BY RICHARD MASSEY
Contributing Writer, Delta Business Journal

  If purchase negotiations flow as smoothly as did the legislative action during the 2000 regular session, then there is a good chance that Coahoma County will be successful in its bid to purchase the Mississippi Delta Railroad.
  With the Coahoma County Railroad Bill having been signed into law by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove on April 3, the county, if the purchase is made, will have clear-cut authority to operate the railroad as far south as Swan Lake in Tallahatchie County.
An amendment to a piece of 1999 legislation, House Bill 394 effectively clarified the term “motor vehicle transportation,” and defined it as “railroad transportation system for passengers and freight,” a more specific term that clearly authorizes the county to handle railroad operations.
  The House Bill, authored by Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale, passed from the House to the Senate on March 9 by a near unanimous vote.
 Once in the Senate, Sen. Delma Furniss, D-Rena Lara, had to hoist the bill from both the Highways and Transportation Committee and the Municipalities Committee. Once the bill made it to the floor, it passed without debate in late March and moved onward to the governor’s desk.
  Now that the legislation is in place, the county can now turn its attention to the actual purchase of the line as well as an assessment of its conditions and the repairs that need to be made.
  The Mississippi Delta Railroad is slated to be abandoned if a buyer is not found for the line.
  On Monday, April 17, the Canadian National-Illinois Central attorneys will meet in Coahoma County with County Administrator Hugh Jack Stubbs and Tom Ross, the attorney for the County Board of Supervisors. During the closed meeting, the two groups will work on a purchase proposal.
  “We’re trying to push it along,” said Stubbs, who added that the purchase of the line will be made from both the Canadian National-Illinois Central Railroad and the Gulf and Ohio Railroad, the two entities that own the segments of the line that are for sale.
  The series of events that transpired at the Statehouse were only the latest in a long line of efforts on the part of Coahoma County leaders to ensure that the railroad is not torn from the ground as was the one in Tunica County.
  In August 1999, the supervisors authorized Ross and Stubbs to enter into purchase negotiations. Delta Oil Mill, a cotton seed processor in Jonestown, owns the portion of line that runs from Jonestown to Lula. Canadian National-Illinois Central owns the portion of the line that stretches from Clarksdale to Swan Lake. Mississippi Delta Railroad operates the entire line.
  As authorized, Stubbs and Ross will try to ink a deal for the line, which will likely cost around $1.2 million.
  Key features in the negotiations could be applications filed with the State Rail Loan Program, the State Development Infrastructure Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Rural Business Enterprise Grants and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration.
  Before the 2000 session began, the county had secured $2.25 million in grants and loans for purchase and repairs.
  The decision to abandon the railroad was based on the “mothballing” of the Archer Daniel Midland Company’s soybean processing plant in Clarksdale. At that time, the soybean processing plant provided 61 percent of the traffic on the rail line.
  When the decision to abandon the line was announced in June 1998, Illinois Central was in the process of merging with Canadian National Railroad.
  While in the process of merging, Illinois Central did not want other negotiations to negatively affect the merger, so the abandonment of the local line was postponed.
  Once the merger between the two railroad giants was secured on June 25, 1999, plans to either abandon or sell the railroad resurfaced. This is when local officials became involved.
  With several area companies still using the rail lines and the potential for future economic development a looming issue, the Clarksdale/Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce began to urge the supervisors to take action.
  The plan is simple: buy the rail line for as little as possible while using as many federal and state grants as possible.
  Ron Hudson, executive director of the chamber of commerce, in August said, “If we get the price low enough . . . it begins to look like a good deal to us.”
  In a resolution penned by members of the chamber, it was stated that rail service in Coahoma County is “critical to the economic development of Coahoma County.” It was also stated in the resolution that the supervisors should seek grant and loan assistance so that the “general fund taxes are not raised for said purpose or cause a reduction in other programs of
service.”
  In Hudson’s words, the county is to look for the “least painful way to purchase the line.”
 Along with Delta Oil Mill, the companies that still use the rail line are Greaber Brothers propane distributors,  Cooper Tire, Colonial Bag and Martin Brothers Scrap.
  County Administrator Hugh Jack Stubbs had said repeatedly that in the beginning, the purchase of the line might not have an impact. But with an eye on future developments, such as tourism or increased industrial activity, the railroad could be an extremely valuable piece of property.