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Colorado Commissioners: Scott Gibbs-Vice Chair, Mark Graybill-Treasurer
New Mexico Commissioners: Kim Smith-Casford-Secretary, Billy Elbrock-Chairman
General Manager of the Cumbres & Toltec railroad: Ed Beaudette
Glossary (initialisms that may appear in this document):
ARPA: American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
BAR: Budget Adjustment Request
C&TS: Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
C19: Covid-19 virus
CO: Colorado
CDOT: Colorado Department Of Transportation
CRF: Car Restoration Facility, Antonito
CS: Colorado Springs, CO
CTO: Cumbres Toltec Operating company
D&RG: Denver & Rio Grande Railroad
D&S: Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
DFA: Department of Financial Administration (NM)
DRHS: Durango Railroad Historical Society
DTS: Dynamic Ticket Solutions (the prior ticketing company used by the C&TS)
FH: Fare Harbor (the current ticketing company used by the C&TS)
FY: Fiscal Year
FRA: Federal Railroad Administration
G&A: General and Administrative
HPA: Historic Preservation Account, or Historic Preservaton Association
HR: Human Relations
JBC: Joint Budget Committee (CO)
LFC: Leglislative Finance Committee (NM)
MOW: Maintenance Of Way
NOI: Net Operating Income
NM: New Mexico
ROW: Right of Way
RPO: Railroad Post Office
RR: Railroad, the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, unless mentioned otherwise
SHF: State Historic Fund (CO)
SLV: San Louis Valley, the area that contains Antonito
TABB: Tracks Across Borders Byway
VIHR: Victorian Iron Horse Roundup (August 2021 special event)
YTD: Year To Date (fiscal normally)
‘the Friends’: The Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR, the museum arm,
http://www.cumbrestoltec.org
Items 6 & 7 were swapped. Item 13a was tabled.
The RR has had an interesting winter on the shop side of things. The passenger cars are pretty much ready for opening day. They will try to move those cars across on the 21st (a trainset to Chama). There is still work being done on the new coach (526), there are a few siding issues. Painting can be done next week. Equipment for brush cutting has been staged. Mark at forestery will be doing the brush cutting starting at mile post 295.3 and will progress westward until funds are exhausted. The entire track is open. Rocks were the main issue. There is a little bit of snow on the road to Osier. Monday or Tuesday, the snow will be removed so the road can dry out. Then work at Osier can begin. A lot of motor car parts have been sourced from TX. The final load can be retrieved next month. This will add two more cars to the fire force. The brush cutting team will be on site next Wednesday. The equipment will be staged at mile post 305. The work team will camp there so they can watch the stuff at night. On the weekends, the equipment will be stored in Antonito for safekeeping. There might be a need for a nite watchman at the staging area. On the trackside of things, they have moved the phone booths for the friends. A section of track has been built at the CRF. The fire plan was worked on and communicated with the forest service. They are waiting to see what happens on the Long Creek culvert repair, to see when the RR can get involved.
Locomotives, FRA was in town the past week. All of the boilers checked out good. There is some running gear work to be done. That will take some time. There should be some locomotives ready for opening day. There is great interest in the status of locomotive 114 (the diesel from AK). The oil cooler and water pump will be installed in the next day or so, then a complete electronics test can be performed. It is desired to get it running very soon, as there is ballast to move.
Commissioner Graybill mentioned that the fire mitigation was provided by CO with $500,000 in funding. That work is expected to complete about June 15 to 20. All final efforts will be complete by year end. GM Beaudette mentioned that the boilers are all 100+ years old. Commissioner Gibbs thanked Marvin for his collaboration with the Rio Grande and Carson national forests regarding the fire mitigation plans. Marvin responded that it took several members of the RR to get that work done.
The Pay Car F grant has been closed out as of this day, final payment received. The operating budget has been submitted to DFA on May 1. That is the budget to be approved in this meeting. The annual audit cycle moves back to CO this year. The RFPs have been sent out for the audit firm. The audits will be performed by a CO firm for the next three to six years. Not much activity at the current time in HPA. There is an increase from prior year. Total liabilities have a slight increase from prior year. The HPA seen seen an increase due to operational revenue. Expenses have decreased overall, largely due to the winding down of the historic car fleet rebuilding. The commission balance sheet looks strong. Total assets have seen an increase, due to bank accounts and inter company transfers. Total liabilities have also increased also due to inter company transfers. Total balance is up this year due to the auto license plate fees received as well as general fund support from NM. Expenses such as payroll have decreased. CTO has a lot of activity and shows that total assets have decreased due to the inter company transfers. Liabilities have increased due to the transfers. CTO revenue has increased due to operations. Capital is currently strong. Spending continues as work continues.
Abi was not present for the presentation. Ed Beaudette filled in. This is the time of year that marketing gets ramped up to get the customers attention. As marketing moves into the digital world, it can be seen that the track through rates are up. Effectiveness is proven when they arrive at the RR. Website traffice is mostly viewed by US viewers. Currently, foreign traffic is down, possibly due to what is going on in WA DC. Foreign interest in the D&S is also down. The RR has concerns with the current economic situation. Advance reservations are up about 7%. Revenue is also up, due to adjustments in ticket pricing. So far things are looking OK, and it is hoped it stays that way. Commissioner Graybill mentioned that using digital advertising allows greater flexibility to adjust things as market conditions change. Ed pointed out that some traditional advertising is still important, but the future is in the digital realm.
This is a busy time of year as the RR ramps up for operations. Last year the RR carried 34,500 during the regular season. Up from 30,000 the prior year. The goal this year is a 5% increase, so about 36,200. More would be even better. Snow up on Cumbress pass was about half of normal. Fire mitigation is very much a concern of the RR for this season. Spring runoff is clearly down this year. The season is expected to start off with the oil burning locomotives pretty much exclusively. Marvin and his team worked with a wide range of people to develop a fire mitigation plan. Augmenting the on track fire suppression equipment was important. The RR looks to be in better shape this year than in 2022 (another high fire danger year). The RR continues to work closely with the forest service. Commission funding comes largely from appropriated funding. The commission has received the requested funding from the states. Insurance for the property comes from the commission as they own the property. Insurance costs continue to climbs faster than revenue increases. It is a growing challenge. Full funding for capital from NM was not received. Additional funding as been requested from additional sources. CO has its own funding challenges. The RR had concerns that full funding would not be achieved. Thanks to developing relationships, full funding was gained. It wasn't as much as desired due to inflation. Funding has been approved, and on a good cycle for the next few years.
The communities are a little on edge as the season begins. The fire situation is on the minds of everyone. The RR will do everything possible to not be a problem. There are several extra trains planned for the season. There are two dinner trains out of Antonito. There are two Geology trains. The Friends wine train. The huge 4th of July train out of Chama. The village has a huge celebration planned for this year, and the RR is proud to be a part of it. Opening day this season is May 31. Normally, the RR would open May 24 this year. There are many managers and supervisors that have children or grand children graduating from high school or college on the 24th. Thus the delay of one week. There will be a display or something in the yard on the 24th, just no running trains. The communities are fine with the decision. The season will end a week later this year due to this change in opening day. That provides the normal number of operating days.
CO & NM were both thanked for their capital funding. It keeps people employed over the winter on those projects that can be performed then. NM is providing about $1 million, and CO is providing a little more than that. Both governors have signed those appropriation bills, Thank You! That will help a great deal as the RR moves into its next FY, July 1. Commissioner Gibbs said he saw the new coach (526). It looks wonderful. He wants to ride it. Marvin mentioned Long Creek. There is a culvert there that needs to be replaced. Cost is about $800,000. Not fixing the culvert risks cutting the RR in two. The repair comes out of the capital budget. That will eat a large portion of the available funding this year. It is a critical project.
TABB has been very busy since the last meeting. A new trifold brochure has been produced, to replace the prior rack card used for years. The D&S paid for the new trifold. The trifold has a much better map. It also has a QR code so people can download the self guided phone application. The C&T was thanked for providing the application. TABB is working on launching its new sponsorship program. It is hoped to get some new businesses and organizations to help sponsor TABB. It is desired to add additional signage as well as other projects. A new sign will go in at Juanita when the weather improves. A border sign will go in at county road 551 (Navajo to Dulce). The state (CO?) wanted one there, the county will install it. The byway is being promoted at train shows, such as the one in Colorado Springs, as well as the Rocky Mountain Train Show in Denver. Thank you to the Friends for letting TABB share the booth in Denver. TABB also attended narrow gauge days in Durango yesterday. The replacement of the stock cars in Dulce has not been worked out yet. There have been talks with the RV park in Chama about their stock cars. So far, they look to be the best source of cars in fairly decent shape. TABB meets monthly, and the RR was thanked for their support, as well as the D&S and the Friends. Commissioner Gibbs thanked John for the new sign at Navajo reservoir. John mentioned that the sign was paid for by CO. A steady source of funding would be nice for future planning. So far, it is "hat in hand" to fund projects and signs. Additional signage is desired for CO & NM. The continental divide marker on US 64/84 needs to be replaced. TABB has been working with NM on that effort.
Rick started off by thanking Tim Tenant for his years of service. Rick started officially February 15. The work session list has been produced. Volunteers can get signed up. Rich Muth, a long term Docent team leader has retired. John Porco and Tom Stewart will be the new co-leads. There are 14 docents returning this season. New docents to date are 2. Current membership is 1,815. Memberships are increasing at this time. Renewing memberships are holding strong. January through March the Friends gained 26 new members. Three came from social media, three from train shows, 22 from other sources, such as magazines. The Friends are working on review of their outreach activity. Currently focusing on outreach media, such as printed every quarter, the magazine "The Dispatch" which will continue. There is the Dispatch Extra (electronic) which has up to date information, releases about every 4 to 5 weeks. Then social media, such as the web site (needs a facelift), Facebook YouTube, and a bit of Instagram. Social media has staffing. The web site has not really had a web master. Tim Tenant took care of that as best as he could. Ian Kelly will take over as web master. Web site activity for the first quarter is up 15% due to work on the web site. Facebook is up 3%. Facebook will have links to the new web site in the future. The Friends would like to get some video content to add to their YouTube page. The Friends produced an eight page Special Dispatch in 8.5x11 format. There were 3,000 copies printed. They cost 45 cents per copy to print, a great price. The current Dispatch that is going out highlights the 100 anniversary of the K-36 locomotives. Those cost about $2.22 per copy to print, a bargin. Printing costs have gotten atrocious. Thus the shift to electronic media.
The Friends are very aware of the Chama web camera being down. Rick was surprised to learn how many people enjoy the Chama cams. There is some broken hardware that needs to be replaced. Tom Steward will put together a "band aid" fix as quickly as possible. The Friends board has authorized Tom to replace all of the old equipment. Tom will work with the RR regarding internet infrastructure.
There is a members train scheduled for June 20. That will include an afternoon BBQ at the Outlaw. The Moonlite & Wine dinner train to Osier will run August 2. There are two photo charter trains scheduled to run after the regular RR season. Those will run October 26 (Chama to Antonito) & 27 (returning to Chama). Board of Directors elections are being held this year. The next HPCC meeting will be August 1. (Ed. I forget what HPCC means, but this meeting is held between the Friends and the RR to coordinate their efforts. This meeting is held the day prior to the scheduled commission meetings). At this point, I asked about the status of web cams in Antonito. Rick replied that the first important step is get Chama back up with the "band aid". Then get the Chama system up to date with new equipment and other infrastructure. Once Chama is up running correctly, yes, Antonito cams are planned. Tom Stewart mentioned that Rick has been on since February. He has brought a lot to the table. He is really getting up to speed. Commissioner Graybill thanked the Friends for their fine work around the RR. Rick commented that the Friends volunteers have not totally aged out. Most of them are returning for another summer of work. The search for new people continues. Thus the effort to get the word out via train shows, multi media.
This item was tabled at agenda item 3.
Approved.
None
No Executive session required
** An Executive Session may be called at any time during the meeting, pursuant to Commission Policy and Practices Manual v8.0,
adopted May 20,2023 regarding limited personnel matters; strategy preliminary to attorney-client privilege pertaining to threatening or pending
litigation in which the public is or may become a prticipant, discussion of the purchase, acquisition or disposal of real property or water
rights by the public body. The Governing Body may revise the order of the agenda items considered at this Open Meeting.
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