• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Railroad Board is again accepting proposals from companies wanting to restore service on an abandoned railroad line from Platte to Napa Junction near Yankton.
• The board agreed in 2006 to sell the state-owned line to Wagner Native Ethanol for $1.5 million, but voted earlier this year to accept new proposals to renovate the line after the company missed a deadline to shore up financing. Board members in April rejected the submissions from the Napa-Platte Regional Railroad Authority, Wagner Native Ethanol, Central States Rail Associates and Dakota Southern Railway Company.
• The new deadline is Oct. 1, and board members will discuss the proposals at their mid-October meeting, said board chairman Chet Groseclose of Sioux Falls.
• "We would like to get something going down there," Groseclose said Thursday. "It does seem like there's an opportunity for economic development down in that area."
• South Dakota bought the 82-mile stretch after the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, known as the Milwaukee Road, declared bankruptcy in the late 1970s. Estimates to restore the portion were reaching $30 million and the state doesn't have the money to fix it, officials have said.
• At the April meeting, board members directed the Napa-Platte Regional Railroad

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