The Texas State Railroad Operating Agency (the new community-organized and state chartered agency for likely takeover of the TSR) is issuing a Request for Qualifications for a tourist railroad operator. The selected operator will be invited to negotiations with for an operating contract, for operations after August 31, 2007.

This does include the campground(s), however, that may be subcontracted.

The RFQ is due Feb. 12th.

It may be directly downloaded here:
http://www.stoneconsulting.com/TSRrfqfinal1.pdf

If you have questions on the RFQ to be shared among interested parties, e-mail us (or me) directly; I cannot comment beyond the RFQ offering notice here.

It may not mean anything, but this morning's Houston Chronicle reports that the the funding bill for the Texas State Park system has been numbered HB-6. This bill mandates that all of the revenue from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses goes to the State Parks, and not just the minimum that was mandated before. This could result in as much as 4 times the amount of money going to the state parks next year. I can't remember the specific numbers, but it is a lot of $$$$. The small number makes it a very high priority bill in the legislature.
At the same time, the City of Dallas and the Texas Water Development Board are suing to overturn the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Interior Department to overturn the proposed wildife refuge and allow construction to proceed on the Fastrill Reservoir. Gov. Rick Perry has weighed in on the side of Dallas.
The Texas soap opera continues!

I told you guys to vote Kinky. Maybe you will listen next time.

dave

We did!. The problem was that not enough of us did!

[quote="Dave"]I told you guys to vote Kinky. Maybe you will listen next time.[/quote]

Nah..

It's a legislative issue. Nevertheless TSRR's bast chance of survival is to get it out of the State's provenance. The RFQ process is a step in that direction.

I, a proud member of the religious right wing, and absolutely every one else I know voted for Kinky, and I mean some real conservatives. My blue haired senior citizen Momma voted for Kinky. In fact, I can't even think of any tried and true Republicans that didn't...the Governor's TransTexas Corridor toll road has made him as popular as a dog at a cat show.

Without getting off topic too much, most voting in Texas is now touch screen, and in my county (collin) there is no receipt of any kind...paper, plastic or poop... so there is really no telling how a vote gets counted.

A good friend of mine, a Harvard grad, said that he heard rumors years ago of a computor program that used "fuzzy logic" when reporting votes; the way it worked was that the desired winner got all votes that he/she got at the ballot, and the votes for the next strongest candidates were randomly assigned among the weakest.

The word I am getting from the local Republican machine is that Fastril IS going to be built, and that the wildlife sanctuary determination will get overturned by the end of the summer. If thats the case the best bet may be a Rusk-Maydelle operation, as the rest will be underwater.

All the Yuppie soccer scum have to keep their yards green somehow!