Save the Katy Trail

Here's a Columbia Daily Tribune story that highlights some of the money issues previously pointed out here on Fired Up!

Since 1997, the Columbia contractor and his wife, Susanna, have contributed more than $27,000 to Missouri Republican candidates for federal office.

Now some critics are questioning whether it’s payback time for his company, which has been awarded a lucrative contract to dismantle the old Boonville rail bridge - a controversial plan supported by Republican Gov. Matt Blunt and his administration.

More:

Beginning in 2000, Kettlewell served on the Missouri Millennium Fund, a political action committee created by Bond to raise money for GOP candidates in Missouri.

Cindy Beale, another Republican from Columbia who served as treasurer of the Millennium Fund, said the group disbanded after changes in campaign finance laws.

According to records from The Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog organization in Washington, D.C., the Millennium Fund collected more than $350,000 for the Missouri Republican Party.

Click here for more on the Missouri Millenium Fund.

Here's an editorial from the Springfield News Leader on the Katy Trail fight.

 

Can you guess who is the largest private landholder in the United States?

That's right, founded in 1862, the Union Pacific Railroad is the largest landholder west of the Mississippi River and it is second only to the United States government in overall landholdings within the United States.  So, I guess that would make them the largest private landholder overall.

Thanks to Governor Matt Blunt, their holdings are now one bridge larger.

Can you name the seven companies, that according to the Washington Post, have combined, given over $1.2 million in campaign contributions to Governor Matt Blunt's father, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-K Street), during his career in Congress?

Over the years, seven companies with business before Congress stand out as the most reliable Blunt supporters: Altria, SBC Communications, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, Verizon, United Parcel Service and BellSouth have together given more than $1.2 million to political committees tied to Blunt.

Here's today's Post Dispatch editorial on the Katy Trail.

I am game to call but I'd like to be able to locate this tidbit on the MO government page first so I don't look like a fool.  I'd also like suggestions from others who have called the Gov. office in the past what is the best ediqutte to get heard.  I've cross posted this issue on my blog too.  Hope it gets read...

The Blunt Team apparently ignored the potential economic impact of putting the Katy Trail system at risk.  According to this article:

A four-year study conducted by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources revealed over 300,000 people use the Katy Trail each year, with an average income of $75,000 per year - with those numbers increasing annually.

Instead, it appears he focussed only on the economic impact his decision would have on his, his father's and his party's donors.

There's an interesting development on the State Chamber's role in this fiasco.  Why would they be going against the wishes of the local Boonville Chamber of Commerce?  Click here to find out why.

Here's an interesting development via the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said today he’s going to do whatever he can legally to save the 72-year-old railroad bridge at the center of a tug of war between Union Pacific Railroad and supporters of the cross-state Katy trail.

Blunt's method of decision-making is deeply troubling:

Neither Blunt’s office nor DNR sought Nixon’s advice before deciding to relinquish the structure to Union Pacific, the attorney general said.

This is from a story in today's Washington Post about Roy Blunt:

Over the years, seven companies with business before Congress stand out as the most reliable Blunt supporters: Altria, SBC Communications, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, Verizon, United Parcel Service and BellSouth have together given more than $1.2 million to political committees tied to Blunt.

This just keeps getting smellier and smellier.

And while Blunt and the Missouri Republican Party auction off the bridge to political donors, the good people of Boonville are just trying to make sense of it all.  Check out this story from irail about the sad situation:

Some highlights:

• Within days of the Missouri Republican Party cashing the checks from Union Pacific and OCCI, Matt Blunt's Office called the Mayor of Boonville and told her the bridge would not be saved;
  

• Doyle Childers, the MDNR Director, is befuddled by the whole thing;
  

• Sen. Bill Stouffer is in way over his head.  Stouffer's spokesman is quoted as saying, "The good news is we have a decision (about the bridge) - although it's the wrong one - and we were able to stall the matter for five months." 
  

• The positive economic impact of the Katy Trail far outweighs the economic impact of the political contributions from Union Pacific and OCCI to the Missouri Republican Party.
  

According to a front page story in today's Wall Street Journal (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), here's the value of Mr. Blunt's gift to the Union Pacific Railroad:

Thanks to the price of steel, the white elephant suddenly was a golden goose. Mr. Kettlewell, Union Pacific's contractor, estimates the lift-span could fetch more than $100,000 as scrap. The other four spans would be reassembled on the Osage River near the state capital, Jefferson City, where a single-rail bridge now funnels traffic from two lines. Building a new bridge at current steel prices would cost $20 million, Union Pacific estimates. After paying Mr. Kettlewell, the railroad stands to save at least $10 million on the project.

More on Mr. Kettlewell:

Mr. Kettlewell, the contractor, went to work -- lobbying. By his own description, he's an acquaintance of Missouri Republican Gov. Matt Blunt and an energetic Republican fund-raiser.

Here's the KC Star's Mike Hendricks' take on the Katy Trail saga:

Might Matt Blunt be putting Missouri's Katy Trail in jeopardy?

That's what the former No. 3 official at the Department of Natural Resources thinks of Blunt's decision to let the Union Pacific Railroad dismantle a rail bridge at Boonville.

And to emphasize that point, Ron Kucera resigned his job of 28 years in protest last week. He's not the only one worried.

So is a former Katy railroad official who helped craft the 1987 agreement that turned the former rail line into a biking and hiking path that has become one of the state's top tourism attractions.

Removing the bridge, says former Katy Vice President Raye Reynolds, could open the door to challenges from adjacent landowners who never wanted the trail in the first place. The line was formally known as the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co.

Here's some additional background on how the Katy Trail was assembled.  It also helps make clear why Governor Blunt's action endangers the entire trail.

The opportunity for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to acquire the right-of-way was made possible by the National Trails System Act, which provides that railroad corridors no longer needed for active rail service can be banked for future transportation needs and used on an interim basis for recreational trails. Because of a generous donation by the late Edward D. "Ted" Jones, the department was able to secure the right-of-way and construct the trail. In 1991, the Union Pacific Railroad donated to the state an additional 33 miles of rail corridor from Sedalia to east of Clinton. Additional purchases and donations have been added. Today, Katy Trail state park is open for 225 miles from St. Charles to Clinton and is operated by the Department of Natural Resources as part of the state park system.

You mention "the bridge." Is there only one bridge on the Katy Traill, if so where is it located ? or is there a plan to sell the Katy Trail for some real estate venture? And follow the money, there is where you will find who ever it is. Has anyone placed their bid for the Govenor's Mansion in Jefferson City ? That should bring in a good price.

The story is that the "brain trust" from Clinton Missouri, Shannon Cooper threatened to hold up the entire budget of the Department of Natural Resources until the department submitted to his request to have the department violate the law and eradicate the state's rights in the bridge.  Word on the street is that he has a friend in the bridge business whose pockets he wants lined in this deal.  Mr. Kucera could no longer remain in the department and watch this illegal behavior.  He signed the agreement and knows that the bridge giveaway is illegal and patently against the state's interest.  The Governor's office thinks it can repudiate this agreement as it is an old and obscure document ( see Department's press release).  Clearly, they are not capable of understanding old legal documents such as the Missouri Constitution which last I checked prohibits the Governor from giving away state property for free to private special interests.  The state paid over $200,000 for its rights in that bridge and the scrap metal of that bridge is estimated to be worth at least 8  million dollars (according to engineers from Union Pacific).  We should be looking at getting a tax payer to sue the state for its unlawful release of state property.