Yakima County, Washington's decision to lease a busy Lower Valley rail line to Columbia Basin Railroad Co. will stand.

A county judge on Thursday rejected arguments by the current operators, concluding they waited too long to appeal the decision by county commissioners to hand the Toppenish-to-White Swan line over to the Yakima company.

Superior Court Judge Susan Hahn also determined she had no authority to review the lease's failure to provide the Yakima Valley Rail and Steam Museum Association access to the 22-mile line for its excursions.

The decision means the association and its for-profit subsidiary, the Toppenish Simcoe and Western Railroad, have 40 days to vacate the premises.

Hahn's decision could be appealed, but a hearing before the state Court of Appeals wouldn't occur until long after the new lease takes effect Dec. 20.

Jerry Boekholder, president of the museum association's board, said he was not prepared to comment on the decision.

Jim Berg, the Yakima attorney representing both groups, expressed disappointment over Hahn's ruling.

He described as wrong the decision by county commissioners to select Columbia Basin, owned by the Temple family of Yakima, over the local groups that built up the rail line over the past dozen years.

"To think this group of county commissioners did this to these people is unbelievable to me," Berg said. "They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours building this back up."

County Commissioner Mike Leita responded that the commissioners' decision to select Columbia Basin was made in the best interests of the county as a whole, not one group.

"Again, we have made every attempt to try to satisfy the museum and allow it to continue," Leita said Thursday. "Unfortunately, the museum has been unwilling to modify its original position."

The decision by Hahn ends nearly a year of disagreement that began when Yakima County decided to put the line up for lease. The county's plan was to obtain lease payments to use as seed money to make improvements to the line.

The county obtained ownership after the state of Washington purchased the line in 1992 to save it from abandonment and turned it over to the county.

A predecessor to Columbia Basin, Washington Central Railroad, had proposed to have the line abandoned because business had eroded to fewer than 50 cars annually.

Following the purchase, the museum obtained an operating agreement from Yakima County. The railroad company became a for-profit subsidiary when increasing rail business on the loan threatened the museum's tax-exempt status.

Some 3,000 loaded cars now travel on the line annually, thanks mostly to the Yakama Forest Products mills at White Swan.

The county sought competing applicants for the line last November.

On Jan. 11 of this year, commissioners, in a 2-1 vote, directed staff to negotiate a lease with Columbia Basin instead of Toppenish Simcoe and Western Railroad. The Toppenish proposal included a partnership with a Minnesota short-line railroad, Progressive Rail Inc.

As a part of the decision, commissioners also said Columbia Basin would be required to enter into a sublease with the museum to maintain museum access to the line for its tourist and educational excursions.

The museum association in July rejected the last offer from Columbia Basin that would have included payments of $3 for each loaded car to support future museum operations. Museum officials rejected the offer because the amount of money was well below what they had been receiving from rail operations.

The sublease proposal also would have required the museum to purchase liability insurance that had been paid by Toppenish Simcoe and Western Railroad. Museum officials said the offer would result in the museum's closure.

The Columbia Basin offer to the museum must remain on the table through the lease's four-year term.

After negotiations on a sublease broke down, commissioners executed a lease with Columbia Basin on Sept. 20. The museum association and Toppenish Simcoe filed their appeal the same day.

Berg argued during a hearing Monday the actual decision by commissioners occurred on Sept. 20 when the lease terms became known.

But Hahn rejected that argument, concluding the decision was made Jan. 11 and the appeal should have been filed within 20 days.