(The following story by Andrew Mitchell appeared on the Clinton Herald website on August 21, 2010.)
CLINTON, Iowa — It was a hammer instead of a shovel that ushered in the groundbreaking of the Lincolnway Railport on Friday.
With Gov. Chet Culver and Union Pacific Railroad CEO Jim Young taking the first swing at a ceremonial rail spike, the multi-million dollar project celebrated the end of its long planning stage and entered in the first phase of construction.
The celebratory atmosphere at the ceremony was as high as the expectations many have for railport. Officials say the facility will give businesses better access to Union Pacific railroads and the Mississippi River for shipping.
Because Young called the Clinton area one of the busiest rail corridors in the world, that means business from all over the country and Mexico could potentially come through and invest in Iowa.
“Today represents the dawn of an era of growth for the Clinton region,” Mayor Rodger Holm said.
For him and several others, the railport served not as an end point, but as a catalyst for even more business development and jobs alongside the facility and in the Clinton area.
“When you think about the development here, the possibilities are unlimited,” Young said.
But despite the celebration, there still lingers an air of uncertainty about the project. Officials are still not quite sure how much the entire railport is going to cost. The first phase of construction alone has a $10 million price tag with $2 million coming from the federal government.
Also, its opening date is still vaguely penciled in for “early 2013,” according to Union Pacific.
Then there is the matter of actually creating the more than 3,000 jobs Culver said could be created because of the railport.
Still, city, county and state officials say today was an important first step in making those ambitions come true.
“We would all love to have 3,000 jobs tomorrow,” Young said, “but you’ve got to start somewhere.”
“The good news is that this project is shovel ready,” Culver added. “The contractor’s been hired, so there will be some good paying construction jobs right away.”
Steve Ames of the Clinton Regional Development Corp. said the community had to focus hard now on making sure the railport succeeds in bringing jobs to Eastern Iowa.
“Now the work really begins,” he said, “and that is to make a return on all the public investment that went into this.”
Young echoed those sentiments. “You have to stay with this (project),” he said. “You know, attracting customers, it takes hard work. It takes committent to communities.”
But for Culver and other Clinton city and county officials, the ceremony was a signal to businesses that they were ready to be able partners.
“One of the reasons (companies) continue to come here is because of our infrastructure,” Culver said, “because they know that local communities like Clinton are committed to investing in our infrastructure to create jobs.”
Clinton County Board of Supervisors Chairperson Jill Davisson summed the hopes of many when she knocked on the wooden podium during the ceremony.
“Do you hear that?” she said. “That was opportunity knocking, and today marks the time for opportunity.”