EDITORIAL
Doing the right thing isn't always easy

TERRIE GONZALEZ

Things are looking up for the soon-to-be terminated employees at the Texas State Railroad.

Reversing a previous decision, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department decided last week to award severance compensation packages to employees when TPWD hands over the railroad to a private operator. Employees who meet specific tenure requirements will now receive two months of compensation on Aug. 31.

To the decision makers - from Executive Director Bob Cook, State Parks Director Walt Dabney and Regional Director Ellen Buchanan and the nine commission members of the TPWD - we would like to say "thanks" for working through the bureaucratic red tape and finding a mechanism to issue this atypical "administrative leave."

It was not the easy thing to do ... but it was the right thing to do.

The 50-something employees

who have dedicated their best to the Texas State Railroad now have a two-month financial cushion. Hopefully, American Heritage Railways will return to Rusk and offer compensation packages that employees can embrace. For those who opt to accept retirement or look elsewhere for employment, the two months' compensation will be a financial bridge.

In more good news, Ms. Buchanan told the Cherokeean Herald recently that her agency plans to turn over the keys to the railroad on Sept. 1 with repaired track. Damage estimates are running as high as $700,000 to fix the major washout last month at Bean's Creek crossing and 13 other minor wash areas along the track.

Ms. Buchanan said that funding sources are still being negotiated, but her agency is 100 percent committed to transferring the TSR with the washouts repaired.

Bad news seemed to rain on the TSR as relentlessly as the summer floods, but the sun is indeed peeking from behind the clouds. Thank you, TPWD for showing honor and courage in the midst of a thunderstorm.