City looks at buying rail corridor

Could be used to create road as 'west-side traffic collector'

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 9, 1996

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

The Bemidji Public Works Committee is considering purchase of part of the abandoned Soo Line corridor from Bemidji to Gully, according to Councilor Ralph Zachman, who told the rest of the thoughts at the July 1 council meeting.

Zachman said the committee discussed the possibility that the abandoned stretch running west of the city from Southeast Paul Bunyan Drive, near Lake Bemidji, to Paul Bunyan Drive Northwest could be used as a "west-side traffic collector." This, he said, could reduce the traffic load that now bogs down Bemidji Avenue.

The committee does not have plans to construct a bypass around the city, he said, but instead another major thoroughfare, such as Irvine Avenue and Bemidji Avenue, to help move traffic through town.

He said the committee had only discussed this possibility a few days before the last council meeting, so the discussion is still preliminary. However, if the opportunity should arise the existing abandoned line is located near where the committee would like to see the new road.

Zachman said the idea is so new that he does not even know what procedure would have to be taken to pursue such a purchase.

Soo Line indicated its intention of abandoning the line last summer, citing a general lack of use. Although the line still sees use from Gully and Oklee to Thief River Falls and west, the 40-mile stretch from Bemidji through Pinewood, Gonvick and Clearbrook to Gully is underused, said Minnesota Transportation Department representative Mel Loesch at a public input session June 19 in Bemidji.

Upon notification of Soo Line's plan to abandon, MnDOT filed its intention of recovering the corridor under the Rail Bank program Dec. 18 and received approval May 6, Loesch said.

Al Vogel, director of MnDOT's Office of Railroads and Waterways, said the Rail Bank program allows MnDOT to purchase abandoned rail lines and hold the corridor intact for any "future transportation purpose." These uses can widely vary, he said, including future railroad use, highway construction, the expansion of city and county road systems, recreational purposes and the installation of transmission or utility lines.

However, MnDOT has made no move to acquire the corridor yet, said Ken Donaghue, MnDOT's Northwest land management supervisor. Donaghue was a participant in the two public input sessions held in Bemidji and Clearbrook.

He said MnDOT was simply asked to be a respondent to the Soo Line request of abandoning the line. So, MnDOT will not make a decision about putting the line in the Rail Bank until hearing from all parties involved. "We still need to compile a repot to see if we should proceed with any acquisition," he said.

Vogel said two of the issues MnDOT will consider are the possible value of maintaining the corridor as a whole for some project and working out some sort of multi-use compromise between prospective buyers.

Donaghue said if there were ever a partial sale of the line to the city of Bemidji, the ideal situation would be for the sale to take place before the rest of the corridor is placed in the Rail Bank. This would forego any complication of a transfer of ownership from MnDOT to the city. If MnDOT decides not to place the line in the Rail Bank, the city would deal directly with Soo Line, he said.

Other parties interested in portions of the line include Beltrami County, Grant Valley Township and North Country Snowmobile Club, Donaghue said.

"This takes a lot of coordination to happen," he said. "The timetable could be two to two and a half years."

"This is very new," Zachman said. "I don't even think the mayor knew about it before Monday (July 1)."