HURON — Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad president and CEO Kevin Schieffer says “we’re getting closer to construction of the railroad expansion project that will have a major impact on the Huron community,” the Huron Plainsman reported.
Schieffer, in a telephone interview Monday, said there still are some legal and financial issues that need to be resolved.
But, he concurred with comments made recently by Shawn Lyons, executive director of Greater Huron Development Corp. to the Huron school board, that some construction work could begin in 2003.
However, he was a bit guarded in saying whether it would be full speed ahead next year.
“We are working on a proposal for significant rehabilitation on existing DM&E line that could result in significant construction in 2003,” he said.
He said the railroad rehabilitation of the existing line that he’s hoping to fund with a Federal Railroad Administration loan depends on the railroad receiving sufficient support from the congressional delegation and the states effected, primarily Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa.
“At this stage, the best case scenario, is that the first full year of the Powder River Basin expansion project could be in 2004,” he said. “It will start in earnest after we get the legal and financial issues resolved.”
The railroad company still has two major legal issues to solve, one relating to Eminent Domain, which is currently in federal court in Sioux Falls with a decision expected shortly; perhaps as early as this month. The other is a lawsuit filed by Rochester, Minn.-Mayo Clinic.
When asked if Huron is still playing a prominent role in the project, Schieffer replied: “Huron most definitely is. We are joined at the hip.”
“We are most definitely pushing for work to get started,” he said.
He said the number of jobs the project will bring to Huron “will be in the hundreds.”
The railroad’s operational center will be built at the west edge of the city and include at least three separate buildings.
Schieffer said it will include a locomotive maintenance and big car repair facilities, transportation depot and administrative offices.
Once the construction is completed, the operational center will employ about 500 people at Huron, he said.
“Things take longer than we would like,” he said of the issues standing in the way of a construction start, “but it’s moving along.” The issues he referred to included legal, environmental and financial.
“There is nothing out there to change the fundamental plans,” he said. “We need to keep it moving forward, and it is moving forward.”
Schieffer said he’s planning to update members of Congress who have supported the project in the past. In particular, he mentioned Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
“We’re planning some things in 2003 that will help jump-start it,” he said.
When asked what response he expects from Gov. Bill Janklow after he joins the state’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., Schieffer said “we’ll have to see what happens.
“If attitudes change then I will happily acknowledge it,” he said in reference to Janklow.