Flooding from heavy rains Aug. 22 caused extensive damage to Midland Railway tracks in northern Franklin County. Because of the damage, the excursion line can no longer make trips to Ottawa, but only to a site about 4.5 miles south of Baldwin City.

Officials of Midland Railway are hoping the nonprofit excursion line can qualify for federal assistance after experiencing extensive track damage from last week’s flooding.

?At the Douglas County Commission meeting on Wednesday, Commissioner Nancy Thellman said she received a call from Allen Kinsley, Midland Railway treasurer, about damage to the excursion line that provides rides from Baldwin City to Ottawa. Thellman said Kinsley inquired about the possibility of the railroad obtaining federal disaster aid to help pay for track repairs.

In an interview with the Journal-World after the commission meeting, Kinsley said the Aug. 22 flash flood washed out about a quarter mile of track in northern Franklin County about five miles south of the Baldwin City depot. The damage is just south of the Norwood Station, which is the terminus of some of Midland’s trips.

The flooding washed away the rock ballast and railroad ties, Kinsley said. At one point, fast-moving water dug a roughly 10-foot gully through the line, he said.

“It looks like a dried-up creek that was never there before,” he said.

Midland got a preliminary damage estimate of $50,000, but that assumed Midland volunteers would do much of the repair work, Kinsley said. The repair bill could be as high as $100,000, he said. The railroad doesn’t have the money on hand to cover that cost, nor will its insurance pay for the repairs, he said.

“We had what we thought was flood insurance,” he said. “Then come to find out, it only covers equipment. It doesn’t cover the ballast and damage under the tracks.”

Midland has ticket prices for rides that only travel to Norwood and back to Baldwin City, Kinsley said. Those shorter rides include popular Maple Leaf Festival and Christmas excursions, he said.

Of more concern is the Kansas Belle Dinner Train, which uses the tracks through a contractual arrangement with Midland. The train needs longer trips than now available to serve the dinners and complete the entertainment it provides passengers, Kinsley said.

“You can only go halfway for so long before it starts affecting their income,” he said.

Kinsley said it was hoped the Midland damage would count toward the threshold of documented damages that would qualify the county for federal disaster aid.

Douglas County officials signed a disaster declaration Aug. 22. Gov. Sam Brownback later followed up with a state disaster declaration, which included the county.

If the federal government makes the same declaration, federal aid could reimburse entities for as much as 75 percent of the expenses incurred from the flooding, Teri Smith, director of Douglas County Emergency Management, said last week. But to receive federal aid, the county would have to document $400,000 in damages and repair expenses from the flooding, she said.

County Administrator Craig Weinaug said the county was still documenting damages. The county would be interested in helping Midland but he said there were questions whether the nonprofit would be eligible. Also of concern, Weinaug said, was the fact that, although Midland Railway is based in Douglas County, the track damage occurred in Franklin County.

In other business, the commission approved a one-year extension to the conditional use permit for the Burning Barrel at 292 North 2100 Road. The extension provides property owner Brian Strecker another year to build a planned specialty butcher shop of the 30-acre site about four miles west of Lecompton.

The extension was approved after a public hearing during which no one spoke. Two years ago, when the permit was first considered, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach led a number of Lecompton-area residents in voicing opposition to the permit.

Strecker said the absence of opposition Wednesday indicated that the local community had accepted his plan.

“”I’m friendly with a lot of my neighbors,” he said. “We wave at each other when we meet on the road. There’s still a few closed-minded people, and I’m OK with that.”