NETEX updates on Hopkins County facility, budget

Image
  • Freedom Rail's Jeff Lederer explains about office space needs while NETEX attorney Ron Stutes listens at their regular September meeting. Staff photo by Taylor Nye
    Freedom Rail's Jeff Lederer explains about office space needs while NETEX attorney Ron Stutes listens at their regular September meeting. Staff photo by Taylor Nye
Subhead

Heritage Park terminal ‘1 step forward and 2 steps back’

Body

The Northeast Texas Rural Rail Transportation District (NETEX) heard updates on a Hopkins County rail facility and approved a budget, among other items of business at their Thursday regular September meeting at Sulphur Spring City Hall. 

After convening at 1:30 p.m., the board unanimously approved the previous month’s meeting minutes. No citizens presented public comments. 

HOPKINS COUNTY FACILITY

The board then heard an update from Sulphur Springs Hopkins County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Roger Feagley and Ark-Tex Council of Governments Executive Director Chris Brown regarding the status of a planned rail terminal in Hopkins County.

Along with Mount Vernon, Sulphur Springs EDC applied for a USEDA grant in December 2017 and were awarded $325,140, while Mount Vernon was awarded $1.2 million, Feagley presented. The funds became operational Jan. 1, 2018, but due to arguments and a lack of coordination between NETEX and Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon voted to return their portion of the grant July 8, 2019. 

“I don’t know what happened in Mount Vernon, don’t really care what happened over there,” Feagley told the NETEX board in September 2020. “They decided they didn’t want to do it.” 

The Ark-Tex Council of Governments (ATCOG), who created the successful grant proposal, continues to hold the funding, as specified by USEDA regulations. ATCOG determined Sulphur Springs would be able to take over the total amount of the grant, Feagley said. 

In January 2020, NETEX gave Feagley the go-ahead to start plans for a Hopkins County rail facility. At NETEX’s regular August meeting, new operator Freedom Rail gave their enthusiastic consent to play a role in the project. Rail customer Northeast Texas Farmer’s Co-Op general manager urged the group to “just turn dirt somewhere,” as it had been two and a half years since NETEX received the federal money. 

Feagley told the group the Sulphur Springs EDC still planned to locate a rail spur in Heritage business park. He said the preliminary design would be 57 acres with two tracks on either side of the property. In between the tracks would be a gravel yard where businesses could use forklifts to load and unload cars, Feagley said. 

“We still haven’t been awarded the grant officially,” Feagley noted. “We’re still sending letters and documents that they need, so technically we don’t have a grant.” 

Brown said the reason for this delay is because the grant was originally awarded to both Mount Vernon and Sulphur Springs, not Sulphur Springs alone. 

“We have to go back through the environmental process, and we’re on the tail end of the final approval,” Brown noted. “We had to start over on a lot of stuff just because we moved sites.” 

Feagley said although rough plans have been underway, they cannot engage formal design services without a grant. 

“We’ve just gotten to the point where we can put plans on paper,” Brown said. 

“It seems like it’s one step forward and two steps back,” Feagley said. “I just wanted to tell you we’re going as fast as we can go.” 

“We’re going to move forward as was intended, and we’ll see a lot of movement within 30 to 60 days,” Brown agreed. 

“I want to be under construction now, but there’s rules when you’re spending someone else’s money,” Feagley noted. 

FINANCES & BUDGET

The board received a treasurer’s report and budget update from Hopkins County representative Neal Barker. He stated the group had $51,378 in a money market account and $172,058 in an operating account. Neal Barker previously discussed incoming lease payments, and the major payable for the remainder of fiscal year 2020 was to the group’s lawyer for $17,000, Neal Barker stated.  

Chair Brian Lee asked for group input on the presented budget, and reporter Lilly Bush-Reeves of the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald noted she did not see a section of the budget for the group’s website. Lee stated the group continued to be in communication with former Delta County representative Dr. Jason Lee Davis regarding keeping their website up-to-date. With no additional comments, the group unanimously approved the budget. 

OFFICE SPACE

Although Neal Barker stated the item was “probably in the future,” the group discussed with Freedom Rail finding a mutually beneficial office space. 

“NETEX needs a little office, our files have been floating around for years,” Neal Barker noted. “We had that little space in Mount Vernon. I just think we have the wherewithal, but it’s really hard for us to go buy our own building.”  

“We’ve had different ways in the past of navigating the relationship, where we’re all together, then we split up for a variety of reasons,” Lee stated. 

In the past, NETEX met at the Blacklands Rail depot at 641 Church St. in Sulphur Springs but began to meet at the Sulphur Springs Economic Development Corporation offices around 2017, with some meetings taken in Greenville and, in 2020, at Sulphur Springs City Hall or the Hopkins County Commissioner’s Court. Currently, NETEX files were moved in August 2020 from Mount Vernon City Hall to the Hopkins County records building, according to Lee. 

“We’re where we’re going to be for the next nine or ten months, but where we are isn’t permanent. But we’d certainly like to partner with you and find something that’s suitable for everybody,” said Freedom Rail CEO Jeff Lederer. “We just wanted to throw it out there as ‘let’s start looking for something.’”

Freedom Rail is currently headquartered in jobsite trailers at approximately 610 Church St., which were donated by rail customer Custom Commodities. Lee enquired if Freedom Rail intended to continue to be headquartered in Sulphur Springs, and Lederer told him Sulphur Springs is an ideal location as it is “halfway down the line in either direction.”

Lee asked Hopkins County representative Mickey Barker to “lay eyes on” the group’s files at the Hopkins County records building. The group further resolved to “keep an eye out” for properties that might fit Freedom Rail and NETEX’s joint wishes for office space. 

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:35 p.m.