CATS facing another issue: Vacancies in rail operations control center: Tuesday, April 4

All eyes are on Charlotte transit leaders as they sort out several issues within CATS. This comes after learning of derailments not properly disclosed to local leaders, past due inspections and several concerns about safety.

City leaders laid out an action plan to get operations back in order during the Transportation, Planning and Development committee meeting Monday.

"This thing is a cancer right and you have to retreat the cancer before it spreads," city council member Malcolm Graham said. "I think you can say it's spreading already because it is not just the derailments, it’s the maintenance, it's all of the other things we are dealing with."

Interim CATS CEO Brent Cagle brought to light another issue.

"There have been times when CATS has been operating the ROCC [Rail Operation Control Center] with one rail operator at a time... that is certainly not an ideal situation," Cagle said, citing staffing shortages.

Cagle said the issue was reported to him by a rail operations manager. However, it was also reported anonymously to the NCDOT SSO which led to an unannounced inspection Friday night where that was the case.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/cats-meeting-charlotte-light-rail-transportation/275-02e4a42e-1cbb-4b63-93f9-f54e7aad52db

The Concord Police Department confirmed two missing boys who were believed to be with their father were found safe in Missouri Monday morning.

The 8-year-old and 11-year-old brothers were reported missing on Saturday evening after officers responded to a kidnapping call along Wilshire Avenue Southwest.

Police were told the brothers were taken from a neighbor’s yard where they were playing and put into a white vehicle by a Black male adult, who witnesses believed to be their father 35-year-old Aaron Eugene Toliver.

Authorities believed Toliver was en route to Texas or Florida, where family members live, however, the boys were eventually found safe at 8:35 a.m. Monday at the Super 8 hotel on US 1301 Highway 136 West in Rock Port, Missouri.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/concord-police-search-missing-brothers-believed-to-be-with-father/275-e16ef2ab-55dd-4582-a6cb-e918440172de

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