Intermodal Still Battling Railroad Crossing Issue

The monthly meeting of the Southeast Arkansas Regional Intermodal Authority was conducted June 20th in Monticello.  Minutes of the April and May, 2018 meetings were approved.  Bob Milton presented the financial report for May, 2018.  According to the written report, the organization has $11,864.65 of cash on hand and had monthly bills owed of $576.38.  The note owed to Commerical Bank is listed at $64,147.19.  The report showed receivables as follows:
*City of Monticello-$22,842.92
*Drew County-$43,461.79
*City of Warren-$58,,654.83
*Bradley County-$176,704.42
Editors Note-As has been reported in the past, the cities and counties are not legally bound to pay expenses for the authority.  Over the years the quorum courts and city councils have appropriated large sums of money to provide matching funds for state and federal grants and for other purposes.  Warren, Monticello and Drew County have continued to put money in their annual budgets to assist the intermodal authority, while Bradley County, which has not put cash money in for several years, has begun providing cleanup and maintenance work on the intermodal park using county equipment and manpower.  Bradley County has spent several thousand dollars on the site and is given credit on the amount the authority counts as receivable from the county. 

It should also be noted that the intermodal expects to receive $75,000.00 per year in the future from the state highway department.

A large amount of time during the meeting was spent talking about the issue of the road crossing within the intermodal park and the location of the rail switch.  This has been a point of contention among the intermodal board, Garver Engineers and the Union Pacific Railroad.  There has been a lot of debate and correspondence back and forth as to how to solve the matter and who will pay for any changes that have to be made.  The discussion continued among the board members and no new or final action was taken.  Under consideration is whether or not the switch must be moved or the road and crossing relocated.  At this time the railroad cannot be crossed by traffic.  Who is responsible for the cost of the changes remains and point of contention. 

Nita McDaniels, Executive Director of the Monticello Economic Development Commission and a board member of the intermodal authority, informed the members that representatives of state Arkansas Economic Development Commission's overseas offices will be at UAM visiting the School of Forestry.  She said they will make a brief visit to the intermodal park site while in Monticello.