From Abbott and Costello to Gahan and Phipps -- that's the Great Rails to Trails Bait 'n' Switch of 2019.

I'm turning over a new leaf ... on January 1. Festivus lasts until all my grievances are aired.

In 2018, Mayor Jeff Gahan unveiled a wondrous plan for rails-to-trails to extend from just north of the former Pillsbury plant to Bedford, reminding us that when anything seems too good to be true, check your wallet.

ON THE AVENUES: "That's why I voted no," explains Scott Stewart, pausing to duck rocks feebly lobbed by Team Gahan's propaganda pygmies.

The hosannas rained down, the boot-polishers got giddy, and yet no observers in local mainstream media bothered asking the only pertinent question: Wouldn't an idea like this be far better linking the Greenway to IU Southeast? -- and besides, the city of New Albany wouldn't even be responsible for 95% of any such project perched on the outer edge of the city limits, right?

Dear Leader took credit, the sycophants became orgasmic, and apart from this blog, conventional media outlets repeated the press release talking points with nary a moment of doubt.

However, there was ample annoyance from property owners along the rights-of-way outside city limits, as well two or three oblique voices located far away from the Gahan inner circle, who kept pointing out an important fact: A component of the city's deal with Sazerac to move into Pillsbury included the provision that CSX would be re-opening the rail line running through the densely populated center of the city, which only a few years ago was a controversial facet of life downtown.

Or, precluding the only rational use of the railroad's right of way for a rails to trails scheme owing to the elegantly simple reason that it was about to be put back into use, thus averting gazes elsewhere. Neither the mayor nor a single candidate for city council thought this entire situation important enough to clarify or so much as mention during the municipal campaign, prime among them Greg Phipps, who once upon a time was outspokenly opposed to trains disrupting the serenity of his hermetic third district.

Gahan's rails-to-trails public relations stunt -- and that's all it ever was -- will be tied down amid lawsuits from property owners ... and it never had anything to do with New Albany, anyway.

Meanwhile Phipps has become a born-again defender of corporate interests at the expense of -- shall we say it aloud? -- QUALITY OF LIFE in his district.

And, notice yet again that Gahan's automobile supremacist default floats inevitably to the surface; in an ideal instance where non-automotive mobility might have been served by a downtown rails-to-trails, Gahan ends by assuring you that the roadway for your car will be smoother.

Bait and switch, thy name is Gahan, but don't look at me. I didn't re-elect the evasive connivers -- you did.

CSX has begun the process of replacing railroad components throughout New Albany, by John Boyle (No Newspaper Never Mind)

 ... Work to update the tracks and roadway intersections started in recent weeks, with crews popping up in areas throughout the city.

No exact timeline for the repairs has been set, but Mayor Jeff Gahan said the work is in full swing.

“It’s fully under construction," he said. "They want it done as soon as possible. They have removed some ties and done some road repairs."

Early phases of the work have seen crews working to tear up and replace older components of the railroads to ready them for renewed traffic. Such construction has seen the closure of sections of roadways along the East 15th Street tracks, including some that have lasted throughout this week.

Another feature of the final product will be improved intersections with the city's streets. Gahan said the city is looking to make these crossings smoother for vehicles ...

Whither rails, trails and the CSX track from the K & I Bridge to Sazerac Indiana?

For help in understanding the life and times of New Gahania, formerly known as New Albany, it helps to apply a sort of litmus test to any PR release emanating from Dear Leader's burgeoning propaganda secretariat.

Can it be used to polish Jeff Gahan's personality cult?

Can the money be followed to special interest campaign finance donors?

From railbanking to mountebanks, or compensation for landowners in rails-to-trails projects.

When Big Daddy G began nonsensically babbling about his pivotal role in a made-for-self-enhancement rails-to-trails project from Sazerac (formerly Pillsbury) to Bedford, Louisville-area media representatives fell over themselves to praise Dear Leader, with nary a single one of them asking two important questions:

1. How can a New Albany mayor in control of only 4.5% of the project area take credit for work to be done almost entirely outside his city?

(He can't, but it's an election year)

2. Why focus on the area lying outside the mayor's direct control to the north and west when the stretch of track to the south, connecting the IU Southeast campus to the Ohio River Greenway, lies entirely within city limits and makes far better sense in terms of mobility options? 

(Maybe because the railroad's not entirely finished using it)

While Gahan advocates replacing railroad track with a path, a Facebook group of railroad buffs called Save the Monon is taking exactly the opposite approach.

This group supports the Monon railroad line from New Albany IN to Bedford IN, to make a awesome scenic dinner/excursion train ride.

Following are two recent comments at the Fb site, lightly edited. The first comment refers to the photograph above at the intersection of 15th and Beeler.

CSX is going to be suing New Albany for taking up the track when they replaced the sewer in the city. They never got authorization from CSX, and Norfolk Southern is into it with New Albany about the amphitheater. Sazarac was told they (could use) the rail line and Gahan didn't tell them they tore the track in two places; Sazarac talked to CSX about getting cars in and CSX saw that the track is destroyed! This Democratic mayor has pissed off a lot of companies, not to exclude the Federal Government.

More recently:

I have learned from a source of mine who works for CSX in the road maintenance department in Louisville that Sazarac wants to use the rail from the K&I Bridge to its plant. CSX is looking at repairing the line but the city of New Albany is saying they will not pay for new asphalt after CSX does the work. CSX says the asphalt is the responsibility of the city.

But has CSX considered a persuasive $10k donation to the Gahan4Life fund? Prior to the Louisville budget crisis, Mayor Greg Fischer had started making noises again about the K and I's utility as a river crossing. We'll keep an eye on this one.

Like I always say: Nationalize the railroads.

Do you think so, Gary? It's only been that way for the past decade.

No north Y: New Albany intersection closure needed for railroad repairs, by Daniel Suddeath (Alabama Pop-Up Multiplier)

NEW ALBANY — The intersection known as the North Y at Eighth Street and Grant Line Road in New Albany will be closed for at least two days next week so that CSX Railroad Corp. can replace its tracks in the area.

“I’ve inspected [and] they are in bad shape and in need of repairs,” said CSX branch manager Gary Reynolds of the railroad tracks Tuesday during a New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

More on CSX, the 15th Street corridor, sandbagging councilmen and steroidal egos.

Permit me to expand on the hurried posting from last evening. If you're just tuning in, please read it first:

Does the CSX railroad "own" the 15th Street right of way?

The only speaker during non-agenda item public speaking time was our famously self-appointed “citizen’s advocate,” Ms. Bolovschak, who addressed the council (minus CMs Donnie Blevins and Jack Messer, who were absent, and Bev Crump, who had to leave on short notice).

Bolovschak, who serves as Minister of Railways in the troglodyte shadow cabinet, discussed her tirelessly free-lance efforts to bring CSX to heel for repairing the 15th Street corridor, to the tune of $1.8 million in necessary improvements. She stressed that such huge expenditure would not be borne solely by the railroad, and that the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) might be induced in cooperative funding in concert with a tithe from the city of New Albany.

All well and good so far.

She went on to say that the key to it all would be the city’s willingness to curb alley crossings of the tracks, presumably so all major streets would have appropriate signals. At this point, matters rapidly escalated into entertainment, as CM Kevin Zurschmiede asked, “Do you represent CSX?”

Bolovschak responded, “They asked me to come to the council. Why would you ask a question like that?”

The sparring then began in earnest, with Zurschmiede asking, in essence, who she was, why she was there and why she cared to be the conduit of information for absentee railroad executives, Bolovschak arguing the merits of safety for area residents and dismissing concerns over the alley curbs, and Zurschmiede aggressively insisting that he wants actual representatives of CSX to be in the room addressing the council.

Seeing as we now understand the origin of the suddenly confrontational Zurschmiede’s surprise counter-attack, i.e., the subsequent revelation that Sewer Board attorney Greg Fifer believes that CSX does not own the right-of-way after all, the display makes much more sense. Sewer Board members Zurschmiede and CM Larry Kochert (council president and wielder of the selective gavel) were only too glad to kneecap the unelected “advocate” with information, as yet ongoing and unverified, of which she was apparently entirely unaware.

Boy, those old-line Republicans really stick together when it comes to disciplining interlopers … but wait – Larry Kochert’s an old-time Democrat, not an old-line Republican.

Same difference, apparently.

Amid the presentation by the unelected citizen’s advocate and the most recent addition to the council, with the former sprinkling her self-referencing narrative with future Erika tag lines and the latter shaking frequent quasi-socialist fists at the railroad and issuing ultimatums, one extreme example of a Freudian slip came forth in all the grandeur that inflated egos are capable of mustering.

Zurschmiede asked Bolovschak to explain the point of it all, and she responded thusly: “If I pull this off … I mean, if we pull this off ... "

‘Nuff said, indeed.

Does the CSX railroad "own" the 15th Street right of way?

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.