A Government Derailed

Click title for story link. By Michael Lee PopeThursday, September 18, 2008 In the days before Norfolk Southern began operating an ethanol loading facility on the city’s West End, railroad officials tried to contact the Alexandria Fire Department several times to no avail. Voice-mail messages went unreturned even though city officials were aware the railroad was days away from opening a facility where thousands of gallons of hazardous materials would be loaded from rail cars to tanker trucks every week. According to court documents, city records, interviews with officials involved in the dispute and information obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, top-ranking officials made a series of missteps in the months before Norfolk Southern began its ethanol "transloading" station in April."I wish I could say this was an April Fool’s joke but it is not," wrote Chief Fire Marshal Robert Rodriguez in an April 1 e-mail to senior city officials. "We received a voice mail message this morning from Kelley Minniehan … of RSI Logistics. He wants to put keys in their Knox Box at the NS site."