Chair got an email that Sen Cortes had introduced SB5820. Chair asked for help from Amber Carter (?) in writing the letter from the RR Advisory Board.

The letter does need to come from Council, not the RR Board. Edited slightly for the Council. Unsure if bill will have legs this session and unsure if Council in favor of SB5820.

Board approved the letter (1 opposed) – move forward to County Council

Vice Chair indicated that Eric Temple is in violation of his contract with Clark County.

BYCX: 3500 passengers during Christmas holidays – slightly down in passenger count -no shows due to weather

Working on steam engine. Track clearance in April. Caboose needs some work. Normal schedule starts on Mother’s Day weekend

County – awarding the bid on last of railbed reconstruction, a grant will be covering this work

Still 2 vacancies on RR board – re-advertised, have received 4 applications

Need a sub-committee for evaluating the applications.

Work session with council – February 4^th, starts at 9 am, early on the agenda. Not open for public comment. If you want to participate in the discussion, you must be physically present. Chair Weaver will be the primary presenter, can have a couple of others

Viewed the draft slide deck for the public presentation. This presentation will go to the Council for approval (no link to the presentation)

Highlights:

Goal is to educate County residents about all the different aspects of the RR.

Would like an Open House and 4-5 sessions throughout the County.

Suggestion of presenting to the county Neighborhood Associations. What about an article in the Columbian?

All of this will depend on the Council approval.

Discussion about what to respond to questions about PVJR – basically, this is an ongoing legal process and we are unable to comment at this time.

Able to hear the narration of the slide show, 33 miles long, connects with BN, ends at Chelatchie Prairie. Owned by Cl Co, PFJV has a lease to operate on the line. BYCX runs a tourist train up to Yacolt. The presentation then goes into the history of the RR. Started in 1888.

1903 – 1932 passenger service up to Yacolt.

1986 – line purchased by Cl Co. One of the goals is of a 33-mile trail along RR.

Challenges: resident development close to the line. Modern day cars are larger – too much old rail in place

Real estate needs to be available for companies to use

Benefits – can move more than trucks, safer than trucks, less of a footprint than a road, trains more fuel efficiently than trucks, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

Advantages of Short Line RR

Traffic on the Short Line only serves businesses on the short line

Carries about 800 cars per year

Future – maybe adding passenger traffic, possible electric cars

Rail with Trail – 2008 study re Trail. Starts at Battle Ground Lake

No current efforts to add this trail

BYCX – excursion RR – all volunteer, operate May – December

Goals – facilitate availability to more businesses

If zoned industrial – higher tax base than Ag land, increased economic development in Cl Co

Audio fails at this point, - someone asked a question about amount of industrial land – can not hear the discussion.

I checked the next 10 minutes of the recording – no sound.

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