Council approves rail line funding

PLYMOUTH — By just two votes, the City Council added its piece to the financing picture for the Plymouth-Kohler rail line restoration Tuesday.

The council voted 5-3 to approve spending $240,000 in tax incremental finance district 4 funds for the $16 million rehabilitation of the long-dormant rail line.

The financing would be part of a package to bring the 10.95-mile rail line back into service. The county has applied for a $12 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II grant for the project.

The federal stimulus money, if approved, would require a $3 million local grant. The state of Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which has purchased the line and will lease it to the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad to operate, has committed to providing $2.4 million of that local match.

The proposal for the rest of the funding is to have the city of Sheboygan Falls provide $200,000, Bemis Corp. $100,000 and the Wisconsin and Southern $60,000.

The vote on the city’s appropriation was 5-3, with council members John Anderson, Jackie Jarvis and Ronald Lade voting no.

“I would like to support this project but, at this time, I don’t think I can,” explained Jarvis. She added that she has always been a strong supporter of economic development efforts, but had some unanswered concerns about the rail line project.

“I’m pretty torn over this,” Jarvis confessed. “I think the rail would provide some future (economic) opportunities, but based on the economic times, I’m not so sure it’s a good expenditure right now for the city of Plymouth.”

Jarvis also noted that she had concerns about safety with the rail line, which passes with several hundred feet or less of two subdivisions, several parks and baseball diamonds, and an elementary school.

Mayor Donald Pohlman countered that the Wisconsin and Southern’s north-south line through the city runs along the western edge of City Park, the city’s largest and busiest park, with trains now running on an every other day basis. In addition, he added, that line runs within one block of Parkview Elementary School and the Carl Loebe baseball diamond.

“We don’t hear the public screaming about that that they have a problem with it,” Pohlman noted.

He also pointed out that the ball diamonds and subdivisions were built within proximity of the previously built Plymouth-Kohler rail line. “That railroad right-of-way was there before the ball diamonds,” Pohlman stated.

Jarvis also questioned whether Bemis might not contribute more to the total project costs, based on the savings the company stands to realize when it has product delivered directly to its Sheboygan Falls plant by rail instead of being trucked from rail cars in Plymouth to Sheboygan Falls, as it is now.

Pohlman said the $100,000 commitment from Bemis was more than had been forthcoming from the private sector in earlier proposals.

“They understand the desire of both communities to have them participate substantially and $100,000, I think, is substantial,” Pohlman commented.

He pointed that the city had originally been asked to contribute $3 million toward the restoration and that the $240,000 in the current plan would be considerably less.

Lade said he was concerned about the cash flow in TIF 4 and its ability to repay the city’s financial commitment to the project.

“Without any (development) increment being put in there, the people of Plymouth are going to have a heavy tax load to sustain TIF 4,” Lade warned.

He also questioned whether an environmental impact statement for the rail line revitalization has been completed yet.

Pohlman answered that, because the state owns the line, it is the DOT’s responsibility to complete the environmental impact statement and not the city’s or the county’s.