LEBANON — The city extended its commitment to its railroad Tuesday night by promising to extend them within four years.

        City Council voted 5-2 to approve a contract to bring Quantum Metals, now in Springdale, into the city-owned Columbia Business Park. The contract, which includes a guarantee of rail access, replaces a contract council approved a couple of months ago that did not promise rail.

        Lebanon owns tracks that stop 3,800 feet short of the industrial park. The existing 4.4 miles of track had been used by the Turtle Creek Valley Railway tourist train until this year, when inspectors found the tracks unsafe for passenger traffic.

        Officials are waiting for state approval to begin work on repairs that could bring the train back in time for holiday rides.

        City Council also approved a contract Tuesday night allowing the Indiana & Ohio Railway Co. to continue using the tracks for freight. The I&O, in turn, will pay the city 25 cents per car per mile and maintain the tracks.

        It will cost about $380,000 to extend the tracks, City Manager James Patrick has said, but he hopes grants will lower that cost.

        Also, the city will be able to charge more than the present $30,000 per acre for industrial park land along the tracks, officials say.

        Councilman James Reinhard raised concerns about Quantum Metals, a metal-processing company that employs 35.

        A recent visit to its Springdale site revealed “mountains” of aluminum wheels piled outside the building, he said, prompting him to question the company's environmental impact.
       “It's a dirty business and not the type of industry I think we need in that industrial park,” Mr. Reinhard said before voting against the deal. Councilwoman Amy Brewer also voted against Quantum Metals.

        Quantum Metals plans to build a $1.4 million plant.

        In other business Tuesday, council agreed 5-2 to pay Scott Burris $500 for waiving salvage rights to the house he sold the city last year on Cherry Street. The sale created controversy when residents learned the $150,000 price tag was tens of thousands of dollars above the house's market value.

        While there was no formal contract for the $500 deal, then-acting City Manager Ed Patterson made an oral agreement that courts would likely uphold, City Attorney Mark Yurick said.

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