First, for _real_ information, call Loretta Annawalt of the Pullman Civic
Trust. She is the real expert on this project.
Land ownership:
The path is proposed for the rail line that follows Wash. HWY 270, the
Pullman Highway (or, the Moscow Highway it you are in Pullman). I thought
that the rails were owned by Blue Mountain Railroad, but maybe Kenton is
right and the UP still owns it. Maybe I should do homework before spouting
off.
The land that the rails run over in most places is owned outright by the
railroad. In a few places, however, the RR has easements for the rail
line. So, if the line were abandoned that easement would disappear and the
ownership would revert to the landowner. By the way, it might well be that
the BN line through Moscow is on easement land, but that has never been
researched. The City is very casual about whether they own the BN land or
not. Wierd huh?
Anyhow, in the late '80s, Congress passed a "rail-banking" bill. The
purpose was to preserve the transportation corridor of abandoned rail lines
by keeping the easements all together. Paths can be built on rail-banked
lines. The way it works is that a local sponsoring agency (Whitman County
in this case) applies to railbank a line within 30 days of the announcement
of the abandonment approval by the ICC I think it is called an 8-D
application. Whatever it is, Whitman County is all primed and ready.
Approval of the railbanking application by the ICC only gives the local
agency the "right of first refusal" to purchase the land from the railroad
and to purchase the easements (if any) from the adjacent landowners.
Sometimes, the land is donated by the railroads and used as a tax write
off.
That brings up one of the problems with the path. Originally, the plan was
to have UP donate the land. But now BMRR owns it, and they don't have much
profit, and they don't really need a write off. They want cash. And if
the whole thing gets derailed (sic), the the adjacent landowners get the
easements back, the railroads parcel off their land to the adjacent
landowners and the whole transportation corridor is lost. Forever.
That's what the state outdoor recreation proposal for $300,000 that the
Whitman County Commissioners agreed to send to Olympia yesterday was about.
The budget for the project went way up because the land has to be
purchased.
Of course, only two commissioners voted for it. The Whitman County
Property Owner's Association opposes the path. (Maybe the one commissioner
was worried about a bomb in front of the courthouse ;)
To be continued.....
Fritz
Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute "Increasing citizen involvement
P O Box 8596; 112 West 4th St; Suite #1 in decisions that affect our
Moscow ID 83843-1096 region's environment."
Phone (208)882-1444 Fax (208)882-8029
e-mail pcei@moscow.com
WWW http://www.moscow.com/Resources/PCEI