At any rate, he appears, if Ramsey officials are correct, to be lobbying at the federal and other levels, for a Ramsey stop on the NorthStar line.
You be the judge:
PiPress, with a new apparent north metro reporter writing, has this to say:
Anoka County / Ramsey pushing for rail line stop
City vows to leap all hurdles for a fall 2009 opening
BY BRADY GERVAIS
Pioneer Press
Article Launched: 02/12/2008 12:01:00 AM CST
The city of Ramsey wants to get on board the Northstar Commuter Rail Line.
The city was expected to get a stop - eventually. But local leaders are lobbying for a station in time for the line's opening in November 2009.
"We just think that it makes sense today," said Heidi Nelson, Ramsey assistant city administrator.
The Northstar Commuter Rail Line is a 40-mile route expected to carry about 5,000 daily riders between Big Lake and downtown Minneapolis. There will be stops in Elk River, Anoka and Coon Rapids.
Now, community leaders and Northstar backers want more stops.
The Northstar Corridor Development Authority is also looking at a second station in Coon Rapids and a stop in Fridley, said Tim Yantos, executive director of the Northstar Commuter Rail Line project. And the city of Ramsey in western Anoka County is aggressively pitching itself as a viable stop.
The city's troubled Ramsey Town Center project was long envisioned as a commuter's haven along the Northstar line, with new homes, shops and attractions. A stop on the line could spur that development, Nelson said. It would be near the Ramsey Municipal Building and a parking garage with 500 spaces. Leaders promise "significant additional ridership" if there's a stop in Ramsey.
[...] They are "at different stages. It will take a while. I cannot tell you how long right now," Yantos said. But he did say it would take years.
Not only would the cities have to come up with the money to pay for the stations, but feasibility and environmental studies would be required, as would a deal with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway for access.
Still, Ramsey and the second station in Coon Rapids "are ideally suited. They have existing parking," said Jill Brown, public information officer for the project.
Ramsey officials remain determined. They have been bending the ears of local, state and federal lawmakers to get support. And the Tinklenberg Group - a transportation consulting firm founded by former state transportation commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg - is helping, Nelson said.
"We are confident that we can work through those processes," she said.
Dan Erhart, chairman of the Northstar Corridor Development Authority, didn't rule out having a Ramsey station by fall 2009. But "it will be a difficult achievement in order to get that station included in that first phase," he said.
"I certainly believe that it will be part of the overall system as we move into the future," he said.
Whoa, Bessie ---- What the, "...have to come up with the money to pay for the stations," it says. I think I smell the mendacity of another Port Authority effort the scam of the Pork Authority, redux, in Ramsey to further disadvantage Ben Dover, who does have a way to duck and cover.
Ben already pays enough, but the "Port of Ramsey" craves more - for Danny's Train Stop by the Morgue. Or the Train Stop by Danny's Morgue.
Whatever you call it, thinking about it should make Jim Deal smile. Unless it has to be privately funded and not taken out of the hides of the taxpayers. He might frown about that kind of talk.
Read the entire PiPress item for more detail, three new stops being "marketed" - to boost things from four to seven stops, not quite a doubling, ridership wholly uncertain, but "5000 daily," reported from the booster-club we all have cause to trust. Who gets what, probably depends upon who is Dan Erhart's friend, and Tinklenberg appears to be that so Ramsey giving money to Tinklenberg Group seems to advance the chance of Danny's train stopping in Ramsey. Time will tell.
Interestingly, here is an experiment.
Google = Anoka County Regional Railroad Authority
Then, first Google hit, get this info returned:
Anoka County Press Release: Commissioner Dan Erhart Named Chair of ...
Jan 3, 2007 ... Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart has been named chair of the Anoka County Regional Railroad Authority. The rail authority is the lead ...
www.co.anoka.mn.us/.../dept-public-information/news-releases/07-01-03-erhart-committees.asp - 14k - Cached ----
But try the link.
My word. It's been scrubbed.
Like the Dorsey-Whitney lawyers scrubbed mention of Ramsey Town Center from their firm's website many months ago, but they reputedly are always the first to abandon a sinking ship.
But this is our trusted County Officials. Bless them all. Scrubbing things selectively from the County Website. Dan Erhart and his minions.
What are they trying to hide?
You tell me. They've not shared any thinking with me, so I can only guess. However, ---
Yet again, Google cache comes through. What they are trying to hide is clear, and for what reason, you have to guess unless Dan or El shares thinking with you, but here at least is the content:
Now, why scrubbed? My guess, this:
Clearly, The Tink is now singing, "I ain't going to work on Danny's Train no more," to the tune of Dylan's Maggie's Farm, being as how he unregistered himself that way at the end of last year - the tune being his since Dec. 20, 2007.
Yet, the kink to the Tink in this is he now picked up the mantle of lobbying to the Danny's Train people, "to" not "on" being the difference, direction of cash flow changing, color of money staying the same.
And, hey, it sure sounds like Tink is lobbying again (and still); registered or not; and I do not want a career politician, revolving-door lobbyist to be in Congress from MN 6 - there are too many compromised "damaged-goods" folks already in Congress that we do not need to send another, or what is more likely, we have the DFL get what it deserves if the bosses run the lobbyist presently known as Tinklenberg [to borrow from Prince and his "the artist formerly ..." thing], i.e., they do a Tink cramdown against the better judgment of the grassroot people and he goes down in flames Nov. 2008, shot out of the air for what he is - by Michele Bachmann and Pastor Mac flying at him out of the sun in that German stunt-flying toy airplane the pastor had his parish purchase for him to play with.
Michele and the Living Word Christian Red Baron gunning down the Tink is what the DFL muck-a-mucks would deserve - more years of Michele Bachmann, but someone once explained things to me, "We get what they deserve."
And that is the problem with El Tinklenberg, who in 2006 even appears to have had prettier hair than now:
And that smile ... And that promised section that never came - no details, just the hair and smile. Harry Truman had a term he liked, "Stuffed shirts," and well, there is El, wearing a suit nicely. Truman was a good judge of things - allegedly a regional political boss and crony to bosses, but never a lobbyist. And we have the Tink, crony to Dan Erhart and Oberstar, AND a lobbyist to boot.
And this guy, he's not as pretty as the Tink, not at all. Lacks that nice hair --- that engaging smile ---
But, he sure does stuff a shirt nicely. You can say that for sure.
And, the text, if you enlarge the "WhatScrubed" image, discloses all this:
Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart has been named chair of the Anoka County Regional Railroad Authority. The rail authority is the lead agency in efforts to develop major transportation initiatives in the county, including the Northstar Commuter Rail line running through Anoka County from Big Lake to Minneapolis.
“It’s important that we accomplish a full funding grant agreement with the federal government in 2007 so that Northstar Commuter Rail can be operational in 2009 for the public,” said Erhart. “We are also looking at a possible commuter rail route on tracks that run through the central part of Anoka County up to Duluth.”
At the January 2, 2007, board meeting, Erhart was also named chair of the Anoka County board’s Finance and Capital Improvements Committee which includes special projects, economic development, and facilities and construction, and [...]
[emphasis added] Thus, in the hunt elbow to elbow with lobbyist Tink, for NorthStar and the Duluth line of dreams, (build it and they will ride), where Tinklenberg Group has made six-figure cash from the promotion; there's train-man Dan, who also has time to chair the county committee that instigated giving Jim Deal $500,000+ per acre for a 1.2 acre morgue site by Danny's tracks, where location, location, location is not that big a thing, and in fact, location is next to the planned old folks home. If I were looking at twilight years, I would not want to be next door to where they store and cut-up the stiffs - the reaper is close enough without that - nor would I want to be next to those noisy tracks, Night Trains and all.
I guess the ol' boys are good, in Anoka County. And, Tinklenberg Group WAS part of that set of Highway 10 buyout deals where Bruce and Claudia Nedegaard were on title, Jim Deal held half a year an unrecorded security interest, and the Minnwest Bank consortium was slow to perceive that Bruce Nedegaard's financial wherewithall might have been greater on paper than in fact.
They are good, the Anoka County ol' boys.
And you can take that to the bank. To any bank in Town Center, as long as it's Jim Deal's bank. He holds the franchise.