Brian Collins, who heads the partnership operating the train - credited with bringing $2 million and 40,000 visitors a year to Lebanon - said he was leaning toward rejecting the city’s latest offer when a local business manager agreed to help him negotiate an agreement with the trust.
“I basically decided to move out,” Collins said last week. “I’m being recruited. I have other towns in Ohio and Indiana asking us to bring the railroad to their town.”
However Collins said he was now leaning toward accepting the contract offer - if the trust, established by the late philanthropist William Harmon, allows him and his partners to charge customers in town for Thomas the Train events for entertainment, including music and a petting zoo, provided on a field in Harmon Park, adjoining the train station.
Local business leaders, working to keep the train in town, approached the trust about lifting their prohibition on charging for the park event.
“We think the train is valuable to Lebanon,” said Steve Wilson, chairman of the trust board and LCNB Bank. “We’re going to do everything we can to work with him to keep him here.”
However Wilson said the trust had yet to meet with Collins.
Without permission to charge, Collins said he was unready to accept an eight-year contract in which he agreed to increases in a per ticket tax paid to the city and to pay up to $6,000 a year for track maintenance not in the current contract. The new terms would be phased in over the next few years.
The operator would continue to pay the city a $3,000 a year lease and handle routine and pre-ride rail inspections. The city would continue to handle bridge inspections, as well as maintenance costs averaging about $100,000 a year, beyond the $6,000 paid by operator.
A consultant hired to study the rail line encouraged the city to resume freight service and estimated the tourist train brought in $2.1 million and an estimated 40,000 people to Lebanon.
Councilman Matt Rodriguez held meetings with Collins and local businesses behind a “Save the Train!” campaign.
“We ironed this thing out,” Rodriguez said. “I’m pretty optimistic that things are going to be OK.”
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