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Railway debate was intense at public meeting

by Mona Mattei on 12 Aug 2010
in
Grand Forks city council got an earful from the public at a meeting about the options to save the international railway running to Kettle Falls, WA. As council made their case to the 70 people in attendance at the meeting, many people spoke passionately on both sides of the decision.
 
Council is faced with a decision to hire consultants to examine the business case for the rail line that supports currently three businesses in the Grand Forks / Christina Lake area.
 
Mayor Brian Taylor gave the audience the background to the current dilemma facing council. There are three options facing council: to purchase and repair the line for continued operations; to finance the needed infrastructure repairs; or to just allow the line to be abandoned. Taylor said that the businesses involved have already tried to come to an agreement with the rail operators, OmniTrax, but that there doesn’t seem to be a commercial resolution.
 
The proposed business case project would provide information for council to make further decisions to pursue some type of support for the rail line or to just abandon the project. Taylor feels that without this information council cannot make an informed decision, nor can they secure funding partners.
 
“The reality is that this $70,000 could be just the beginning. If it looks like this is a direction that’s going to be worthwhile to pursue then there will be additional money required for the next stage,” said Taylor. “But at this stage, if we answer the question: is it worth pursuing further, we’re going step by step. If it is worthwhile pursuing, and we do spend the money it puts us in a decent position to look for partners. We could go to the province or the feds with an arguable case.”
 
Taylor said he feels the best plan for the city would be to get the necessary information in order that council can make an informed decision about how to proceed.
 
Some audience members were against proceeding with the consulting project. Bill Faminoff said he feels that this is a disaster waiting to happen unless council can be very clear on what they want from the project.
 
“Specifically to the citizens here in Grand Forks, tell us, this is what we want to do. Not just a business case. A business case can mean anything,” said Faminoff. “So we need to be very specific, we need to have a clear understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish, and there’s got to be some costs involved. The thing is you’re asking me to approve you to expend $70,000 with limited information, I’m sorry I can’t do it.”
 
Michele Moriarity said that she supports council’s efforts and particularly the effort to protect jobs. “I’m raising a family in this town and my spouse needs to work here. To me it’s pretty basic stuff. We have more than one industry that will die if we don’t take a look at how we can save them. All we can do is take a look and work from there. We have to have faith that if we don’t do anything, those jobs will go. We need to do this.”
 
Others said that they support the direction council is moving but were frustrated by the lack of information provided prior to the meeting. Tom Gooderham, owner of Grand Forks Optical, suggested that the stakeholders need to contribute to the cost of the project as it unfolds.
 
“I would think you’re approaching it in the proper manner. You are going to study it before you’re going to prepare a plan that could possibly cost $250,000. If you can get some input, financially, that would offset some of these costs I believe you’re heading in the right direction. I need to see this economic impact plan. I would have really loved to see it tonight – I was looking for a hand out and didn’t get one,” said Gooderham.
 
Along with the public, representatives from the businesses at risk in the situation were present including Pacific Abrasives, International Reload, and International Forest Products. Regional district elected officials were also in attendance – Grace McGregor, Irene Perepolkin, Marguarite Rotvold.
 
OmniTrax served notice in the fall of 2008 that the line would be abandoned. They have agreed to keep operating but could close the line at any time without warning.
 
An economic impact study completed in November 2009 and paid for by the businesses involved in using the railway, identified the significant losses that would happen in the city if the railway closed.
 
The Kettle Falls Rail Abandonment Impact Study stated that “the rail line abandonment with it’s implied costs….accruing to existing shippers and the communities in which they are resident will further result in an immediate loss of near $300 thousand in land lease and property taxes payable to local governments ($3.0 million over ten years.) Given the extreme case of additional slowdowns or shutdowns of all shippers the impact would result in a loss in local tax revenue exceeding $780 thousand per years or an aggregate of $7.8 million over ten years. In a best case scenario these losses will seriously and severely erode the capacities and capabilities of the local government to provide essential services to its citizens. Already existing services capacities are stretched beyond the limit. This additional loss of revenues will be nothing short of catastrophic.”
 
Council will be making their decision about whether to proceed with the business case project at their meeting on Monday, Aug. 16 in council chambers.
 
Watch the video to see council’s presentations about the proposed project and the decision to be made.
 
Link:
 

Kettle Falls Rail Abandonment Impact Study 

Comments

Bear Check

by Reality Check on 07 Sep 2010 at about 15:46.
According to Ministry of Conservation, there are somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 black bears in BC. Recent news stories show that 59 bears were killed in the Castlegar area so far this year and 20 odd bears have taken a second job guarding a pot farm at Christina Lake. It is the hard working pot bears that have diminished my tolerance for the life style of kept bears and their supporters. Yes I love animals and am not interested in harming them, but they seem to want to bother me. Every day I twice feed my 14 year old deaf dog and four cats, who also seem to be on a retirement program I have not yet achieved. I strictly enforce a 20 to 25 minute eating time, after which I take the dog and cat food back into the house so as not to encourage bears, racoons, skunks and ravens. The ravens now only send one scout a day to see if I have forgotten to remove the dog and cat bowls, while the racoon has enlisted the skunk to intiminate us by standing at the door and offering a dare to us to come out. Yes you read that right they both are there together. The bear comes periodically and shits on the weeds diquised as a lawn hoping for the best. Last night I took the wife out for dinner at 4:30PM and the bear who no doubt got a message from the raven that we were gone showed up and climb my plum tree, which had six, yes six plums not quite ready yet on it. Now the bear which has trimmed my plum tree every year, fruit on it or not broke a number of branches, bears are not precision fruit tree trimmers, and for another year I have not tasted a ripe plum. The bear did leave the apple tree alone so there is still hope for fruit. Keeping a bear out of a garden with a seven foot high fence is almost impossible and at some point I will have to electrifry my garden fence. So when I think of those pot bears, which I am very familiar with, as they have come close to 4 km to visit me in the past, when I had three young dogs, a wife with a loud bell and whistle and my own pot and pan band that did not seem to bother them one bit, I think, do I need to shoot all these bears when they show up? The many people that support the bear dude and lady, should know that this feeding of bears has been going on for over 20 years and in that time many of the these bears were born on their property and have never been to the BC Bear's in the Wild Training Centre and so know jack about bear survial accept that where there is a dog or human there is food. Once the bears are not fed they will start coming to the neighbors and beyond and will get themselves shot for lack of common sense in dealing with humans. I now find myself taking a course to gain a license to protect myself and family from animals I managed to co-exist with in their wild state for over 40 years, refer back to my fruit tree trimmer. Is there some reason we even have a Conservation Officer, who by the way has known about these bears for close to 12 years now that I know of? That is another story of another provincial ministry full of managers. I really am not interested in shooting these bears, but the bear dude and lady should have had children and not bears. Children having more common sense when they get old enough to visit. So if you want a bear or two, seems to be a lot of bear openings in Castlegar, feel free to come out to Christina lake and take one home with you. Don't worry about the Conservation officer, he and I mean that literally, one officer covers a area over 12,000 square km in size, so he will not even notice your bear trap. I have heard that jelly beans work well and plums seem to be high on the bear menu right now as well. If you watched the video of the bear dude you will have noted the bear with one paw that seems to be injured. Now next year assuming he makes it through the winter that bear in particular is not going to be able to fend for itself and will visit Christina Lake's many fine restaurant garbage containers. With the annual infestation of spring time Albertan turkey hunters this should prove to be a spring we all will recall I am sure as the spring of 2011 slaughter of the bears. If there was ever a message to not feed wild animals that will be it. If you need to feed something try your fellow human beings, there are enough of them that could use the help.

Railroads

by Reality Check on 07 Sep 2010 at about 13:02.
The city of Grand Forks spending money for a study to understand the impact of losing yet another railroad and the cost that would be involved in maintaining it seems simple enough. Good government doing their homework to see if it is reasonable to have a railroad line to the biggest importer of Canadian products. Having seem CP play its Ottawa card and take its railroad and go home the lost of this line to the USA, will be the final feather in the cap of the Boundary becoming a thrid world economy. It will also mean that the income the city of Grand Forks gains from Pacific Abrasives will disappear, as their product is too heavy to ship economically by truck. In case the nay sayers out there cannot add 2+2 without getting six, that means your taxes will go up or the city cuts staff, or both, which means you will be able to enjoy that greatest of Grand Forks activity the daily whine. Whine away Forkers. only now you will find that the cost of transportation will not bring any new manufacturing businesses to the city or RDKB Area D or C and that there are fewer jobs in the city that, practices having a recession every winter, than there were before the railroads disappeared. Yes another great solution don't spend a dime, hide your head in the sand and ignore reality. Only in Grand Forks would citizens shoot themselves in one foot and say, hey that was not so bad, and so shoot themselves in the other!

fear over rationale - the Railroad

by Linda2010 on 13 Aug 2010 at about 18:10.
It is not the responsibility of the residential tax payers to provide the ongoing service of the Kettle Valley line going into the US. If private enterprise want to keep it then they can pay ALL the cost not the residents. This council has gotten their priortities mixed up and are acting the like the Provincial government. There is a trucking company here that should be able to handle any shipments leaving the area going anywhere, US, the coast and to the East. Our tax money should be spent on improving business' that want to pay taxes that will be used by the city for the city and not for private enterprise that get tax breaks anyway. One other note about the water restrictions. The only way residents are going to be responsible is to put in water meters and maybe if they have to pay for it they may stop the overwatering that is happenig daily on the green lawns.If it doesn't stop our grandchildren and future children may end up like Africa and have no water to grow their food with. In my neighborhood some folks are igoring the odd and even and watering the lawns every day before city workers are up and about and then of course they have to mow to keep the lawns looking like a golf course. What is it with some people that don't seem to care or know about global warming, etc. and the issues that go with it like water conservation. I am sure Africa had lots of water at one time but never learned to conserve it and store it so now they are starving from not being to grow without it.