Bourbon Mayor Sky Huddleston said he is working on a structure to reactivate the Cuba to Bixby lead line corridor in an attempt to reduce truck traffic, as well as improve profitability and reduce the operational expenditure, shipping and logistical costs of businesses along the corridor.

“There are dozens of businesses from chemical plants, manufacturing companies (and) multiple sawmills that would all benefit immensely from this rail corridor being reactivated with the mine serving as an anchor,” Huddleston said. “There’s whole lists of available grants and tax abatements and opportunities at the state and federal level that are available for reactivation like this.”

He emphasized that every truck the county can get off the road will save a lot in road maintenance fees, and trains are able to bust through ice and snow unlike trucks.

All he asked the commission for was a letter of support for his idea.

District 2 Associate Commissioner Jared Boast said that he likes the ideas because they promote growth, but he wanted a little more time to look over the information that Huddleston provided and have an attorney review it before making a decision. District 1 Associate Commissioner Mark Pfeiffer was unable to attend, and since this decision includes both districts, Boast also wanted to wait until Pfeiffer was back and could review the information.

Danny Brown, Crawford County road consultant and bridge engineer, updated the commissioners on the county’s bridge projects.

“Smith Road is basically getting the final touch done to it,” Brown said.

The end bents, which are a substructure unit that supports each end of a bridge span, have been poured. Due to the subcontractor on the project being slow with the drilling and pile driving, the project was given a two-week extension.

With the John Coleman Road bridge project, the county was finally given the go-ahead after the insurance was sorted out.

“It’s going to cost the county $7,098 more on the insurance that the contractor has to put up to meet the qualifications of the matter,” Brown said. “It wasn’t, the numbers they gave us to start with wasn’t there. We met the numbers they said earlier. In the middle of the game, they changed their numbers. They want a higher rating insurance on millions of aggregate and liability insurance.”

He said that there are no guarantees, but hopefully work will start within the next two weeks.

Brent Cain, with Great River Engineering, said that because of the time delay with getting an easement from the railroad and the insurance increase, the commissioners approved an extension to go out to Jan. 29, 2027, and the contractor said that by Nov. 16, they plan to be on site to start construction.