Saturday,  August 18, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 035• 34 of 44 •  Other Editions

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Authority, Wagner Native Ethanol and Dakota Southern Railway Company to talk to the state Department of Transportation to address questions and submit amended proposals. Central States, which supported the Napa-Platte Regional proposal but requested that it be made operator of the line, was not asked to resubmit.
• The board directed Bruce Lindholm, the DOT's program officer for the office of air, rail and transit, to work with the groups and seek some common ground. The groups indicated they wanted to pursue proposals on their own, he said.
• "They don't want to work together," Lindholm said.
• Wagner Native Ethanol in its initial proposal said it was planning to build a 50 mil

lion gallon per year ethanol plant, saying that the railroad deal would restore rail service to elevators in Wagner, Tyndall, Avon, Tabor and Dante.
• The Dakota Southern proposal offered to purchase the line for $2.1 million.
• The Napa-Platte Regional proposal was for a 15-year lease on the rail line from the Napa Junction west to Wagner, with a request to allow the line west of Wagner from Ravinia to Platte to be salvaged. The proposal would have used the estimated $180,000 from the rail and ties as payment on the lease and to help rebuild the line starting from the east.
• Questions arose on the legality of whether the state could accept payment on a lease agreement with funds raised through the sale of state-owned property.
• Ken Cotton, an attorney for the authority, said it is seeking its own proposals with plans to recommend one to the board at the October meeting.
• "We hope that there's enough interest out there so we can put something together that'll be mutually beneficial to everybody," Cotton said.
• Groseclose said the board has settled one key issue on the line, agreeing to retain ownership of a two-mile stretch of rail where the line connects to the BNSF line northwest of Yankton. That decision will help assure rail access for a proposed Dakota Plains Ag Center grain loading facility at Napa Junction, he said.
• "We're going to continue that ownership so we can have some control over the access to the line," Groseclose said.

Man accused of cutting 2 men over cigarettes

• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- A man faces aggravated assault charges for stabbing a man, cutting another and threatening someone else when he couldn't get a cigarette.
• Rapid City police say 22-year-old Nico Steele stabbed a man in the leg in down

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