Recent concerns raised about the future financial viability of Caney Fork & Western Railroad are unfounded, according to Tri-County Railroad Authority chairman Louis J. “Jody” Baltz III.“I wish to address the recent article that appeared in the Southern Standard and to offer clarification and assurances to the customers of the Caney Fork & Western Railroad,” said Baltz. “As you know, the railroad has served customers from Tullahoma to Sparta for over 30 years.”Statements were made recently by Mayor Jimmy Haley and Warren County Executive Herschel Wells during a Joint Economic and Community Development Board meeting where they voiced concerns about a lawsuit over railroad diesel fuel sales tax.The railroad diesel fuel sales tax had been on the books since the late 1940s. Since the mid-1980s, it had been earmarked for the Short Line Equity Fund – a 7 percent sales tax on diesel fuel for locomotives given to help the state’s short-line railroads pay for track maintenance and upgrades.