Near the end of last evening's City Council meeting, during non-agenda public speaking time, CM Larry Kochert unexpectedly divulged that legal research conducted by Sewer Board attorney Greg Fifer indicates that the city of New Albany, not CSX, actually owns the right-of-way for the rail line.
Even the self-appointed citizen's advocate at the podium was taken aback at this revelation.
Moments before, CM Kevin Zurschmiede had uttered a seemingly hard-line challenge to the railroad to repair the 15th Street corridor or, in effect, get out of town. Given the traditional status of the nation's rail companies, this seemed foolhardy ... until CM Kochert spilled the legalistic beans.
Now, the obvious question is: True or false? Suddenly, NAC's proposal to nationalize the corridor seems almost capable of being achieved.
There'll be more on the Thursday meeting later this weekend. Cheers.
I was told several years ago by the Mayor's office that CSX owned that strip of land, and it had something to do with Interstate Commerce right of way dating back to the time the city was founded...or something to that effect. I applaud Mr. Fifer's research, if it's true, and Mr. Zurschmiede's challenge, but was there anyone in the room from CSX who actually heard it or is it just a case of a candidate finding an issue to pounce on? Will the challenge ever reach anyone at CSX or will LK's spilled beans just be put in a Tupperware container and zip locked? Where was this revelation in the meetings with Valla Ann and CSX?
ReplyDeleteNobody from CSX. VA was asked if she was there "representing" CSX. She took offense to the question and answered no.
ReplyDeleteI'll leave the rest to NA's considerably superior writing skills.