Another public meeting Thursday afternoon in Las Animas further outlined a proposed railroad line that would pass through Bent County to facilitate coal train traffic from Wyoming to Texas.
A crowd of about 50 people attended the session, which was half the size and more subdued than a previous community meeting held in June.
The biggest change this time was the addition of citizen concerns to the fact-fighting study that is scheduled for completion in January.
A power point presentation by consultant Randy Grauberger and numerous charts set up around the elementary school gym outlined various aspects of the current study.
There are two proposed routes that would allow coal trains to bypass metropolitan Denver and travel through eastern Colorado to connect with Burnlington Northern/Santa Fe tracks that pass through Las Animas and then turn south toward Texas. The intercept would be just east of Las Animas.
Alignment A would utilize more existing track and cost an estimated $800 million to build. Alignment B would require more condemnation of land along the route and more new tracks to be installed, with an estimated cost of $1.2 million.
However, the picture is more complicated than that since a related study of financial benefits to the public, public governments and non-railroad private companies show alignment A would generate just over $1 billion in benefits and Alignment B just over $1.5 billion over the first 20 years of operation.
Grauberger said that no environmental issues had been identified that would cloud the project.
It was predicted that Alignment A would save the railroad 25,116 hours of labor a year and Alignment B would save 41,860. It was predicted that Alignment A would reduce diesel fuel consumption by 4,056,000 gallons a year and Alignment B 6,500,000 gallons a year along the new route.
Later in the meeting Grauberger said if the project is built, the railroad would determine which route it would utilize. Route selection would not be put to a public vote.
Since the first meeting, which was more contentious, the Colorado Department of Transportation-sponsored study has recognized the following citizen concerns:
• Right of way ownership acquisition.
• * Property tax changes.
• * Ownership of mineral rights.
• *Changes in property evaluation.
• * Eastern plains economic costs and benefits
• * Impact on farming and ranching.
• * Railroad crossing safety.
• * Crossing location and access.
• * Access to water.
• * Noxious weeds.
• * Hazardous waste
• * Fencing maintenance
• * Vibration, noise, pollution.
Some members of the crowd who had attended meetings earlier in the week said the chart depicting these concerns had been added since Monday.
