Welcome.

It is 9 a.m.

on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

We will call to order this meeting of the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the VNT Railway.

And thank you for being here.

Umbriana, would you take us through a roll call and determination of quorum?

Chair Mitchell.

I'm here.

Vice Chair Peterson.

Treasurer Cruz.

President.

Secretary Hicks.

Here.

A quorum is present.

Thank you kindly.

We'll move on to item number three, which is the Pledge of Allegiance.

Those of you'd like to join me, please do so.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, individual, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Almost got it right.

All right, we'll move on to item number four, which is public comment.

The public is invited at this time to comment on and discuss any topic that is relevant to or within the authority of this public body.

Public comment will be taken at the beginning of the agenda and before any action that is taken and again at the end.

And um comment may be limited to three minutes per person or topic at the discretion of the chair in order to facilitate the meeting.

Is there any public comment at this time, either in the room or online?

All right, hearing none, we'll move on to item number five, which is approval of the minutes for our February 25th, 2026 meeting.

Uh Commission, any uh any uh uh comments or questions about the minutes.

Hearing none, uh any public comment on our minutes from the twenty February 25th meeting.

All right, hearing none, I'd entertain a motion for approval.

I move to approve the minutes of the February 25th, 2026 meeting.

Very good.

We have a motion from Stephanie.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Excellent.

Any final comment?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you kindly.

We'll move on to item number 26, which is this for discussion and possible action regarding the V and T uh Commission Statement of Accounts Payable checks paid January 1st through 31st, 2026.

Treasurer Cruz, do you have any other uh information to add on this item?

I do not unless there are any questions.

Very good.

Any questions from the commission?

Mr.

Chair, just briefly.

Yes, sir.

Uh you stated on the record item 26.

If you could clarify that this is item number six on the agenda.

Did I what is number 26?

Oh, my apologies.

Item number six.

Let me just jump to an imaginary item.

Uh yes, to clarify for the record, we're on item number six on the agenda.

Thank you.

Um, any public comment on uh item number six.

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion for approval.

Yes, I move to approve the payable checks uh paid January 1st through 31st, 2026 as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Excellent motion and a second.

Any final comments?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Sorry, my dogs are going crazy.

All good, all good.

Motion passes unanimously.

We'll move on to item number seven, and I just want to make a note here on this item, which is discussion of possible action regarding the adjusted VNT Commission's fiscal year 2526 budget reports.

Uh, there is a typo in the description.

It is for the period ending January of 2026.

Um, and just to confirm uh with uh Mr.

Burr that this does not cause us any sort of legal heartburn.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

That is correct.

The error that's in the agenda title, we would mark purely as a scrivener's error that doesn't really have an impact on the nature of the item itself when read with the rest of the agenda title.

The date that is listed is not even included in the listed fiscal year and read in conjunction with the staff summary would create a nonsensical result.

So I don't believe that any member of the public reading the agenda would uh see that as any more than just a pure typo.

So we should be purely ready to go forward today.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Uh Treasurer Cruz, do you have anything to add to this item?

I do not.

Very good.

Any questions from the board or comments?

All right, hearing none.

Public comment.

Hearing none, we'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve the budget report as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Okay, motion and a second.

Any final discussion?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

We will move on to item number eight.

This is for discussion and possible action regarding approval from the VNT Commission to allocate a not to exceed amount of a hundred thousand dollars from the Story County Rail Fund for acquisition of a historic structures report for the V V C Freight Depot Project.

Jennifer, would you like to give us some uh some details on this one?

Yes, good morning, Jennifer McCain, for the record.

Um if you recall, last year we requested um 1.9 million dollars to work on the Freight Depot roof.

However, through this year, it's come um to light that that's possibly not the right project to start with.

So, in order for us to move forward and create a plan that does work for the historic building, we would like to obtain a historic structures report and get um from a professional, get a detailed list and outline how projects should proceed.

So I guess it's important to note we did not spend the 1.9 million dollars this year, nor do we intend to.

Very good.

Thank you so much.

Uh questions or comments from the commission.

And just as a reminder, and this is laid out in the staff summary, but uh the the process that we are following uh appears to mirror what was laid out in in the NRS that created the commission, and that is that even though the funds are held by collected by and held by the county, there needs to be sign-off from both the commission and the county to use those funds for rail-related projects, whether they're initiated on our side or initiated on the county side.

And um, and we are asked to outline those projects and then allocate them to the particular jurisdiction in in conjunction with our budget process each year.

So that's uh that's what we're following.

All right, hearing no questions from the commission, unless there Stephanie, do you have anything?

I was just gonna ask for clarification.

So then because that last year was the first time that we did this.

If an amount is not spent in a given year that it's allocated for, then it reverts back and we have to ask for that money again.

Yeah, that's a great question.

I mean, we're feeling our way along to some extent, but um so uh in an upcoming item that's kind of the case uh of what happened.

Um, you know, if if the money's not spent, the money's not spent, and uh and the the requirement as I read it in the NRS is is to for us to identify a list of capital projects, allocate them between the jurisdictions as part of that annual budgeting process.

And so um and so out of an abundance of caution, we have we have agendized an item on our side to do the exact same thing, even though it's a little different than the county because the county is changing their focus from one project to another.

Um, we are renewing that request because the project has rolled into the next year, and so that's the way we're approaching it is year by year, whether the money is spent or not.

If there's something we anticipate happening in the upcoming year, that's something that we should get uh approval on both sides.

Okay, so the 1.9 million wouldn't roll forward, it's not roll forward sitting there waiting for them.

This uh hundred thousand dollars would be instead of, and then when those tasks are identified, they'd come back and ask for that money again.

That's my understanding, and certainly would uh would open it up if others have a different understanding.

Yeah, so as far as I understand it, we'll take it on a year-by-year basis.

And uh just because the approval happened doesn't necessarily mean that it's a standing approval.

I like that.

Okay, great.

Yep.

Very good.

Um any other uh discussion from the commission.

We had any public comment on this item.

All right, hearing none.

Um I would entertain a motion for approval.

I move to approve the allocation of rail funds to Story County as discussed.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Excellent.

Any final uh conversation around this item.

Hearing none, uh, we'll call for the question.

All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Uh move on to item number nine, which is for discussion and possible action regarding the proposed VNT railway fiscal year 2027 tentative budget.

Sherry, do you want to uh give us kind of a high-level overview of what we've got going on here?

Are you are you live?

So sorry.

Thank you kindly.

Sherry Bailey, yeah.

Sherry Bailey for the record.

Um we as far as revenue is concerned, we did um raise some of the revenue, particularly the cap ticket sales.

Um we estimated a little bit more due to uh expanding our Father's Day weekend to more mirror the Mother's Day event as well as the Toast of the Canyon.

We do have one extra day of Polar Express, so that raised our income as well.

We are anticipating um approximately $32,000 in the interest bearing account.

Um assuming uh four percent return on the money of eight hundred thousand dollars.

Um what other significant in the revenue is also including the um gold hill property sale um to Story County.

Uh we did um outside of last year, we did increase our uh advertising budget, and uh 10% of that excuse me, ten thousand dollars of that is to create new collateral that our advertising and marketing people have been clamoring for.

So that will refresh some of our marketing efforts.

Uh and I think that was about the only significant changes from year to year.

Is there any questions?

Anything you want me to point out.

Any uh any specific questions from the commission.

We did also uh allocate a little bit more money for the depot for some of the upgrades that have been discussed regarding the small building and possibly looking into uh better handicap access at the depot.

Great.

Um I'll I'll point out just one thing, and and again, we we have an upcoming budget item to um to to reallocate this, and this has to do with capital projects.

Last year we requested a little bit larger amount.

We did not uh undertake either of the projects.

One had to do with some drainage improvements, and it was a little amorphous.

The other one was was the largest amount, and that was for stabilizing the overman embankment.

And um, and so we have an item to consider renewing the request for rail funds for the overman embankment piece.

We did not roll forward the other request, um, as that seemed to be the highest priority, and our capacity is somewhat limited to take on multiple projects in a year.

And so just just to point that out that I think last year our our request was a couple hundred thousand, but somewhere in the range of a couple hundred thousand dollars more.

Um, and so we we'll be making uh assuming we approve that item, we'll be making a a little bit smaller request in that regard.

But that is kind of a direct pass through because it's money coming in, money going out, and so great.

Any other questions, discussion around the budget?

All right, hearing none, is there any um well and and I will just summarize by saying when it's all said and done, I think we ended up with a in assuming our budget projections are correct.

We ended up in the black, not counting any intangibles depreciation and what have you, about 14,000 give or take.

Um if we're if we stick to this budget as it's written.

So all right.

Uh any public comment uh in regards to the budget.

And just as a reminder, this is this would be an approval of our preliminary budget uh for submittal, and then we would work through the process to get towards a final budget for the end of May.

That's typically our time frame on that, if I remember correctly.

Thank you.

All right, hearing none, uh be happy to entertain a motion for approval.

I'm happy to provide that.

Um I move to approve the proposed fiscal year 2027 tentative budget as discussed.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

A second.

Excellent motion and a second.

Any uh final discussion on this item.

Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Yeah, we're in business another year.

All right.

Uh to the Story County Board of Commissioners to reallocate an amount to not not to exceed $650,000 of unexpended funds for fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2027 from the VNT Rail Fund, which is collected and maintained by Story County to the commission for track improvement projects.

Um I'm I'm happy to pick this one up and just uh and just summarize it unless Cherry you really want to.

No, Chairman, thank you.

I'm trying to find Chris Bretter.

Very good.

No problem.

Um, so as I as I mentioned briefly, um, one of one of our top priorities from a capital improvements perspective is stabilization of the berm across the old overman pit.

And um, we did not move that project forward in this in this last year.

We did make some progress, um tentative progress towards towards looking at engineering services and having those on a regular basis.

Um finding and sharing documents that may have been prepared for this project in the past.

And so it's moved forward a bit, but not a lot.

And so we are asking to roll that forward.

And uh as a reminder, the the way that we're set up, each of the participating jurisdictions is given the opportunity to create revenue sources through a variety of means, and then for capital improvement projects like this, we are asked to annually include a list of projects with our budget, allocate them, and then and then get approvals or sign-off from the local jurisdiction uh where it properly should be assigned.

So being that this uh that the overman sits uh fully in Story County, the thought is to ask for or get approval for rail tax funds from Story County to cover that, and hence we'll roll that.

We're requesting to roll that project over into the new year.

So any questions or comments about this item from the commission.

Hearing none, uh any public comment on this item.

All right, hearing none.

Uh we'll entertain a motion for approval.

I move to approve the request to the Story County Board of Commissioners as discussed.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Excellent.

Motion and a second.

Any last minute conversation?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Well, that's a lot of business in a short time.

Do we need to take a recess?

No, I'm just I'm just kidding.

We might we might set a record here.

Chairman.

Yes.

Mr.

Freder is on his way.

Do we want to move ahead to either Maria or myself?

I think that's a good question.

Sure, we can absolutely do that.

So we will uh we'll table item 11 for now and we'll move on to item number 12, which is our monthly non-action items.

Um, and we will uh let's see.

Uh Maria, do you have a report that you'd like to give us today?

Hi, Derek.

This is Maria from the media.

Um, uh I want to share quick updates the of some of the marketing they shut if we're currently working on.

Uh first for media day.

I just want to confirm is if we're moving forward with it.

The initial idea is to make something similar that we make for the Polar Express that we where we host at the uh ride, especially for media.

No, Sherry had suggested Saturday, May 17th for the diesel train, or Saturday, May 24th for the same train as partition dates.

So I just want to confirm if we're moving forward with his initiative.

And if so, which of those days you will prefer.

Okay.

Yeah, it's related to the Spring Family Ticket giveaway.

Everything is ready to go.

We're just waiting for um some suggested suggestions that you clay had mentioned.

If you can send us that, please, so we can continue and start with that campaign.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

My apologies for the delay on getting those over.

Yeah, don't worry.

Um also I just want to check.

Uh, is there a way to convert the Google farm from that spring giveaway um into something directly on the website?

I'm sorry.

So yeah, I can get together with you on that as well.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, also I want to say that on influencer outreach, we have started reaching out the local creators, so I'll keep you posed up at that progress.

And lastly, for adds, we're planning to launch general season campaigns, focus on some of the lowers weekend we have identified.

I just want to confirm that we're going to move forward with uh 400 per uh per month budget.

Yes, uh yeah, that yeah, that sounds fine.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, that's everything we have to say.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

And and just as a point of reference, you uh as we move into the new fiscal year, we might have extra budget available depending on how that lands.

So I think we're looking at potentially having more uh a larger advertising budget, but we'll we'll talk about that as it gets closer.

That would be from July moving onwards.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you very much for that report.

Um any any questions or comments from the commission for Maria.

Very good.

Thank you again.

Uh we will move on to our executive assistant update from Sherry Bailey.

Good morning.

Um I will start off by stepping in.

Um Melissa is out of town um this weekend, but she did want me to share with you uh the billboard um artwork.

Let me get it up here because I can only do one at a time.

Yep.

Okay.

So of course, this is the one that will run through Mother's Day.

Um Lamar graciously with some of our our assets created this one.

And then this will be the one that will run through the rest of the season.

We'll probably see them around town.

Um let's see.

Uh general season ticket sales went off without a hitch on May 16th, and we have we're about part from was that March, March 16th.

March 16th.

Is that sorry about that?

It's all right.

We were in we were in Mother's Day mode.

Yes.

Uh, we're on par with what we were doing last year.

Um even the Father's Day, even though that's a new event for us had some good sales in Mother's Day as well.

Um working on some signage for the depot, uh, road signage.

I'm working with um Carson City, um, getting some input from them and working on some arack with the rack cards for this year, but that's in process.

Hearing none, uh, it appears that well, we can go ahead and talk about our upcoming meeting, I guess.

Um, we are shooting for due to some conflicts, we're shooting for our next commission meeting to be held on Wednesday, April fifteenth, tentatively at one PM.

And so if people want to put that onto their calendars, we're getting final uh sign offs from everybody, but it looks like that's the direction that we're headed at this point.

Um with that in mind, should we take a short recess um as we're waiting for uh Mr.

Frederick to arrive?

So we will take a um I don't know, let's let's let's take a uh at this point a five minute recess, and we'll check back in just after nine thirty to see if we're ready to go.

Call this meeting back to order from recess.

The time is 9:31, exactly five minutes.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I normally run on Comstock time, but doing things on time is a new experience for me.

So we will uh we will pick back up with item number eleven, which is uh discussion and possible action regarding contract FY26-CO02 with Chris Fredder, DBA Battleborne Rail for track maintenance services over a period of five years for an annual amount of 128,972 and fifty cents.

Good thing we got the fifty cents in there.

Yep.

Yep.

And uh resulting in a total not to exceed amount of six hundred and forty four thousand eight hundred sixty-two dollars and fifty cents.

And then secondly, to consider authorizing the VNT Commission chair to execute the contract.

Sherry, do you want to give us just a little background on where we are with the contract?

Certainly.

Um as we know, Chris Freder took over Gabe Willeman's contract last year.

Um as that that contract um expired.

We're asking Chris to stay on with us for another five years.

Um I think that's about it.

He he did raise his rates a little bit, but as everybody else has.

Absolutely very good.

Uh Chris, do you want to you want to chime in at all about uh what we're looking at here with the contract?

Uh Chris Freder, Battleborne Rail.

Um yeah, there's just been a lot more uh maintenance going on.

We got we're making really good headway, like even when talking with Tom, we're starting to get all the safety concerns and all the ditches under control.

Now we're more working on some of the comfort and the wear on the train by like joints and stuff like that.

The reason to meet up in it a little bit is because of that new rock quarry that went in.

They're only running 11 trucks right now a day, and every time we go up there, we have to uh a crossing needs attention.

They're gonna be running 50 to 60 trucks an hour.

So I know that I'm gonna have to have one guy constantly on that crossing.

So other than that, no, it's just uh same stuff, yearly maintenance, stuff like that.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Uh questions or comments from the commission.

I just want to say thanks for all that you've done for us and for you know, being willing to continue on this adventure with us for another five years.

I think a lot of great things have happened and look forward to look forward to the next five.

So thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Absolutely great.

Further comments or questions.

Please, please.

Slow down.

One form for one line.

We'll get you all in.

We've got time for everyone.

All right, very good.

Hearing none, uh, we'll entertain a motion for approval of this item.

Awesome.

I move to approve the contract and to authorize the commission chair to execute the contract as discussed on the record.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Excellent.

Motion and a second.

Any last minute conversation?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

It's a tough crowd, Chris, but you made it.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate it.

All right.

Um, moving on.

We'll move on to item number 13, which is commissioner comments or announcements and requests for information.

No action will be taken and no discussion among the members or with staff will take place during this item of the agenda.

Um, do any members of the commission have comments, announcements, or requests for information?

All right.

Hearing none, uh, we will move on to item number fourteen, which is the final uh opportunity for public comment.

The public is invited at this time to comment on any matter that's speci not specifically included in the agenda as an action item.

No action may be taken on a matter raised under this item of the agenda.

Is there any public comment at this time?

All right, hearing none, we will move on to item number fifteen, which is to adjourn.

The time is nine thirty five, not a record, but expeditious nonetheless.

Thank you everyone for your help in attendance, and this meeting is adjourned.