Just a point of order, the former mayor of Kingston blocked the railroad back in 2013. Not the current mayor in office.

It's great that everyone is discussing the current situation here and on Facebook, but a phone call complaining about the ouster of the CMRR to the Ulster County Tourism office could be more helpful:

(845) 334-5459

Their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/UlsterCountyTourism/

And call the Kingston mayor's office:

http://kingston-ny.gov/content/8399/846 ... fault.aspx

Steven T. Noble
Phone: (845) 334-3902

Back in 2013, City of Kingston parked a DPW truck on the tracks to force the railroad to comply with an injunction preventing them from moving some passenger cars into their yard. These were the same cars that the town complained about being left at their former location for so long. CMRR had no intention of violating the injunction, but under orders from the county, the city parked a truck on the tracks, That mayor is no longer in office.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-new ... -into-city

For some reason the DOT thought they needed to get involved. Really, all you needed was a call to the State Police and a tow truck.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/article/DF/ ... /304299929

This article has my beautiful cell phone shot:

http://www.watershedpost.com/2013/train ... road-track

-otto-

Regarding FEMA projects:



http://www.watershedpost.com/2013/catsk ... udge-rules

-otto-

And here's the "gag order" placed into the legal settlement document the railroad was forced to sign...



Full file is here:

http://ulstercountyny.gov/sites/default ... eement.pdf

-otto-

Wow, hadn't seen that part of the agreement and that's nearly unprecedented.

The response on the Ulster Tourism Facebook page appears to be rather overwhelming. Having participated in a couple concerted Facebook posting attacks elsewhere, this appears to be well on the way of fitting that definition.
https://www.facebook.com/UlsterCountyTo ... e_internal

Note that the response posting (Rice) is publicly accusing the railroad of not having the track above Hurley Mt. Road to FRA1. At least as far up as where the North Pole was in December, it most certainly was, and my understanding was that it was inspected by the FRA.

"Risking lives by running beyond Hurley Mt. Road".... Really? I'm having difficulty determining if that's an official viewpoint posting of the Tourism agency or not, one would certainly hope not but in this arena it's hard to tell.

Wow...

A little late for that, don't you think? With all the crap that CMRR has had to put up with from the city of Kingston and Ulster County, I think I would have loaded the trucks and pulled out a long time ago. Why try to stay where you are obviously not wanted?

OK I went over there and stirred the pot a little! :) Mr. Rice deserves it.

cool...OK that was dirty politics putting a gag order, somebody is up to something.

But that doesnt limit anybody else talking about it or complaining.

It's not over.

And the "Reviews" page is now gone. *poof*

They must be in damage control mode because I left a nice long not-so-nice post on their wall, which is also gone as well.

A number of things are standing out that didn't come out so strongly before.

One is that this seems to have become a VERY personal matter for the county's chief executive, Mike Hein. Now he's apparently always had an aggressive personality, but this seems to be something that is driving him, indeed almost eating at him. The comments about him spending time, effort, and political capital on this vs. his proposed veterans project say much of this.

The question is, why? What has made this so personal? Did someone insult him or hurt him so grievously? How did that happen?

I can't imagine anyone quite carrying on such a grudge, at least not a reasonable person. . .so maybe this says much about Mr. Hein.

Another thing is that a Facebook "friend" and I, discussing how the legislature could rein in Hein but doesn't want to, said the reason the legislature hasn't done so is that that the members don't want to make waves and undercut the position they themselves drew up in a county organization a few years ago. He said they are probably still hoping this will all go away.

But from what I'm reading, it's not going away. If anything, the situation seems to be escalating, even as the railroad has ceased operations. Take note of the tourism page, which suggests someone is in "damage control" mode.

I've said this before, and it bears repeating again.

I, and I suspect many others here, can remember when a railroad would come out and there would be no protests, no fights, no rallies. Recall that Penn Station had maybe a couple of dozen architects and artists protest its demolition in the early 1960s, and this was in New York City with its millions. Now we've had at least two rallies in Kingston--with probably over 100 people in each one--in a town that isn't even a decimal point in population compared with NYC. The same goes for Saranac Lake in regard to the Adirondack Scenic, and Saranac Lake is quite a bit smaller than Kingston.

I think things are changing in this country. I think there is a generational shift occurring.

It's been brought up in a number of areas that not everybody wants to drive the way people used to do; only a third of teenagers want their licenses by the time they are sixteen, compared with about 50% ten years ago.

I don't think you would have seen these protests and rallies as recently as five years ago.

This is one of those things some of our leaders might want to start considering--but so far they are not.

Good news, I've recently contacted Hein's office and it appears there's a good chance I should be having a little chat with him next week. I can't wait to discuss with the executive the FEMA Funds, former mayor blocking the tracks and etc. Maybe I'll question him on just how within a year he was able to reverse his stance on the railroad and go for trail advocation. The ideas are breathtaking nevertheless I fully understand this might be a one time only chance to speak with the executive especially with the CMRR in the position it's in. Given my current status as a student perhaps Hein will actually listen and understand his opposition lays way beyond his expectations. If there's anything you'd like me to specifically mention in our call please let me know otherwise,

Cameron

If you do be sure your conversation represents more that just CMRR but there's a whole community for it. If some politician somewhere is taking some opposing stance he is not doing his/her service to the public. We keep hearing about rail/trail controversies here and we all know both can work together instead of ripping the rails out, and the Railroad there still retains potential and should be maintained even for potential freight service. Otherwise have fun with the tourist trains generate fun and tourism dollars, its all plus plus for everybody.