NETEX Board discusses vegetation maintenance

Wild vegetation along the Northeast Texas Connectors line poses problems for not only the operation, but it could open up the door to liability lawsuits, Freedom Rail Group Managing Principal Mike Salek reported to the Northeast Texas Rural Rail Transportation District board Thursday.

“The vegetation hasn’t been taken care of for easily 10 years,” Salek said.

The dense vegetation surrounding the rail can pose a fire hazard during a dry summer, and branches can rip mirrors from trains if they come too close.

“The biggest problem is a train and pedestrian, train and car, train and semi coming together at crossings you can’t see,” Salek said.

Trimming back the brush to a safe, manageable level is expensive, too. According to Salek, to clear the line from Franklin County to Hunt County would take 440 days and possible $1.4 million. Salek said his company had explored options that lowered the expense to roughly $800,000, but negotiations with counties to cover the cost had stalled.

“It benefits us both,” Sales said. “One, it helps us prevent fires and damage to locomotives. But it would also help from a lawsuit perspective [during an accident]. It’s only a period of time because our trains are moving more than they’ve moved in years.”

Salek said even if the counties do not provide support, he would still move forward with clearing the line. However, it would be slow going without help.

“I’m not going to risk this much longer because the longer we sit, the longer we debate, we’re liable because we knew this was a safety hazard,” Salek said. “We’re moving forward, and we hope you jump on board and help us so we can go faster and be more efficient.”

Ideas were tossed around about how NETEX could take the first step in securing more funds for NET-C, and Hunt County representative Greg Sims proposed the board take out a loan to cover a part of what Salek asked. According to the treasurer’s report, the board has about $232,000 in their operating account, and roughly $50,000 in their money market account.

“With our current revenue stream and money that we have, why can’t we as a NETEX board go borrow the money for Mike [Salek] to buy this piece of equipment,” Sims said. “It keeps this out of the county level.”

Salek said he was open to any solution as long as it meant the vegetation would be cleared in a timely manner, and Hopkins County representative Mickey Barker said NETEX taking action would be beneficial in gathering support from hesitant county officials.

“I feel like the counties would come closer to assisting if we made an effort ourselves as a board and take care of our situation,” Barker said.

The board decided to continue discussion on to support NET-C in executive meetings.

In other business, the board welcomed Franklin County Judge Scott Lee as the newest Franklin County representative. He replaces commissioner Larkin Jumper.