Sanders Co. Commissioners hear passenger rail service update

The Sanders County Commissioners met recently to receive the latest report on the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority efforts to revive passenger rail service through the county.

Late last year the commissioners approved joining the Passenger Rail Authority with eleven other Montana Counties across the southern half of Montana. The member counties signed on by adopting a joint resolution as authorized by Montana state statute providing for the preservation and improvement of abandoned (passenger) rail service.

Since Amtrak’s discontinuation of the North Coast Hiawatha, Sanders County has been without a passenger rail line, a service that had prospered in the county from the 1890s until 1979.

Jerry McDonald, appointed Sanders County's Director to the Authority by the commissioners in September 2020, updated Commissioners on progress the Authority has made since its official formation on Nov. 18, 2020.

“Official progress to date has been mostly forming up and laying the groundwork," McDonald said. This included authorizing principal business location, ratifying terms of the board, electing officers of the Authority and dividing work across four subcommittees: Rules & Procedures (bylaws), Strategic Planning, Communications and Public Relations, and Finance.”

McDonald was elected as Treasurer of the Authority is also the Chair of the Authority’s Finance Committee. The remainder of official work completed centers around “public outreach, technical research and two legal documents, the first which the original member counties adopted and a second for Montana counties that wish to join the Big Sky PRA.”

McDonald reported that the cost of the required legal work by outside counsel and IT resources to develop and host the website has been funded entirely by Missoula County.

Last year Missoula County approved a $10,000 contribution and Missoula County Board Chair David Strohmaier added $350 out of his Commissioner's fund to kickstart the early effort. Missoula has also contributed an estimated $13,250 of in-kind contributions from its County legal, accounting, administrative and technical staff.

McDonald reported that the Authority Board and authorized a baseline $65,000 feasibility study when funds become available through fundraising from businesses and individuals.

County commissioners asked McDonald if the host railroads BNSF and Montana Rail Link approved of passenger service along their tracks.

McDonald said that, though no firm commitments have been made by either BNSF or MRL neither has raised any objections in meetings between those host railroads and Amtrak or the Authority.

"Permission to use the [rail] tracks is the foundation” on which the whole effort rests, Commissioner Glen Magera said, acknowledging that “host railroads would probably need the feasibility study to make decisions.”

County HR Director Richard Wallace, a citizen volunteer on the Authority's Strategic Planning subcommittee, reported on a planning survey to be filled out among Authority board members. Wallace and the commissioners agreed that the survey should be circulated among commissioners of the member counties.

Commissioner Carol Brooker noted the Authority website donation page and asked if there had been any contributions through the site. McDonald replied that there had been several hundred dollars donated to the Authority through the site and that all donations were tax deductible. McDonald drew attention to future expenditures outside of the feasibility study that will need funding.

“Our first order of business from my perspective as Treasurer is to build donation interest from businesses and individuals," McDonald said. "Private donations are a reasonable indication to public bodies of voters' position on how to spend tax dollars."

For more information visit bigskyrail.org.