BROOKHAVEN (AP) — Lincoln County supervisors are more than happy to sit on the first pew and sing the praises of the Natchez-to-Brookhaven railroad.

Just don’t pass them the offering plate.

Supervisors this past week carefully ensured they didn’t make any financial commitments in formally endorsing a regional effort supporting the continued operation of the east-west line running from Natchez to Brookhaven, attaching a disclaimer to the resolution clearing the county of any such obligation.

By passing the resolution unanimously, Lincoln County joined several other Southwest Mississippi counties considering the resolution to urge railroad owners Natchez Railway, LLC, to continue operating the 66-mile track after a two-year compulsion to do so in their contract expires next spring.

“It’s a noble gesture, and something we shouldn’t mind doing, but we make no formal commitment to expend funds until we decide what’s in the best interest of Lincoln County,” said board attorney Bob Allen, summarizing the addendum.

The resolution — which contains no authority and exists simply as a show of support — brings supervisors to the railway negotiating table for the first time since Natchez Railway, LLC, purchased the track from Canadian National in 2009.

Regional business leaders at first praised the sale of the line, hoping the new owners would inject life into the little-used, neglected spur. But the celebration turned sour almost immediately when it was discovered the owners of the new corporation also own Salt Lake City-based A&K Railroad Materials, Inc., one of the nation’s leading railroad salvage companies.

Worries the new owners would scrap the line after the two-year obligation sprang up overnight, with several state lawmakers — including Brookhaven’s District 92 Rep. Becky Currie — passing resolutions urging the federal Surface Transportation Board to prohibit the sale.

Natchez Railway LLC has tried to calm the region’s fears in several published interviews and opinion pieces, but no one is buying it.

Concerned leaders are accusing the company of ignoring new business opportunities and damaging businesses already in place, pointing to the stiff tariffs the company has placed on Bude’s American Railcar Industries, which is paying hundreds of dollars for every car moved into and out of its repair facility on the line.

Even Lincoln County Supervisor Nolan Williamson has his doubts about the company’s true intention.

“With metal at $9 per ton, it’s gone,” he said.

Regional meetings to discuss the line’s future have been common this year, as leaders have reached out to state lawmakers, congressmen and federal agencies, searching for some kind of check on the rail company’s tariffs and future option to scrap the line.

Officials from Adams and Franklin counties have led the charge, pointing out the railroad’s importance in recruiting new industries to the area.

It’s not as important, however, in Lincoln County, where the Linbrook Business Park industrial site remains tied into Canadian National’s main north-south line, which runs from New Orleans to Chicago. County supervisors are standing behind their peers, but even if the railroad’s termination were realized, it’s unlikely they’d jump into any drastic action.

“We need to make sure we’re not signed on when someone wants to float a $16 million bond,” Allen said. “What they’re actually trying to do is create a railroad authority, and I’m sure the end goal is to buy that 66 miles as a public railroad entity.”

Supervisor Bobby Watts, while not advocating a more involved commitment to the railroad, stressed the track’s significance to Lincoln County as a shipment link to the Mississippi River.

“The Mississippi River is not recreational, it’s commercial. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but some day that track is going to be needed,” he said. “We never know when a war is going to come up — when anything is going to come up. Once it’s gone, you won’t ever get it back.”

Board president Doug Moak, who recently obtained the resolution from one of the many Adams and Franklin County meetings, said that’s why supervisors should do all they can to support the track’s existence — to a point.

“If it gets a little more complicated, to be honest, I don’t know if we want to get into the rail business or not,” he said.