Save spur

Roughly 30 members of the Red Oak community came together on Thursday, Sept. 14 to discuss the future of the city’s rail spur.

The rail spur, which comes off of the main line of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad line, heads north into the industrial park, and was installed by the Red Oak Industrial Foundation in 1979 to provide two tracks for a former business. The rail spur is currently tied into Johnson Controls and Minsa. Both own and maintain their own siding, along with a switch off of the spur.

The spur was sold in 2007 to Red Oak Ethanol, before being acquired by the Red Oak Industrial Foundation in 2009 when Red Oak Ethanol decided not to build a plant. In 2010, the city of Red Oak and Montgomery County jointly funded the maintenance of the spur for five years. In 2011, the Red Oak Industrial Foundation merged with the Red Oak Chamber and Industry Association, and the spur has been under the ownership of the chamber since 2011.

ROCIA treasurer Tim Werges outlined the finances, and said the income from Johnston Controls and Minsa was $10,700, while insurance, property taxes, and maintenance were over $14,000, resulting in a fixed shortfall of $4,000 annually. Also, Werges said there were additional expenses coming in the future.

“We have a $32,475 repair from Railworks that doesn’t have to be done now, but it will be in the near future. We have funding from the city and county that can contribute to the maintenance project, but the repair will further add to the annual deficit. Also, BNSF advised they would be charging us an annual maintenance fee of $13,000. It’s not being assessed at this time, but at some point in the future, we will be facing that $13,000 bill, which will make it even harder to afford,” Werges explained.