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Who Attended The CSX/Lakeland Private Meeting?

Posted May 3, 2007 by Billy Townsend

Updated May 3, 2007 at 09:19 AM

PCNB has obtained a paper copy of the minutes from April 19’s closed meeting between CSX and various Lakeland business and government officials at the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce building to discuss the impacts of the planned rail hub and distribution center south of Winter Haven.

The minutes read a lot like the descriptions of the meeting participants gave to local press. It was mostly informational, full of details that, quite frankly, were available in the Tribune’s April 7th story.

There are a couple of noteworthy elements, though, including a full list of who attended.

I have added, where I know, information about who these people are.

Here’s the list: Joe L. Ruthven (Lakeland warehouse titan), Tim Rice (businessman and chamber official), Paul Noris, Hunt Berryman (trucking executive and civic leader), Randy Hollen, Ford Heacock (insurance executive and Lakeland Downtown Development Authority member), Anne Furr (LDDA director), Jim Studiale (Lakeland’s community development director), Steve Scruggs (director of the Lakeland Economic Development Council), Doug Thomas (city manager), Tony Delgado (assistant city manager), Bill Mutz, Bruce Abels (head of Saddle Creek distribution company), David May (former district 1 secretary for the state Department of Transportation, now a Lakeland-based consultant), Scott Thornton, Lynn Fleeger (from CSX’s P.R. firm), Kathy Pierson (also CSX P.R.), Rick Hood (CSX, quoted in the April 7 story), Gary Sease (CSX, also quoted in April 7 story), Pete Chichetto (city of Winter Haven official shepherding the CSX project), Kathleen Munson (director of the Lakeland chamber), Maggie Mariucci (Lakeland chamber).

Also, it appears that May, the former FDOT official, is taking a lead role for the ad hoc Lakeland group studying the project’s impacts. When CSX said that S.R. 60 could handle the hundreds of additional truck trips per day the hub is expected to create, the minutes show that May interjected. He noted that while “FDOT says SR 60 may have capacity right now, other intersections/areas around the county may not (i.e., Hwy 60 intersection in Bartow).”

And the minutes also suggest some confusion about those trucking numbers. The official Winter Haven project planning and approval document says CSX expects 1,150 truck trips per day when the first phase is operational, probably in 2010. The minutes cite “approximately 450 trucks in and out of [the hub] per day” at first. I’m not sure how to reconcile that disparity because it’s not clear to me what exactly the minutes are saying. One might suggest that is a problem with private meetings.