mendez: He and other Santa Fe Railway workers heard a child screaming on the afternoon of Nov. 1, 1936. They found a 7-year-old girl had fallen into a 40-foot water tank. Railroad workers formed a human chain, with Mendez at the end trying to pull the child from the water. Lavelle Brown survived, but Mendez, who could not swim, tumbled into the water and drowned.

• Mae Litchfield Hood: She was the first Curry County woman elected to a public office. She became county clerk in 1940.

Five things about Clovis history you might not know:

• An arch promoting the Lyceum Theatre once spanned Clovis' Main Street. It was removed, about 1914, after a bar patron tried to climb it and fell from its highest point.

• The Clovis Pioneers baseball team enjoyed a three-decade run in the professional West Texas-New Mexico League. Paul Dean, brother of Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean, managed the club in 1949 and part of 1950.

• Clovis had at least eight "gambling joints" in its city limits in 1909, according to Mayor E.R. Hart.

• Clovis' Rotary Club was established in 1938. Coach Rock Staubus was among its charter members.

• The temperature reached 91 degrees in Clovis on Christmas Day, 1919. In May 1935, the city received 4.5 inches of snow.

- Compiled by the Clovis News Journal Editor David Stevens

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DENIED USE OF A TRAIN CAR, AL'S ALASKAN INN SUES CITY OF ANCHORAGE

Photo here:

[www.adn.com]


ANCHORAGE, AK -- Al Choy, majority owner of a gaudy bar on the Old Seward Highway, sued the city this week, claiming muni bureaucrats ran a bait-and-switch on him over an Alaska Railroad train car sitting in his parking lot.

Choy intended to hoist the train to the second story of Al's Alaskan Inn and connect it to the building.

The city gave him a building permit last spring but within weeks said that was a mistake and ordered him to stop work. A city building official said last year that Choy misled the city about parking issues raised by adding the train.

The permit was issued as a result of miscommunications, says municipal attorney Jim Reeves.
The city ordered Choy to move the train off his property by April 14. He is outraged and filed suit Thursday in Anchorage Superior Court.

Choy says he wants the rail car to make the building more attractive and to draw tourists. The bar is a two-story building with multicolored signs painted all around the exterior on a yellow canopy.

Choy's dad started it as a neighborhood tavern. Under the son's leadership, the bar has grown more popular and attracts an estimated 400 patrons on a weekend night, Choy said.

Choy had already installed pilings to hold the train car on the second story when the city stopped work on it last year.

Then came months of arguing over how much parking Al's Alaskan Inn should have, and whether he could send people to park on land across the street. Eventually, Choy said, a proposal to use spaces at a business center across 79th Avenue failed because there weren't enough spaces available in front of the center. City law wouldn't permit using spaces behind the business center, as they are next to a residential area.

"The municipality basically suckered ... Choy," the lawsuit says, encouraging him to apply for an exception to city parking rules, then not supporting it.

When he was first issued the building permit, Choy began spending considerable amounts of money to move the rail car and construct the stanchions, the suit says.

The city claims there's no way Choy can legally go ahead with the project.

"What he is trying to do is not permitted by the law," said Reeves. "In my opinion, he's trying to game the system, seeking to exploit miscommunications."

There remains a dispute about what Choy told city officials at the time he obtained the permit, said Reeves. "He claims he told the municipality one thing. Muni folks have a different interpretation of that conversation." - Rosemary Shinohara, The Anchorage Daily News

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HERITAGE PARK DIPS INTO LORE OF THE GOLDEN SPIKE

Photo here:

[www.sltrib.com]

The driving of the Golden Spike, which will grace the commemorative Utah quarter when it is released later this year, is once again in vogue as an iconic moment in state and national history.

But plans by This Is the Place Heritage Park to tap into that legacy are rankling aficionados of the historic site in northern Utah's desert, where the first transcontinental railroad was completed with the ceremonial flourish of "driving" two golden spikes.

"It's plain crummy," says Brigham City resident Delone Glover, one of the founders of the Golden Spike Association and an instigator of the first re-enactment 56 years ago, on May 10, 1951.

This Is the Place plans its own May 10 re-enactment to kick off the summer season's opening of the park in Salt Lake City.

Leading up to that, two "locomotives" made from converted Ford pickup trucks and towing rubber-tired cars will travel roads the length of the state, one beginning in St. George and the other in Brigham City.

The trains, dubbed the No. 119 and the Jupiter after the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad steam engines that met at Promontory Summit in 1869, also will haul visitors around the park throughout the year, says park spokesman Rod Clifford.

"The transcontinental railroad is a big part of Utah history, and that's what we're about up here, preserving and presenting Utah history," Clifford says. "If we're going to have a people mover, the trains were a logical way to go."

But Glover worries the Salt Lake City park's re-enactment and train rides will keep tourists and Utahns from visiting the spot where history was made, Golden Spike National Historic Site.

The original steam engines were scrapped in the early 1900s, but replicas based on period drawings and specifications were finished in the late 1970s. The engines run daily at the historic site between early May and late September.

Now 83, Glover has missed only one annual re-enactment in more than five decades and maintains that ceremonies on the precise anniversary belong in just one place: "On the 10th, at Promontory Summit."

"The reason you drive 26 miles [from Brigham City] is because that's a sacred spot. That's where it happened. It wasn't at a station in Ogden or in Salt Lake or anyplace else."

This Is the Place's plans have opened up old wounds for those who worked to get the railroad site's national historic designation and have fought to keep the re-enactments in Promontory rather than in Ogden.

"They said, 'It's too far out there. There's nothing out there,' " Glover says. "It's always been a tug of war."

Ellis Ivory, chairman of the heritage park's private foundation, says he doesn't see This Is the Place competing with the national historic site for tourists.

"What we're trying to do is help people appreciate what happened at Promontory," Ivory says.

Brigham City resident Richard Felt, the director of the re-enactments at Golden Spike National Historic Site, does not mind having the heritage park dip into Golden Spike history.

"The more exposure, the better," says Felt, who on May 10 will take the role of the California newspaper reporter who handed golden spikes to the representatives of the two railroads, who then tapped them into pre-drilled holes.

"If they [tourists] see it somewhere, they are going to want to see where it actually happened." - Kristen Moulton, The Salt Lake Tribune

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SOUTHERN MONTANA TRAIN ROUTE TALK CHUGS ALONG

MISSOULA, MT -- Reinstating a train route across southern Montana will be discussed at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Governor's Reception Room in Helena's Capitol Building.

Michael Ackley, with the Montana Association of Railroad Passengers, said the last time a passenger train chugged along that route was 1979, but up north, the Empire Builder still carries folks along the Hi-Line to Chicago.

"The ridership on that particular train has gone up a lot in the last couple years," he said.

He figures high gas prices and frustrations with airlines are sending people to the train.

Ackley said a number of parties support a southern route, and the association has been pushing for it for a few years.

Escalating gas prices have shown people that energy policies need to change, he said. Passenger trains could be part of a solution.

"There's a real need for another alternative and another choice," Ackley said.

A southern route would run from Missoula to Helena to Bozeman to Livingston to Billings and then on to Chicago and the East Coast and back. Eventually, the route could stretch farther west to Spokane, Wash., and Portland, Ore.

By train, it takes 2-1/2 days to reach the East Coast compared with one day of flying.

Montana Rail Link's Lynda Frost said it's premature to comment on the idea, but MRL is paying attention.

"We're certainly keeping an eye on how this develops," Frost said. - The Missoulian, The Billings Gazette

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PRESIDENT OF BUTTE-ANACONDA RAILROAD SAYS SALE LIKELY

ANACONDA, MT -- Sale of Rarus Railroad, which transports freight and passengers between here and Butte, is likely to become final within 45 days, the railroad’s president said.

The prospective buyer is an East Coast entrepreneur experienced in railroad acquisitions and able to “grow the organization,” said Paul McCarthy, declining to name the buyer.

The “legalities” of a deal are being addressed, he said.

The railroad owned by the McCarthy family since 1985 moves freight for industries in the Butte-Anaconda area and last year introduced the Copper King Express passenger service.

Rarus has 12 permanent employees and has up to 30 people on the payroll during the summer. McCarthy said he expects that workers will have the opportunity to keep their jobs under a new owner.

Selling Rarus has included work by the Butte Local Development Corp., which strives to recruit businesses for the area.

Corporation executive Jim Smitham said a railroad business plan and expansion goals stand to strengthen industry and tourism. Plans to add old-fashioned steam engines to the Copper King Express are particularly promising, he said.

“When you start having something like this tour train with the steam engine, it becomes more of a destination tourism attraction and people will come to the area specifically to ride the tour trains,” Smitham said. - The Associated Press, The Great Falls Tribune

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CITY SECURES RAIL SITE FOR PROPOSED CASINO

VICKSBURG, MS -- Vicksburg will act as a conduit for a deal involving 155 acres of railroad right-of-way with the intention of getting a casino development going.

As another step in a behind-the-scenes process under way for more than a year, the transaction that will lead to transfer of the land from Kansas City Southern Railway to Lakes Gaming was approved in a special, called meeting Thursday.

“This took a lot of negotiation,” Mayor Laurence Leyens said.

Leyens said his understanding was that Lakes would deposit $70,000 toward the total purchase price of about $1 million immediately for the land between U.S. 61 South and the Mississippi River and had a short amount of additional time to come up with the additional $930,000.

“It's kind of a put up or shut up deal right now,” Leyens said, adding that no city funds are involved except for the time the city's legal staff has spent trying to bring the deal to fruition.

Other aspects are:

• The end of existing rail service to industries south of the city and any future service.

• The possibility that 65 acres of the tract could become public property.

“Foam Packaging is the only loser,” Leyens said, indicating the maker of egg cartons and other containers stands to lose rail service to its plant. “They are the only rail customer there now, and they may have lost service anyway” because, Leyens said, KCS wanted to abandon the line and had not been maintaining it.

He said he didn't think the purchase would have any long-term effect of a plan to loop east-west freight traffic south of the city through less-developed areas -- but also said he didn't think that idea, discussed for more than a decade, had any realistic chance of coming to fruition.

Negotiations started when the Minnesota-based company needed an easement across railroad property to reach its proposed site on the Mississippi near the old town of Warrenton. The company since expanded the scope of its casino-hotel project, but still didn't need all the land KCS offered as an all-or-nothing deal.

Leyens said Lakes may develop housing or make some other use of the additional 65 acres, and a condition says the company has two years to act.

“If they don't, it (that land) immediately comes to the city if we decide to implement it,” Leyens said.

With the action taken Thursday, Leyens said work at the site, which would be Vicksburg's fifth casino, could start in August. Two other developers have projects pending, also downstream from the river bridges.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman, not present for the vote, was reached later. Beauman expressed relief the negotiations over the rail line and casino were finished.

“It's been a rough deal with this,” Beauman said. “We're trying to get as much development (in the acreage area) as we can.”

Leyens said an option for the land not used by Lakes would be a bike trail, converting it to a Rails-to-Trails project, part of a nationwide network of converted rail lines administered by a Washington, DC-based conservancy.

Leyens said he regretted the loss of rail service that would result, but said that appeared unavoidable.

“We support our local industries, but KCS has said they will not invest the several million dollars to repair deteriorating infrastructure,” Leyens said.

In February, Lakes sought and was given an extended deadline by the Mississippi Gaming Commission to present a financial package to the three-member panel. The financing phase is the third and usually the lengthiest step in obtaining a gaming license in Mississippi.

At the time, Lakes' vice president of development and Vicksburg project manager Richard Bienapfl confirmed the city was working with the railroad to purchase land for the casino's benefit.

As proposed, the casino will be built on pilings on the Mississippi River. When originally approved by the MGC, the project was to cover 160 acres but could cover more than 200 if the city deems the company's development efforts on the land acceptable. Bienapfl has said the complex will employ 1,800 people and have space for 1,500 slot machines.

Lakes' plans have been in the development stage the longest of the three pending projects, but is also the most expensive.

The $42 million Riverwalk Casino, has until July 14 to show its financing plans to state regulators. Its site just north of Rainbow Casino was also approved in 2005.

Another, the $190 million Mississippi Bluffs casino and golf complex, was approved for a site on 40 acres on the former Vicksburg Chemical property. It will sit on a foundation off the river's edge, a change the commission OK'd in January. Its site approval expires Jan. 18, 2009. - Danny Barrett, Jr., The Vicksburg Post

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FOAM PACKAGING 'FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE' FOR RAIL LINES

Photo here:

[www.vicksburgpost.com]

Caption reads: Steve English, a quality control manager with Foam Packaging Inc., stands near one of the rail cars that delivers plastic granules to the company off U.S. 61 South. (Joshua Corban • The Vicksburg Post)

VICKSBURG, MS -- Deborah Isaacs has left the plastics business founded by her father a time or two before.

“I've worked for Fortune 500 companies and come back,” Isaacs said, hoping the next time Foam Packaging Inc. isn't part of her life hasn't already arrived.

Since 1971, the company has converted polystyrene into plastic food containers and foam materials for home construction at its facility just off U.S. 61 South.

The raw materials for its operation, the polystyrene pellets, are delivered to the plant via rail cars, at a dropoff point down a narrow roadway behind Cooper Lighting, a half-mile south.

That process is jeopardized, company officials say, by the sale of 155 acres of railroad-owned right-of-way to the City of Vicksburg to help land a casino.

In a deal approved by the city board Thursday, the city purchased the acreage from Kansas City Southern Railway using money deposited into an escrow account by Lakes Entertainment, developers of a proposed casino between U.S. 61 South and the Mississippi River.

Mayor Laurence Leyens said Friday the Minnesota-based company would put up $70,000 of the total price of about $1 million immediately, then has two years to come up with the balance of the money and develop their gaming site.

Else, according to terms of the agreement, the land reverts back to the city and would be considered for a Rails-to-Trails bicycle path.

Of particular interest to both the city and the casino development is about 65 acres that will either become part of Lakes' plans or become public property.

Either way, it means the end of rail service to any industry wanting to use the mode of transportation for unloading their freight.

Isaacs said the cost of having their materials trucked in as opposed to rolled in on the railroad would increase 40 to 50 percent.

“That's huge,” Isaacs said. “There's only so much plastic you can fit on a rail car, too.”

Steve English, who manages the company's quality control and production area, said freight associated with Foam Packaging's business would have to be done “way across the other side of the county” to stay profitable.

“I think we're fighting a losing battle,” he said.

The deal to facilitate the casino's process of obtaining a license hit snags with the railroad, as Lakes needed an easement across KCS-owned property to access their site, which would include more than 200 acres if they develop the newly secured acreage.

Talks between the city and Foam Packaging had been ongoing for more than a year and involved convincing the railroad to upgrade the decades-old rail line running south of the city.

It failed, Leyens said, when KCS “made it clear” they would not invest the money required to bring the infrastructure up to standards.

“I think they said $1 million a mile,” Leyens said. “They said they were abandoning the lines anyway and didn't want to run trains on a degraded rail system.”

Leyens also said efforts to lobby the federal government to fund improvements to the rail line fell on deaf ears.

Isaacs said the company talked with the railroad about building a rail spur off the rail line to service their property, an idea she said proved “very costly.”

Both Isaacs, whose father, Jesse Davenport, co-founded the business with English's father, Ray, claim city officials kept too many details of the plan's progress over the past year, despite all parties having general knowledge.

“A main issue we have is we were not advised of this,” Isaacs said, adding South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman talked with her about it once in the past year, but the plan “seemed to die down about a year ago.”

Beauman did not attend a special called meeting Thursday to approve the action. It passed on a 2-0 vote of Leyens and North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield.

Reached Friday, Beauman, said he spoke with company officials once “seven or eight months ago.”

“She was upset, but she knew about the casino,” he said, adding he felt it he “had to make a decision for what was best for the community.” - Danny Barrett, Jr., The Vicksburg Post

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POLICE, RECYCLERS PUT PETAL TO METAL IN THIEVERY BATTLE

MODESTO, CA -- Thieves trying to peddle stolen recyclable metals in Stanislaus County will face tougher opposition starting Monday, police and salvage company officials said.

Anyone who brings certain metals -- including copper, brass, aluminum, and stainless steel -- to recyclers and salvage companies will have to prove he or she obtained the metal legally and has permission to sell it, Detective Mike Fruedenthal said.

If sellers cannot prove their metals are legitimate, recyclers will refuse to buy, then hand over a flier explaining that all county recyclers "have partnered with the Modesto police, the Stanislaus County Sheriff and other local law enforcement agencies to assist in the arrest of any person involved in the theft or possession of stolen metals."

The agreement is the latest attempt to withstand a surge in thefts in Stanislaus County and throughout the country, officials said.

"From what I've seen around the nation, nothing is working," Fruedenthal said. "Under the new program, they will have to provide adequate evidence of authority to sell. It has to be more than, 'I found it in a Dumpster.'"

Recyclable metal thefts have plagued the Central Valley for more than a year, officials said. The thefts are driven by the rising cost of construction materials as demand grows in rapidly developing countries such as China and India.

In Stanislaus County, there have been 500 reports of metal thefts in the past four months, Fruedenthal said. Modesto officials said thefts have caused tens of thousands of dollars' worth of damage to city buildings, schools and parks in the last year.

Recyclers and police met March 22 to discuss the thefts, and agreed to the tougher standards.
Recyclers already are required to document every purchase, check for valid identification and inquire about the metals' origins.

The new program goes a step beyond that, in that recyclers have agreed to refuse any suspicious metals, officials said.

"It's a wonderful first step," said Jeff Highiet, operations manager at Modesto Junk Co. on Ninth Street. "I think scrap dealers and recyclers should take full responsibility for what they're buying. … Believe me, we'd rather be part of the solution than the problem."

Jim Newell of Jim Newell's Iron & Metal agreed, saying he has posted signs in his windows warning people that suspicious metals will not be accepted.

Would-be sellers can get violent

When recyclers refuse to purchase suspect metals, the would-be sellers often become violent, police and recyclers said.

"They want to kill us," Highiet said. "They want to fight. I won't tolerate them treating my employees like that, so I have to go out there, and I'm not a big guy. They get pretty violent, but I don't put up with that."

The fliers will protect recyclers, Fruedenthal said, "because now they can say, 'Here's the law.'"

Recyclable metal thefts were first reported in the Central Valley more than a year and a half ago when metal started disappearing from Kern County oil fields and showing up in recycling centers there, officials said. Since then, the thefts have spread throughout the state.

Thieves here have stolen vases from graveyards, plaques from parks and irrigation pipes from farms. At construction sites, they have torn freshly laid pipes from the earth and ripped newly installed copper wires from walls.

In November, thieves stole more than 20 tons of scrap copper from a Riverbank container manufacturing plant. Authorities believe the thieves drove a flatbed truck through an unlocked gate at the Silgan Containers Manufacturing Corp. plant, used a forklift to load 12 to 14 barrels of scrap copper onto the truck's bed, then drove off.

Each barrel weighed about 3,500 pounds. Detectives estimated Silgan's loss at $150,000.
In another case, someone stole six aluminum toilets and several brass drain covers from park bathrooms in Modesto, city officials said. Last May, thieves made off with 30-foot aluminum ramps used to help disabled skiers enter the water at the Modesto Reservoir.

Someone stole a Prohibition-era antique "moonshine still" made of solid copper that was earmarked for the McHenry Museum in Modesto, police said. Investigators later learned the antique had been crushed by a local recycler and was on a boat headed for China.

In the past, scrap yard owners have complained that law enforcement treats them, not the thieves, as criminals.

During an August sting, undercover detectives tried to sell 118 pounds of copper wire marked with Pacific Gas & Electric tags to local recyclers. Four of the six businesses bought the wire.

Since then, many owners have tightened security and followed laws requiring them to check identification and document all transactions, officials said.

"Cooperation with them has been great," Fruedenthal said. "The recyclers all want to work with us to stop the crimes (and) we all feel like there will be less theft if (stolen metals) are not so easy to sell." - Chris Togneri, The Modesto Bee

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A CONVERSATION WITH NEAL JACOBS, GENERAL MANAGER OF THE KANSAS AND OKLAHOMA RAILROAD

WICHITA, KS -- Neal Jacobs was named general manager of the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, the shortline that serves south-central and western Kansas, in November 2006.

He has been a railroad man since 1990, having worked for the Central Kansas Railway before joining the K&O in 2001.

The K&O is owned by Pittsburg-based Watco Cos., the nation's largest privately owned shortline railroad company. The K&O operates 840 miles of mainline track in Kansas.

Jacobs, 43, worked in the oil industry before starting his railroad career. He and his wife have two children: a 20-year-old son who is a student at Wichita State University and a 13-year-old daughter who is an eighth-grader at Goddard.

What's the big news these days at the K&O?

"It looks like the approval has come for the Abengoa Bioenergy ethanol plant expansion at Colwich. That will mean a lot more business for the railroad. They're talking about unit trains out of there, up to 95 cars at a time.

"We're already planning to do a lot of siding work as part of that project. We'll have the ability to pass trains and to do an overrun for the Abengoa plant. We'll also have the capacity to bring in grain from several locations if the time goes that they need to bring grain in by rail."

Are there other ethanol plants being built on lines served by the K&O?

"Not at this time. I think there is a plant at Lyons that they are close to starting construction on. But that one and the Abengoa plant would be the only ethanol on our line."

What has been the biggest rail improvement project so far?

"The project to re-lay the rail between Wichita and Hutchinson. That project cost $12 million. We replaced 46 miles of 90-pound, jointed rail with 115-pound continuous-weld rail. That lets us run trains at 25 miles an hour and allows us to go up and back on the same day. It cuts our transit time in half."

Does that project mean we might be seeing excursion passenger trains between Wichita and Hutchinson?

"That hasn't really come up in the last several years. Back five or six years ago, it was talked about some, but I haven't heard much about it lately. We have no plans for passenger excursions at this time."

What's coming up in 2007?

"We'll be adding more people. Not a lot of jobs, but one or two people here and there as we need to speed up turn times.

"And we'll be doing track rehabilitation as well. We'll be putting in 20,000 new ties and 50 miles of ballast and tamping between Ness City and Scott City. We'll also be doing Scott City to Leoti with 7,500 ties and ballast and tamping.

"And that's just what is set so far. There are other projects that will still be added. All of that allows us to get better at serving our customers."

If nothing drastic happens, we're looking at the best wheat harvest in several years. Are you ready?

"We're doing the preparation work already, locating cars mostly. We're going to be in really good shape for cars. And having the main corridor done from Hutchinson to Wichita is big. We have interchange points with the Class I railroads at both Hutch and Wichita. And a lot of our grain ends up at DeBruce in Wichita, and we have it set up to provide really good turnaround times for our customers there."

What kind of additional growth is out there?

"Carloads are continuing to increase and our customer base continues to grow. Every year it seems the Class I carriers are more fixed on doing the through runs. They don't want to mess with the little customers.

"But we can come in and provide service for those customers. We have worked very hard to make sure that no lines are abandoned.

"If there are customers who want rail service, then we're going to do everything we can to provide that service. And that has meant steady growth for us." - Phyllis Jacobs Griekspoor, The Wichita Eagle

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TRANSIT NEWS

DART RAIL FEUD SPILLS INTO AUSTIN

AUSTIN, TX -- Dallas, Texas officials upset that the DART 2030 plan didn't include enough funding to dig an open trench for a rail line through North Dallas may get some relief from legislation that essentially would allow them to override the DART board's decision.

And that's got some other DART member cities fuming.

"The 800-pound gorilla is down there trying to tell the other 12 cities what they can and cannot do," said Farmers Branch Mayor Bob Phelps.

In October, the DART board unanimously adopted the 2030 plan, which includes 40 miles of new rail lines, almost doubling the existing rail network.

It includes developing passenger rail on the Cotton Belt freight rail line in Far North Dallas, west through Carrollton and over to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Dallas officials and residents had asked Dallas Area Rapid Transit to spend $250 million to dig an open trench for the Cotton Belt in Far North Dallas, to reduce the impact on traffic and on homes nearby. DART board members declined, but they did include $50 million to address the concerns of North Dallas residents.

Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, said Dallas City Council members thought that they had resolved the issue with DART and were going to get their trench.

"When it looked like they had a deal, then didn't have a deal, their only recourse was to come to me to file legislation that could help them along," he said.

Dallas council members and residents who support the legislation were met in Austin last week by representatives of Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Addison, Irving and other cities opposed to the plan.

House Bill 107 would allow the governing body of the principal municipality where a rail line is planned to make any recommendations it deems necessary for the health, safety and welfare of adjacent property owners. The DART board would be required, "to the greatest extent possible," to incorporate the recommendations of the Dallas City Council in the plan.

Bill's critics

Opponents say it would give too much control to one neighborhood, and one city, and would result in excessive costs, shifting money away from other rail projects.

"Just slowing down the construction of mass transit in a region that is choking with congestion, choking with declining air quality, and it may prove to be only one neighborhood that's upset about it," Carrollton City Manager Leonard Martin said. "That's a lot of power to give one neighborhood if they have enough influence with the Dallas City Council."

Mr. Goolsby said the legislation is not intended to slow down or halt rail construction. He said it's about ensuring the Cotton Belt service goes under the roadways, rather than blocking several major intersections, and protecting residents from the noise of the trains.

"This has nothing to do with stopping anything or blocking anything," he said. "It has to do with being sensitive to these people's needs out there."

Dallas City Council member Pauline Medrano said the legislation is necessary because DART officials have ignored years of pleas from Dallas residents.

"That community fought for 10-plus years in terms of trying to come up with a solution for their neighborhood that would work for mass transit and for their community," Ms. Medrano said.

As submitted, the bill does not name any segments of the proposed DART rail service, though those who attended the committee hearing in Austin last week said an amendment would limit it to the Cotton Belt line.

If not, that could mean that Dallas could force changes to plans in the Love Field area as well, where residents want a tunnel taking the trains directly to the airport and bypassing homes.

Delays feared

"I would love to have a train at D/FW Airport by the end of this decade," said John Danish, a DART board member from Irving. "If we get caught up with House Bill 107, it might not make it by the end of this century, because Dallas will keep on saying let's have a tunnel through the neighborhoods in North Dallas, let's have a tunnel under Love Field."

Dallas officials have eight representatives on the 15-member DART board and "still don't feel that's enough power," Mr. Danish said.

"Evidently, they don't like the way the democratic process of the DART board is working," he said. "It's not working along their narrow agenda, which is probably because [the board] has to deal with all 13 cities."

Ms. Medrano said that the point of the legislation is not for Dallas to be able to dictate how DART will expand, but to force DART officials to work more closely with the affected neighborhoods.

"It might not be that stringent, to say, 'We're not going to move it there,' " she said. "But to look at other ways of going through. ... I think you work things out with the community. Let's have some communication, and let's work with the community and DART to make it better and have a win-win situation." - Stephanie Sandoval, The Dallas Morning News

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TRANSIT PLAN TACKLES TOUGH ISSUES, BUT CASH IS SHAKY

SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- You will never reclaim the hours lost sitting behind the wheel in that snarled commute from Salt Lake City to Farmington or from Sandy to Provo. From the west side to the east. Or when you are waiting for a bus.

And it will get worse.

That is inevitable as more people move to Utah's urban core.

Congestion costs the average Salt Lake-area commuter 17 hours a year, transportation planners say. And if roads are not widened or light rail extended, that delay could top 50 hours annually by 2030.

Those planners are trying to mitigate the congestion doldrums with an expansive $46 billion proposal that could cut the expected delay in half, or by about 25 hours, if every project were to be completed.

The long-range plan released Friday by the Wasatch Front Regional Council would include more light rail lines, create a Mountain View Corridor without tolls and widen freeways, including Interstate 15 in the south and I-80 in the east.

"We are looking ahead more than we have ever before," said Chuck Chappell, council executive director.

The council, which serves Salt Lake, Weber and Davis counties, released its draft plan in conjunction with Utah County's transportation planners' at Mountainland Association of Governments. They are now seeking public comment.

These groups are formed by local government leaders and are vital because no project can move forward if it is not on the regional plan, which is revised every four years.

Chappell said transportation engineers focused on reducing time wasted in transit when drafting the latest version.

There is one major obstacle standing in the way.

"We have less money than we need," said Darrell Cook, Mountainland executive director.

The planners have made several funding assumptions.

First, they assume state lawmakers will raise the gas tax by 5 cents in 2016 and then again in 2026.

Then the counties would have to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase in 2016 and then again in 2026.

On top of that, lawmakers would have to divert to transportation all of the sales tax collected on car and auto-part sales. That money now goes to pay for general government expenses.

But all those assumed increases still wouldn't be enough.

"We need to be optimistic but also realistic about what funds will be available in the future," Chappell said.

Federal funding has declined in recent years, placing more pressure on state and local governments.

Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, is the chairman of Utah's Transportation Appropriations Committee.

He expects legislators to raise the gas tax at some point but said it is politically difficult, if not impossible, when the state is rolling in surplus cash.

He also isn't sure the gas tax is the best way to fund transportation projects. As cars become more fuel-efficient, the state will collect less tax from each motorist.

"There will need to be other options to fund these projects," he said.

That's why Harper isn't ready to reject tolling on Mountain View Corridor or an expansion of Legacy Highway or any other new highway.

Many of his colleagues at the Legislature, particularly those who represent the west side, are adamantly opposed to tolling commuters on Mountain View.

Chappell said that under this plan they can avoid charging motorists. To do so, the road would start with only four lanes instead of the eight lanes originally planned.

The regional plan also calls on the state to buy land along the Mountain View route, located in the 5600 West area, for a possible public-transit line.

For Utah County, expanding I-15 is the No. 1 project. The first phase will take place between Lehi and Utah Valley University. Cook expects construction to begin in 2011, just about the time commuter rail will make its way to Provo.

The Utah Transit Authority will wrap up the first phase of the FrontRunner train from Pleasant View to downtown Salt Lake City in mid-2008. The next phase will begin later this year.

"We hope to be riding the trains by 2011 to 2012," Cook said.

This is all part of UTA's "70 in 7'' plan. UTA plans to build 70 miles of rail in seven years, including light-rail extensions to the airport, West Jordan and South Jordan, Draper and West Valley City.

The long-range plan also hints of spurs stretching all the way to Provo. - Matt Canham, The Salt Lake Tribune

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SHERIFF LOOKS FOR LIGHT-RAIL CORRUPTION

PHOENIX, AZ -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio confirmed Friday that his office has launched a preliminary investigation into possible corruption related to the light-rail construction project.

"We got information from a source, we put out a public records request to the light-rail committee, and we're looking into it," Arpaio said. "And the investigation is strictly in a preliminary stage right now."

Sheriff's investigators sent a public records request to Metro, the government agency overseeing construction, requesting all transcripts of interviews, documentation, agreements, correspondence, invoices and other materials related to an earlier investigation by a Metro ethics review board.

That board issued a report last October, examining the behavior of the agency's former construction chief, Vicki L. Barron, who offered to pay a consultant team extra money if it hired her friend Jurgen Sumann. When the firm refused, she revoked a $150,000 work order for the company a week later. She also held up a major contract revision for more than a year.

Barron was fired. The ethics review panel, however, determined that Barron had violated Metro's ethics policies but not any laws.

"We have provided the Sheriff's Office all the information we gave the public and the news media," Metro spokeswoman Marty McNeill said, adding that if investigators "feel there was criminal activity related to the actions of a former employee, an investigation would be appropriate."

The Sheriff's Office also asked Phoenix to turn over several routine audits for 2004 and 2005 related to light rail.

Arpaio would not elaborate on the scope of the investigation. The County Attorney's Office would not confirm or deny whether subpoenas to appear before a grand jury have been issued.

The first 20 miles of the $1.4 billion light-rail project are expected to open in December 2008. - Michael Kiefer and Sean Holstege, The Arizona Republic

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MAX TRAIN STRIKES CAR IN NORTHEAST PORTLAND

PORTLAND, OR -- A woman was injured when her car was struck by a MAX train in Northeast Portland just after noon Saturday.

The train traveling east on Northeast Holladay Street hit a Saab driven by Samantha Benton, 28, as she drove north on Northeast Grand Avenue, according to Portland police.

Witnesses told police that the light was green for northbound Grand Avenue traffic at the time of the collision. Bruce Solberg, a TriMet spokesman, said the agency was investigating to determine whether the signals controlling MAX malfunctioned.

The light-rail system is designed so that in most cases trains are not allowed to move through intersections without a green light. Solberg said he didn't know for sure if that was the case at this particular intersection.

TriMet had crews on the scene after the collision to make sure the signals were working properly, which they seemed to be, he said.

Benton was taken to Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center and was expected to be released later today. A passenger in her car was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

The driver of the MAX train was identified as Jeanine Swann, 37. No one on the MAX train was injured. No citations were issued. - James Mayer, The Portland Oregonian

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THE END