[11/23/04]The railroad company that operates tracks through Vicksburg says remaking the roadway of the U.S. 80 Mississippi River bridge into a public park would violate its lease and, unless that idea is abandoned, legal action looms.

In a letter to the Warren County Board of Supervisors and the Vicksburg Bridge Commission, an attorney for Kansas City Southern Railway says converting the roadbed that runs parallel to the railroad tracks into a pedestrian and bicycle park which is being studied will interfere with the operation of the railroad, increase KCS’s liability and create a safety hazard.

The five-page letter says KCS has a say in the decision because its 999-year lease agreement requires, at a minimum, the company be consulted about any planned changes.

“If the commission persists in going forward with developing plans to modify the use of the bridge, the railroad will seek whatever legal and equitable remedies it has available,” wrote Betty Collins, attorney in a Jackson firm.

Bridge Commission member Bob Moss said the commission has not met to discuss the letter or decide on what action, if any, it should take. He said the letter may have been motivated by something other than safety concerns.

“I’m sure some of their concerns are valid and some are just hollow, but this could be predicated by our notice of intent to increase rates,” Moss said.

The bridge across the Mississippi was privately built by stockholders who sold it to Warren County, which has operated it as a business since the years after World War II. The Bridge Commission is composed of five members appointed by county supervisors to manage the bridge, using tolls to pay for maintenance.

This summer, the commission voted to seek a $10 per-car increase in the tolls, from $4 per car today to $14.

Under terms of the lease with the railroad company, KCS can object to the proposed increase and ask for negotiations or mediation if it feels the charge is too high.

“This could be part of their negotiations,” Moss said.

Commission vice chairman Winky Freeman also said the commission had not decided on an official position concerning the letter, but that it won’t change his position and support for converting the 74-year-old bridge into a public park.

“I think it’s something we’ll just have to deal with,” Freeman said. “I think they’re inferring litigation and if that comes to be, then that comes to be.”

So far, the only action taken by the commission toward converting the bridge into a park has been hiring local engineers with ABMB to update a 1999 study of the proposal. The commission had been under a five-year directive from the Board of Supervisors to reopen the bridge for two-way traffic, but supervisors reversed that position earlier this year at the request of the bridge commission.

After several meetings and much public debate, the commission voted unanimously to recommend the county again consider the park plan first suggested in 1998 after the roadway of the bridge was closed to vehicular traffic.

“Our emphasis for the park is because we think the community wants us to do something out there,” Moss said. “We think there are more safety issues with the bridge as it is. There are always safety issues and we are convinced that we can do this park safely.”

The Bridge Commission will meet again at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 8 at the Warren County Courthouse.

Warren County District 1 Supervisor David McDonald said he has seen the letter, but has not discussed it with other supervisors or the board’s attorney. He said the board may take a “wait and see” position toward KCS.

“Some of the things they brought up in the letter I don’t know if they can enforce or not and I’ve had some people tell me that the lease cannot be enforced because of the 999-year lease,” McDonald said.

In 1999, before the public vote on the nonbinding referendum concerning the bridge, KCS officials raised concerns about the proposed park and earlier this year their lawyers objected to the commission using money generated from the railroad lease to repair the roadbed of the bridge.

In the letter, Collins says using funds raised from the lease, even to plan a park, is illegal.

KCS also stresses the hazards associated with people being too close to working rail lines.

“The county and the commission have a duty to protect the public; neither body should mislead the public into thinking a park with a very few feet of a potentially dangerous commercial operation is safe for family outings,” Collins wrote. Copies of the letter, which also cited KCS cooperation with local officials in the new park at City Front and elsewhere, were also sent to federal regulators.

Today, an average of 15 trains per day cross the Mississippi River on the county’s bridge. It is the only railroad crossing of the river between Memphis and Baton Rouge.

The previous proposal to convert the entire bridge into a park called for an 8-foot bicycle path, a 4-foot pedestrian path and a 6-foot recreational area with benches and landscaping. The plan also calls for a protective screen to separate the park from the railroad tracks that run parallel to the roadway.

That plan had a price tag of about $2 million and was to be funded by a federal grant.

The bridge was purchased by the county from a private contractor in 1947 for $7 million and in 1997 KCS made a pitch to buy it for $5.5 million. That plan was derailed by public outcry that led to the 1999 vote when nearly 60 percent of voters supported reopening the bridge.