(The following story by Rick Rousos appeared on The Lakeland Ledger website on December 15.)
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — To anyone from Polk County hoping for one of 200 CSX jobs when the company finishes the initial section of its Winter Haven rail hub: Don’t hold your breath.
A CSX consultant’s report released in early 2006 projected 200 new company jobs in the first year the CSX rail terminal opens.
A “firmer number” is 110, a company spokesman now says.
And some of those 110 jobs planned for two or three years from now will go to CSX workers in Orlando who will be displaced when the bulk of CSX freight operations in Central Florida is shifted to Winter Haven.
There are now 55 CSX workers at the Taft Yard in Orlando.
The company is still projecting 8,500 jobs when the entire hub is built, including warehouse and spin-off jobs such as in restaurants and convenience stores.
“We believe the 8,500 number is right,” said Gary Sease, the spokesman for CXS.
The 2006 report was prepared by HDR Engineering of Jacksonville, which often does consulting work for CSX. Jacksonville is also the home base of CSX.
The report projected 150 as the lowest number of jobs at the hub when the terminal is finished and 250 was listed as the highest number.
The “most likely” job number was set at 200, according to the report that CSX released in January 2006.
Sease said the data, including employment estimates, were collected in 2005. He said it was based on rail operations around the country.
Sease acknowledged that CSX officials did speak with and provide information to HDR to help the consulting company make its projections.
“We have more information now,” Sease said. “The earlier (projections) were best estimates at the time, to provide a vision.”
The vision now may not include anyone from Polk getting any of the 110 CSX jobs.
But, Sease said, “at least there would be 110 jobs there that weren’t there before.”
Sease said the numbers become “more firm” as the project comes closer to fruition.
Winter Haven’s support for the CSX hub plan was not dented by the lower initial job projection of 110.
“It has been the city’s understanding from the beginning that 200 was an estimate,” City Manager David Greene said through a spokeswoman, Joy Townsend. “From the larger picture we anticipate there will still be 8,500 jobs generated through this project, as planned.”
Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, opposes the Winter Haven hub. She said she was not surprised by the lowering of the job figure, but said she was disappointed.”Most of those jobs will probably go to people from Orlando,” she said.
Dockery said the projection of 8,500 jobs when the project is finished “is crazy.”
“But there will be 1,400 more trucks on the roads every day, with no infrastructure to support it,” she said. “These jobs they’re talking about will be for the truckers: truck stops, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants.
“I believe 10 years from now Winter Haven will be sorry they ever bought this bill of goods,” she said. “I just don’t see where this whole thing justifies giving CSX $491 million in public money.”
The $491 million from state coffers includes $150 million to buy an eastern Florida commuter line, $23 million to relocate the rail hub from Orlando to Winter Haven and $266 million to upgrade the CSX “S” Line, which runs through Winter Haven, Lakeland, Plant City, Wildwood and Ocala.
The CSX study predicts that $900 million in tax revenues will be generated over the next 10 years by the rail hub and the businesses it brings into the area.
Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said he supports the project because it will bring much-needed jobs to Polk County. A spokeswoman in his office said Friday afternoon that Alexander could not be reached to comment on the lowered job projection.
In a recent story, using Wahneta as an example, Alexander said there are plenty of hard-working people who have low-paying jobs – or none.
“Feeding families comes first,” he said.
CSX is hoping to have the terminal in southern Winter Haven built by 2009.