The Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum office is seen Monday afternoon.
The Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum may soon see some major management changes.
The CCR&M Board asked both its president and treasurer-secretary to resign, after a letter from the Port of Chehalis said it would no longer work with the organization if something didn’t change with the nonprofit’s management.
The CCR&M Board of Directors met Friday. Vice president Bill Deutscher said on Wednesday that the board discussed “several things,” but would not go into specifics about what took place during the meeting.
“After the meeting, myself and four of the seven board members got together,” Deutscher said. “As a result of that, over the course of the weekend, we formulated a letter to be sent to Bill and Wanda Thompson to request that they resign. That letter was delivered Monday.”
Bill and Wanda Thompson are married — Bill Thompson is the president of the organization and Wanda Thompson serves as both the secretary and treasurer.
Port of Chehalis CEO Randy Mueller wrote in a letter to the CCR&M, dated Sept. 6, that “(t)he current situation is simply unacceptable” after the CCR&M fell many months behind on required filings with the state Department of Revenue and the state Department of Labor and Industries.
The Port of Chehalis leases the rail line to the CCR&M for $1 per year. Since last summer, though, the port has looked at transferring ownership of the rail line.
“As you know, the port has been researching a transfer of ownership of the port-owned rail line to other parties like the CCR&M, but this transfer is in no way a ‘done deal,’” the letter reads. “For the port to transfer this asset to anyone, an organization wishing to acquire the asset would need to demonstrate a sound professional business plan and a track record of meeting all their obligations. The CCR&M is not currently doing so.”
Mueller said the more immediate issue, however, is safety and CCR&M coming into compliance with its reporting.
“There’s kind of two steps here,” Mueller said. “The most immediate need, before we talk about transferring ownership of the rail line, is what we need to see for continued operation of the rail line. That’s the paramount concern. The issue of transferring ownership of the rail line is secondary and not the pressing need. The immediate need is I have concerns about safety and proper reporting.”
According to previous Chronicle reporting, both Deutscher and Thompson said the CCR&M is squared away at the state level.
On Wednesday, Deutscher said that he contacted Port of Chehalis senior director of operations Rick Rouse this week to request what the association was late in submitting to the port.
“Essentially what he did is he sent me the agreement that the port has and one or two other documents that were related to that,” Deutscher said. “So, he just sent me the whole thing and he said most everything needed attention.”
Deutscher said the board requested the Thompsons resign by Friday, Sept. 28. The organization’s next regularly scheduled board meeting is on Thursday, Sept. 27. Deutscher said he has not spoken to the Thompsons since Monday. Bill Thompson did not to respond to request for comment.
“This is a delicate situation,” Deutscher said. “It’s unfortunate for everybody involved. It’s a complicated thing. There are a lot of factors. It’s not just one particular thing. I hope we get it resolved so we can continue to have a good operation.”
Mueller said he has not received official correspondence from CCR&M about management changes. He acknowledged that he has heard the organization has held meetings within itself, but said the port will not take action until it hears from the organization in an official capacity.
“If you could harness the power of rumors, you could probably power a steam locomotive,” Mueller said.
Mueller said the Port of Chehalis is waiting to hear from the CCR&M at this point, before it takes any sort of action.
He also noted that the port wants CCR&M to succeed.
“We have given them a multimillion dollar rail line for $1 per year,” Mueller said. “We don’t start with threats of closing them down, or ultimatums or anything like that. We start with trying to work with them. Having this volunteer organization — it is a local treasure. It’s something we want to have.”
