Thursday, September 21, 2017

Intermodal Turned Down by Prospect

Not withstanding a strong effort to recruit a company to locate in the Southeast Arkansas Intermodal Facility Industrial Park, the board was informed during the monthly meeting held September 20th that the company has chosen another site.  No information was available as to where the firm will build.  Nita McDaniel, Executive Director of the Monticello Economic Development Commission, who works along with the Bradley County Economic Development Commission to market the site, informed the board that the latest company to consider locating there informed her recently that they had chosen another place.  She said they were complimentary of the efforts by the Intermodal to recruit them and she thanked them and urged them to consider the site in the future if they have a need or know of an associated business that has a need.  No information has been made public as to the nature of the business, but it has been indicated it was timber oriented.



The board spent a good deal of time talking about money.  They voted to pay bills and to accept an in-kind contribution of $20,618.81 from Bradley County for work, including labor and materials, on the industrial park site by the Bradley County Road Department.  It was noted that Drew County recently paid the authority $40,000.  Bob Milton, bookkeeper for the authority stated he expects about $35,000 soon from Monticello and around $30,000 from Warren.  Later in the meeting it was stated by Board Chairman Lipton that he expects at least $70,000.00 from the state and maybe more.

There was talk of paying on the loan of $279,147.19 but no action was taken.  The board did not have a quorum present but called two members by phone who voted with the members present to approve the financial actions.

Michael Sparks was introduced as a new member of the intermodal board.  He was appointed by Mayor Martin to fill one of the three positions representing the City of Warren.  It was also announced that Stephanie Harton has resigned from the board.  She represented Monticello.  No reason was stated.

A great deal of the meeting was taken up talking about and discussing the issue of building a road across the railroad within the intermodal site.  This matter has been pending for many months. Part of the road has been built but  a problem has occurred with the rail owner, Union Pacific, refusing to grant a permit to cross the line.  Representatives of Genesee & Wyoming, Inc., who lease the short line and operate it and Garver Engineers were both on hand to talk about the matter.  A lot of past discussions were rehashed and no one seemed able or willing to accept responsibility for the work moving ahead without the required approval.  Some blame the engineer, while others blame the short line operator.  It should be noted the short line operator has changed since the project began.  All agreed, that approval must come from Union Pacific and that may be difficult or impossible to secure.  Chairman Lipton state that "someone dropped the football."  Board member Freddie Mobley stated he thought plans need to proceed to move the crossing and board member Dr. Bob Smalling argued that the approval has been granted and should be grandfathered in.  It kept coming back up that the owner, UP, has never granted approval.

The representative of Genesse & Wyoming told the board he was on their side and would keep working with them to solve the matter but he stated he has no solution at this time. The board members talked about everything from continuing to push for approval with UP, to moving the road, to trying to move the rail switch.  The closeness of the road to the switch is the key issue in securing the permit.  The switch is supposed to be 150 feet from the crossing and the current location is less than a hundred feet apart.  The parties agreed to keep working on the matter.

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