| NSC Stars future is up in the air |
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One of the Stars top additions during training camp was Two Boys Gumede, left, a South African national, who became the Conference- USA Player of the Year playing at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Photo by Jason Olson
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Nine months after the idea of bringing back professional soccer to the
National Sports Center in Blaine, became a reality, the future of the
NSC Minnesota Stars after the 2010 season looks bleak at best without
some help from community.
| Work starting on commuter rail stations |
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| Tuesday, 15 April 2008 | ||
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by Peter Bodley Managing Editor Work has started on the first of the stations for the Northstar Commuter Rail project - at the Riverdale Park and Ride site in Coon Rapids. At the same time, the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority has authorized moving forward with a funding agreement with the city of Ramsey and the professional services agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates for a preliminary environmental review, preliminary design and ridership analysis for a future Ramsey station on the system. A similar agreement is in the works between the regional rail authority and the Coon Rapids City Council for Kimley-Horn to conduct a feasibility study on the Foley station site in Coon Rapids. Both the Ramsey and Foley locations had been in the original Northstar Commuter Rail plans but were dropped to meet Federal Transit Administration (FTA) cost-effectiveness rating criteria. Now both the county rail authority and the two city councils will be hoping to recoup some or part of the costs associated with the station study and possible future construction from the newly-created Counties Transit Improvement Board (CTIB). This board will comprise representatives of the five metropolitan area counties, including Anoka County, that have voted to impose a quarter of one percent sales tax on its residents (increasing the tax from 6.25 to 6.5 percent), starting July 1, for transit purposes under authorization in the transportation funding bill enacted in February by the Minnesota Legislature by overriding Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto. The board, which also has Metropolitan Council representation, through its grants process will allocate proceeds from the sales tax to transit projects in those counties. Preliminary calculations indicate the sales tax increase could generate as much as $100 million a year for the board to allocate after administrative costs. But the first $30.783 million collected in 2009 must go to the Metropolitan Council for transit programs. Anoka County Board Chairman Dennis Berg and Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart, who is also chairman of the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority and the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA), will be the county representatives on the CTIB with Berg named the county representative on the GEARS subcommittee, which will receive, consider and make recommendations on the grants to the full board. The cost of the Ramsey station study has been pegged at $174,268, of which the rail authority and the city of Ramsey will each pay half. Money for the work is included in the corridor development line item in its 2008 budget. The Ramsey City Council has approved its cost participation in the study. According to the work program submitted by Kimley-Horn, the study will be completed by the end of the year. The Ramsey station was previously designed to preliminary engineering level in 2000-01, but the location of the proposed station has changed and the city has constructed a parking ramp adjacent to the station site in the area of the Ramsey Town Centre development and Ramsey City Hall. The proposed station is similar to the Coon Rapids Riverdale station with a pedestrian overpass across the tracks to access the inbound platform. The work program will also develop ridership and transportation user system benefit forecasts to help assess the feasibility of a station in Ramsey. The rail authority vote to move ahead with the preliminary study was 5-2 with Commissioners Rhonda Sivarajah and Robyn West opposed. Sivarajah said the initial study should only encompass ridership projections. Adding other components suggested a decision had already been made that ridership would support a station, according to Sivarajah. But Erhart and Tim Yantos, rail authority executive director, said that including not only ridership, but also preliminary engineering and environmental review as a package was necessary to determine whether the project would be cost effective to proceed to the next stage. Sivarajah was also concerned that the rail authority did not seek bids from firms to do the study, instead just picking a consultant. Kimley-Horn was chosen because it had done the engineering and environmental review for the stations in Big Lake, Elk River, Anoka and Riverdale Coon Rapids and there would be continuity, which is extremely important, Yantos said. According to the Ramsey station development plan submitted to the rail authority by Yantos, the earliest the station could be operational is 2011, assuming the project is found feasible and it is funded in 2009-10. The station construction is estimated at $8 million plus Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) easement costs, which could be up to $10 million, Yantos said. Neither the Ramsey nor the Coon Rapids Foley stations are included in the perpetual easement agreement that the NCDA negotiated with BNSF for the rest of the project, he said. The Fridley station is part of that easement agreement, but remains in limbo after the $10.65 million anticipated construction cost was not included in the 2008 bonding bills. A grant for the Fridley station construction cost will be sought from the CTIB, as will allocations for construction of the Ramsey and Foley Coon Rapids stations, he said. The Fridley station was not removed from the project to meet federal cost-effectiveness criteria, but was deferred as part of the easement negotiations with the railroad. “The Fridley station project is farther along than either the Ramsey or Foley Coon Rapids stations,” Yantos said. However, the Fridley Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) and the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority have entered into a memorandum of understanding to pay for a portion of the station project cost. Specifically, the Fridley HRA has authorized its attorneys and staff to acquire, by negotiation or by eminent domain via the use of the “quick take” process allowed by state law, the 10.6-acre Main Street property needed for the station and related facilities. The HRA has agreed to pay the cost of the property acquisition, estimated at $3.2 million. And the regional rail authority late last year authorized spending $1.5 million for the construction of a tunnel under the railroad for the station. The railroad has agreed to construct the tunnel this year, probably in May. Groundbreaking for the Riverdale Northstar station is scheduled Tuesday, April 29, 11:30 a.m. It will be the first groundbreaking for any of the stops on the commuter rail line, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009. Contractor Knutson Construction Services has started moving equipment on to the site, which is also a park and ride lot for Northstar Commuter Coach service and for Metro Transit buses. According to Jonathan Blake, public information coordinator, Northstar Commuter Rail project, the contractor will be working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, but no weekend work is planned at this time. “Residents should expect some noise during working hours, but there will not be any pile driving associated with this construction,” Blake said. The bid package for the four stations came in under budget and although the contract calls for completion in 2009, the stations could be finished before the end of this year, Yantos said. “From what the contractor tells us, construction will begin on the Big Lake station first,” he said. According to Yantos, construction on the downtown Minneapolis station, access to the new Minnesota Twins ballpark and the link to the Hiawatha light rail system, on which work started last summer, is on schedule. So is construction of the maintenance facility at Big Lake, which also began in 2007, Yantos said. The reconstructed locomotives have been ordered for delivery by this summer and 17 Northstar coaches will be delivered in the spring of 2009, he said. The Northstar Commuter Rail project has a $320 million budget for the 40-mile system that will serve Hennepin, Anoka and Sherburne counties. Service will include five round trips each weekday during rush hours, along with a reverse-commute trip each weekday and three round trips each weekend day. Federal funding is coming from a full funding grant agreement approved by the FTA late last year as well as money included in the 2006 and 2007 state bonding bills plus a 17 percent local match from the regional rail authorities of Anoka, Hennepin and Sherburne counties, for which bonds have been sold. Peter Bodley is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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