Carolinas Association for Passenger Trains


February 2010 Meeting Details


CAPT Board Meeting
Greenville, S.C.
February 13, 2010

The Carolinas Association for Passenger Trains will meet in Greenville, S.C., on Saturday, February 13th at the Greenville City Range Steakhouse. The restaurant is located at 615 Haywood Road about one half mile west of I-385 ( Exit 39 ). We will have a private room for lunch and the board meeting from noon to 5:00 p.m. The phone number there is 864-286-9018.

* For those traveling to Greenville on I-26, I-385 from the point where it splits off from I-26 and goes toward Greenville, all the way to exit 16 (Gray Court exit) is closed for several months. You will have to take alternate routes to get to Greenville if you are coming from Columbia, Newberry, Charleston or anywhere from the east/southeast of Greenville.

After lunch we will have guest speaker before going into our board meeting. Gene Owens is a writer and columnist from South Carolina who has some fascinating rail travels to talk about. Gene will give us a light-hearted and amusing talk about his experiences and perspectives.

Meeting agenda is as follows:
  • Welcome
  • Guest speaker Gene Owens
  • Secretary's report
  • Treasurer's report
  • Update on resolution drive in South Carolina in support of expanded rail passenger service
  • Status of efforts to produce new CAPT brochure featuring maps of present and possible future rail passenger service
  • Update on CAPT newsletter and website issues
  • Update on rail developments across the Carolinas including start of 3rd Charlotte-Raleigh frequency
  • Amtrak update
  • Reports by Officers and Directors
  • Planning for future meetings
  • Adjournment

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON GUEST SPEAKER GENE OWENS

Gene Owens is a retired journalist whose self-syndicated columns now reach upwards of 435,000 households from Oklahoma to North Carolina.

A native of Clinton, S.C., he grew up in Aiken County, where his parents worked in textiles. He studied journalism at the University of Georgia under a scholarship from the Gregg-Graniteville Foundation and began his career with the Augusta Chronicle. He has been senior associate editor of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., and editorial-page editor of the Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Va. He spent the last decade of his career in Mobile, Ala., as assistant managing editor, political editor and metro columnist for the Mobile Press-Register in Mobile, Ala.. Upon his retirement, he was referred to in the Congressional Record as "an Alabama treasure." He has served on the board of directors of the National Conference of Editorial Writers and made four fact-finding trips to communist countries, including the old Soviet Union and China. He has ridden AMTRAK in this country as well as railroads in China, Siberia and Eastern Europe.

Gene now lives in Anderson, S.C. with his wife, Peggy, and their 15-year-old peke-a-poo, Candi.