NORWICH – A decision to repair or permanently abandon the flood-damaged stretch of the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad from Greene to Sherburne could come within the next 60 days, NYS&W owner Walter Rich said Tuesday.
“We are still evaluating our options, no decision has been made yet,” Rich said, in a phone interview with The Evening Sun. “We don’t want to rush to conclusions.”
Late-June flooding damaged the tracks, prompting the company to file an article of abandonment, thus suspending travel on the rails that run parallel to state Route 12 through Chenango County.
Prior to the rail closure, the NYS&W had come under fire for giving New York Regional Interconnect Inc. – an Albany firm proposing to construct a high voltage power line through 44 miles of the county – a land rights option to erect the line on railroad right of ways.
When asked if the NYRI deal would have any impact on the NYS&W’s decision, Rich replied, “No.”
“I don’t know that we’ve reached that conclusion,” responded Rich, after being asked if his company was leaning more toward closure or re-opening. “We are looking at the all angles, to see what the answer is,” he said.
Rich said the NYS&W plans to meet with local officials and the Chenango County Industrial Development Agency to discuss plans for the future. Through a series of ten-year agreements with the IDA, the rail company has already operated tax-free in the county since 1982.
“We haven’t talked to them in a few months,” said Maureen Carpenter, the head of Chenango County Economic Development and staff member for the IDA, referring to the NYS&W. Carpenter said that any negotiations and final decisions are ultimately up to the rail company, who current tax free agreement extends until 2012. “We’ll set up another meeting and see what we can do to assist them,” she said. “We’ll see where they stand.”
Rich’s company also has similar agreements, known as PILOTS (Payment in Lieu of Taxes), in the other counties that host the railroad’s Binghamton to Utica run. In Oneida County, its industrial development agency voted not to re-up NYS&W’s pilot agreement, which came up for review in October. According to previous report, Oneida County is where the NYS&W had conducted a bulk of its service.
Both NYRI and the NYS&W are currently embattled in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in state Supreme Court with the Utica Observer-Dispatch to have specific details of their land rights agreement suppressed.
NYRI’s line would run 200 miles from Oneida to Orange County, using NYS&W right of ways from the City of Utica to Woods Corners in the Town of Norwich. Citizens, along with local, state, and federal officials have come out against the power line, who’s developers admit would raise Upstate electricity rates and have “intangible benefits” for its host communities.
Residents along the line are concerned the line could have negative health, environmental, and economic impacts in their communities. At a senate hearing in June, when asked if the power line was for private benefit or public good, a NYRI official responded, “I don’t know.”