Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR) Discussion - 2014

Interesting....16 months left on the lease. 9+ months until the county executive election. Wonder why the county would be causing more than half a million dollars to be wasted trying to get an immediate eviction...

Who is running against Hein and is he or she a pro-railroad candidate?

Hein ran unopposed in 2011, and was originally elected in 2008 on the Democrat and Working Family Party tickets over a Len Bernardo. Before that it was an appointed County Administrator position (2006), before that he was Deputy Treasurer, before that he was the manager of the Fleet Bank branch in Kingston. He has a BA in Business Administration. Hein has "expressed interest" in running for congress in 2016 to replace the present rep who has said he won't run for reelection.

No information about any opponents in 2015. The county republican website only shows one candidate who is running for a judge position.

The job paid $133,572 in 2014. There were 1284 full time employees working for the county.

I think Hein is unopposed right now.

A potential Republican candidate would have a lot of ammunition to use against Hein.

Maybe somebody should bend the ear of that federal prosecutor who nailed Silver about Hein.

Maybe someone involved with cmrr should run for the office...

reading the contract, it looks like CMRR is supposed to rehab 1 mi to class 1 each yr of the contract, with the whole thing being done by the end of the contract. Nothing about hurricanes or extreme conditions, so I think the assumption was minor maintenance and small washouts, not heavy rehab of bridges. If the county doesn't enforce the terms they have right to enforce terms in later. There's supposed to be a railroad committee to oversee things; I read somewhere that that was dissolved some time ago? I'm not an expert, but doesn't that mean that the rr is compliant if they rehabbed a mile in the year before the county took them to court, not whether they did 5 miles in the previous 5 yrs, 10 in the previous 10, etc, and they are in compliance until the end of the contract when the test becomes whether they did the whole length, but by then the contract is done. I would assume they would get credit for effort for rehabbing the bridge (worth $800K; how many miles is that equivalent to?) and for the FEMA money that should have been applied. They should get credit for the $350K they spent defending against the county.

If the CMRR sells stuff, such as a "Thomas the Tank Engine" T-shirt, I assume that isn't "railroad related" so they don't have to pay the county a percentage of the gross price (other than the normal sales tax). But if they sell a ticket on Thomas or polar express, they have to pay the county based on the gross price and can't deduct the licensing costs.

The smart thing would be for the county to renew the contract for 5 or 10 years, with the rr helping design a rail with trail and coordinating the construction, and a separate corps of volunteers to widen the ROW to accommodate trail. That would maximize the value of the corridor and save the county a bundle of $$$ compared to what they would spend for trail only.

So, the ROW is 60 feet wide. I assume it is also 60 feet wide through the reservoir, but the rock cuts are only wide enough for single track. So theoretically they could put in rail-with-trail by right, but it would cost too much to dynamite rocks for a bike path, so instead blow up the railroad!

What the reservoir is gonna want is a ranger to patrol any trail or rail-with-trail, say 1 or two full time equivalents. NYC water department isn't gonna want to pay for that, they would want Ulster county (or the state of NY) to pay. If they got a guarantee to pay for patrol, perhaps a separate route for the walking trail could be found in the reservoir that would be more cost effective to build.

After several discussions with CMRR folks this past weekend, I've come to the conclusion that they have the same problem as the Adirondack - a bunch of rich guys want them out of their woods. With ADIX, the "front man" is ARTA. With CMRR, it's Hein.

The locals (and especially the merchants) in that area have been made very aware, in a very real way, of the impact the railroad has, and can have. There's just the question of whether that can translate into pressure on the powers that be to save the railroad.

Hey, i'm as liberal as they come but I'd be willing to change my stripes just to run against this...fine, fair minded gentleman from my own party.

SemperFidelis wrote:Hey, i'm as liberal as they come but I'd be willing to change my stripes just to run against this...fine, fair minded gentleman from my own party.

And you'd have my vote (if I lived there).

BandA wrote: The smart thing would be for the county to renew the contract for 5 or 10 years, with the rr helping design a rail with trail and coordinating the construction, and a separate corps of volunteers to widen the ROW to accommodate trail. That would maximize the value of the corridor and save the county a bundle of $$$ compared to what they would spend for trail only.

That will only work if the county's ultimate goal doesn't include getting rid of the railroad.

SemperFidelis wrote:Hey, i'm as liberal as they come but I'd be willing to change my stripes just to run against this...fine, fair minded gentleman from my own party.

Agreed. I'd vote for ya, too.

See 2015 thread.

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