County commissioners approve agreement with railroad company

With construction on the West Rail Relocation Project set to begin within the next few months, the Cameron County Commissioners Court approved an agreement with the railroad company to review its engineering plans for the project.

Under the agreement, Union Pacific Railroad will review the county's plan for the proposed rail project and provide comments.

The plan needs to be approved by Union Pacific to meet the late May to early June timeline for construction, said County Administrator Pete Sepulveda Jr.

Because the project is being federally funded, it also needs to get approval from the Texas Department of Transportation.

The relocation project calls for removing train tracks from the heavily populated, congested parts of the county.

On June 1, the U.S. government will officially implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require U.S. citizens to have a passport when entering the states at sea or land ports of entry. The changes are part of the Department of Homeland Security's WHTI goal to secure the nation's borders.

Currently, citizens are allowed to present approved photo identification and a valid birth certificate to show citizenship.

The court also received an update on the amount of money the county has received from FEMA for hurricane Dolly reimbursements.

As of Thursday, the county had received about $849,000, of some $7.3 million in reimbursement money.

Cascos said he has spoken to other entities seeking FEMA reimbursements and all said the reimbursement money is slowly coming in.

"It's not just Cameron County that's slow in getting paid," Cascos said.

In other business Thursday, commissioners received a report of crossings at the county's three international bridges for the first quarter of fiscal year 2008-2009.

As expected, crossings dropped again with Sepulveda advising commissioners that the numbers are going to get worse in June when new travel requirements take effect.

"It's going to get worse. We will tell you that right now," said Sepulveda, adding international bridges all along the Texas-Mexico border are also reporting a drop in numbers. "All along the border everybody is hurting."

The county's bridge revenue for fiscal year 2007-2008 dropped about $1 million and County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said it looks like the county could experience a similar drop this fiscal year.

lmartinez@brownsvilleherald.com