TSRA approves $2.3 million AFA
BY LELAND ACKER

The Texas State Railroad Authority (TSRA) began the task of upgrading and repairing the Texas State Railroad during its Dec. 20, 2007 meeting at city hall in Palestine. The TSRA approved the TxDOT Advanced Funding Agreement (AFA), which is the plan needed to secure the $2.3 million toward rail rehabilitation and capital improvements. AFAs are necessary to obtain the funds since the funds are federal funds, TSRA President Steve Presley said.

"It's a huge contractual issue," Mr. Presley said.

The TSRA also discussed contracting with TranSystems for cross tie replacements. Mr. Presley said TranSystems specializes in rail systems. Their offices are in Fort Worth which will reduce transportation costs. The TxDOT engineer, Dale Booth has worked with the engineer in TranSystems, Mr. Presley said.

"This is good," he said. "The TranSystems engineer is already familiar with what we need and what Mr. Booth needs toward running the project.

"Normally these projects take months and months to move forward, but TxDOT has gone out of their way to help make this move fast, as has TPWD. Both have gone out of their way in speeding this up to get the railroad back in shape faster."

The TSRA adopted a preliminary budget.

"We know we'll have to make changes as we get on into the year," Mr. Presley said. "We had to estimate everything in the budget, because we don't know what these costs are going to be because we don't have previous years' performance to go by."

The board also voted to pay Potter Minton for the legal services of Ron Stutes and Gary Traylor for his grant consultations.