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From left, NETEX board members Nathan Priefert, Brian Lee, Mickey Barker, Neal Barker and Bonnie Hunter listen in to a phone call to Freedom Rail Group's Jeff Lederer. Staff photo by Todd Kleiboer
District might see $56,000 in back-billing
Although Winter Storm Uri slammed many Texas industries, it did not halt railroad operations at Northeast Texas Connectors, but Freedom Rail Group senior Vice President Jeff Lederer said some bridges did sustain damage at the Northeast Texas Rural Transportation District meeting Thursday,
“Our numbers are probably between $50, $100,000 at this point [inside Hopkins County],” Lederer said. “I know Hopkins County would welcome that [reporting of damages].”
Meetings between officials from Franklin and Hunt County and Freedom Rail will also be conducted, Lederer said. FEMA requests will be filed by NETEX.
“We’re going to walk hand-in-hand with the NETEX board,” Lederer said. “We’ll fill out the paperwork, and when it comes to needing a signatory, because the railroad ultimately belongs to the board, it needs to come from the board.”
Carloads were down in February to 72, Lederer reported, although it is not necessarily due to the winter storm. February is a short month and is historically slow, according to Lederer, and a few customers did have interruptions in loading cars for transport during the storm.
However, there have been 176 carloads so this year, keeping pace with the 177 load at the same point last year.
“We think we’ll be up 11, 12, 15% year-over-year when this is all said and done,” Lederer said. “But we have some work to do to get there.”
In an update from Railway Auditing and Management Services CEO Jarrett Mankin, the board approve a private road crossing agreement between the district and a solar farm. Although Mankin did not name the solar farm, it is likely the $275 million project managed by Bright Arrow Solar west of Sulphur Springs.
“They want to upgrade this crossing so it can handle not only the initial construction, but withstand the long haul going forward,” Mankin said.
To further streamline the agreement process between the district and interested parties, the board approved a motion for Mankin to submit standard operating agreements of each type, be it for a water pipeline or private road crossing, for board approval.
Mankin would become a signatory for standard agreements, and anything falling outside the agreements would be brought to the board.
In a bit of good news, Mankin’s company created a database for each of NETEX’s agreements, but some are missing, Mankin said, although there should be one according to physical inspections of the rail line. New agreements can be entered into if no trace of the old agreement remains with the other party, Mankin said.
However, of the agreements entered into the database, 33 were billable. The agreements date back to 2016, and back-billing over those years would yield a total of $56,000 for the district.
“That doesn’t even include the current year’s billables,” Mankin said. “That would, I believe, added to that figure.”