Company working toward new rail spur
The Daily Mail
Mar. 24, 2009

ATHENS — A community renewal block grant application asking for $750,000 has been submitted to the state Office of Community Renewal for a rail spur off the tracks along Schoharie Turnpike to the Northeast Treaters of New York facility, project consultant F. Steven Kirk, of DBS Planning Consultants Inc., said last Thursday.

Northeast Treaters of New York will put forth $200,000 in equity toward the project, he said, as well as start a subsequent $2 million renovation project that will help it become more competitive.

“It really stabilizes the company and insures their long-term viability,” Kirk said.

Kirk is working with the wood-treating company and the Greene County Industrial Development Agency to oversee the project, which will help cut costs at its Athens facility.

Currently, the company must transfer raw materials from train cars onto trucks roughly a mile away from the facility for deliveries, Kirk said last week at a public meeting in Athens. Finished product, he said, is transported via truck back to the rail line for distribution.

Kirk explained that the spur may loop around the Peckham facility to the east side of the Northeast Treaters of New York property, although the path hadn’t been finalized.

Trains would cross Schoharie Turnpike en route to the facility only once a day, he said, adding that they would only be a few cars long and would not significantly hold up traffic on the roadway.

Northeast Treaters of New York produces pressure-treated wood that is used for porches and decks as well as fire-treated wood. The company markets its products in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,and lower New England, according to David Reed, the company’s president.

Reed said Tuesday that the rail extension will eliminate some costs, saving the company three or four profit margins.

“Guaranteed rail access is critical to survival,” he said.

Reed said he had contemplated building the rail in the past but that the project seemed more possible after speaking with Sandy Mathes, executive director of the IDA, last year.

Mathes said the rail will not only allow the facility to remain open but will also allow the company to grow over the next few years.

“We need to get rail over there,” he said.

Although Reed would not give a cost estimate for the project, he did say he has offered to supply as much steel and railroad ties for the track as possible in order to keep the price to a minimum.

Reed said the spur and the $2 million capital investment project to rebuild the facility would give the company a competitive edge.

“We can become the low-cost producer of the market,” he said.

The company will create 16 new jobs over the next three years, including positions in sales, management and equipment operators. Reed said his company hires local workers when possible.

Reed said he decided to open the facility in 1996 after an associate in the fire-retardant product industry wanted to settle in the area. Reed had hoped his business would be very profitable, but has fallen short of his expectations.

Kirk said that if the grant is approved, work on the spur could begin as early as this summer and would be ready for service this fall. Facility improvements would begin next winter and be completed by the spring of 2010, he said.