New rail authority 'spurs' development

OLYMPIA - Rehabilitation of a Columbia Basin rail line can proceed now that a governing entity was formed.

Grant, Lincoln and Spokane counties and the Port of Whitman formed the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad, or PCC, Rail Authority in April.

Rail authority Chair Ted Hopkins, a Lincoln County commissioner, said the authority entered into a contract with the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) in May because $3.7 million was approved by the department several years ago for rehabilitation. The department had started high-railing the line to establish major problems and prioritizing the rehabilitation process.

"Once we formed our organization, that is going to cut loose another $8.7 million that will go toward the same purpose," Hopkins said. "It just didn't seem to make any sense for us to try to reinvent the wheel WSDOT had spent a lot of money already doing. Quite honestly, they're better prepared for it. And so we decided to contract with them to let them handle that refurbishment, and we would concentrate on being the interface between the operators and the shippers, the users along the rail line, and work on economic development."

Grant County Commissioner Richard Stevens is the Grant County representative on the rail authority.

"It serves a part of Grant County up to the northeast, the Coulee City area, which also drains grain out of the Douglas County area toward Waterville. That's probably the most significant impact it has on the county at this point in time," Stevens said. "It's very important to those farmers and producers in that neighborhood. There may eventually work out to be some development opportunities off of this rail line. That's why we're involved in it."

Rehabilitation in most places is a matter of replacing wooden railroad ties, Hopkins said.

"Other places we need a rail spur to accommodate some of the business along the line," he said. "Those dollars designated by the Legislature are only for rehab of the existing line, as it is. Those spurs that may be required along there, those will have to be from a different source of money, which has not been identified yet."

The organization will be working to get spurs and other improvements along the lines to "spur" economic development in the region, Hopkins said.

The department completed purchase of the rail line in 2007, per legislative direction.

During the 2007 legislative session, Hopkins said, legislators included a note in budget language saying a rail governance had to be formed from local entities to oversee the process before receiving the $8.7 million.

"We kind of drug our feet because nobody was in charge," Hopkins said. "If they had tasked WSDOT or tasked a county to do it, it would have happened a lot sooner, but we're all very busy, so it didn't happen until finally enough of us realized if we don't do something, we're going to lose the dollars that have been designated for rehab, so we jumped and put it together really quite quickly, in three or four months."

"We've all been kind of pushed into it," Stevens echoed. "The state Legislature passed the bill to rejuvenate this line the state bought, and the only way they were going to do it is if they had a local group of commissioners. We're involved in basically oversight is all: We're not going to decide how the money's spent. Those decisions were already made, the state's going to handle the contracts. They just want us for oversight."

Each county put up $1,000 for operating expenses out of their own budgets, Stevens explained.

"So it's not a real heavy-duty operation, it's just what had to be done for them to pass the grant monies through," he said.

Hopkins noted there's nearly $11 million in place for rehabilitation.

"But that really isn't enough, because DOT has identified more than $20 million that really needs to be done to get the railroad up to 25 miles per hour," he said. "Once you get it up to 25 to 30 miles per hour, you cut your labor cost in half. That really is important, so this organization will probably be back to the Legislature sometime in the future, within probably two years, to try to lobby for those remaining rehab dollars that are required."