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By JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer Minot Daily News
Tuesday's announcement of a $1.5 million federal grant to help build an intermodal facility in Minot has the Minot Area Development Corp. making plans to hire an engineer and break ground this spring.
The facility will be built just west of 55th Avenue Northeast and Minot Milling and near a proposed value-added agricultural park. The Minot City Council previously approved spending $500,000 to buy land from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for the facility.
The intermodal facility task force held a news conference Tuesday with a U.S. Commerce Department official to announce the $1.5 million grant from the department's Economic Development Administration. The grant will be used to assist with land acquisition, construction of streets, water and sewer services and other improvements to complete the
initial 180-acre location. The site will accommodate several value-added agriculture firms looking at expanding their operations.
Assistant Secretary Sandy Baruah of the Economic Development Administration said federal officials have "very, very high hopes" for the intermodal facility. He said the facility likely will create even more than the proposed 55 jobs.
"We know this is going to be a tremendous success," he said.
The intermodal facility will enable rail shippers to load products in containers. The initial focus will be on shipping agricultural commodities to the West Coast, task force chairman Jay Fisher said. By using containers, farmers can tap markets that require commodities remain separated to preserve identity and quality.
By working with an intermodal facility serving the Fargo-Dilworth area, the region will be able to send 100 to 110 cars at a time to market, Fisher said. It's estimated that 7,500 containers a year could leave Minot and 12,500 containers could come out of Fargo-Dilworth. The Minot intermodal facility is expected to serve at least a 150-mile radius.
The task force is looking at a basic facility costing about $5 million, with much of the construction going into adding side tracks to the Burlington Northern line. The facility would require about 10 acres.
In addition to the federal grant, the task force is counting on funding from MADC, the city of Minot, Souris Basin Planning Council and the state of North Dakota. The task force also will be looking for a business investor to market and operate the facility. Fisher said the task force would like to attract a major company with experience in the container and rail industries.
Gov. John Hoeven, who spoke at Tuesday's news conference, said the receipt of the federal grant will enable the project to move forward.
"We are anxious to get started. We believe if we can get started this spring or summer, we hope to have something operational by the fall," Hoeven said. "Minot is doing this right. You have done your homework. You are doing a good job. It's coming together."
The project has been in the works actively for at least six years.
Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman said the federal grant will move the project from the study stage to construction. "We have looked at this project and studied it and studied it, and we truly believe this is a good project for Minot and especially for the farmers in this region, " Zimbelman said. "At this point, I think we can bring everything together. We are going to see some real things happen as far as intermodal in Minot."
Fisher said the facility will spur further development of the agricultural park as well. MADC is working to bring a biodiesel plant and associated seed-crushing plant to that area. |
