Robert Aloi, an engineer and surveyor from Walkerton-based Territorial Engineering, LLC met again with the PCED board in January to outline the rail study proposal. He had earlier met with the board in November with preliminary feasibility plans.

Aloi spoke at length about Territorial Engineerings’s (TE) work at the rail-served Knox Industrial Park. He said that work started with a lead track off of the Norfolk Southern line, with TE and the Starke County Development Foundation relying on a belief that “if you build it, they will come.” A spur was later added for Toll Brothers, followed by a team track parallel to the lead track for switching. A tenant of the park, Reagent, established a new division dedicated to servicing rail cars. Eventually, a team-track dock facility was constructed to offer rail access to local companies not adjacent to a railroad.

Aloi also detailed about what goes into conducting the site-selection and preliminary-design processes, what costs should be anticipated, and what issues could arise. PCED board member David Zeltwanger enquired as to the size of the Knox Industrial Park.. Aloi responded that he thought it comprised about 150 acres total.

Origer followed with a question about minimum acreage necessary for rail service to make sense. Aloi suggested no fewer than 80 acres. Origer then asked about the use of the dock facility; at least half a dozen companies have used it. Zeltwanger asked about total costs for all rail construction at Knox. Aloi answered that it was somewhere near $10 million, although some companies had expended their own funds, too. Further discussion ensued.

The CSX railroad line which runs from White County into Pulaski County through Francesville and ending in Medaryville is the only remaining railroad in Pulaski County. It is used primarily to load "grain trains." Those eyeing future economic development in Pulaski County have reasoned that this railroad, plus U.S. 421 running from Lafayette into the northwest Indiana region, and the relative nearness of the SR 14 interchange at I-65 make this portion of the county the best bet for locating industrial infrastructure, especially for attracting agriculure business/industry.

No land has yet been acquired for the proposed industrial park. Origer will also meet with CSX representatives to apprise the company of PCED’s plans.

In related business, the board decided against another Chicago region railroad proposal from the Great Lakes Basin, LLC. The board had also been briefed on this project at a previous meeting. Under the Great Lakes proposal, Pulaski County would make monthly loans, to total no more than $500,000, to the company for front-end costs prior to filing the Monon-rebuild plans with the federal Surface Transportation Board. After considerable discussion, the PCED board concensus was that, although the project has many obvious potential benefits to provide to the community, there are too many risks at this time to invest local tax dollars into it.

Membership Action

The PCED board accepted the appoint of Amy Hoover as a new member, representing the Pulaski Counth Chamber of Commerce. She succeeds former Chamber representative Christy Perdue.

Executive Director’s Report

Because of the guest presenter, Origer provided a limited report. 

Strategic Relations: Orieger attended November and December Chamber-Board meetings. He met with all three county commissioners to discuss potential PCED rail-oriented projects. He received positive feedback regarding plans to move forward with engineering for the proposed PC-CARE industrial park and cautious interest in Great Lakes Basin, LLC’s propposal for rebuilding the Monon with investment from Pulaski County. He has a meeting secheduled with new county councilman Doug Roth.

Infrastructure: Issues regarding Rhein-Bach, Inc’s land-use maps for the Advisory Plan Commission are finally being addressed appropriately.

Business Attraction/Retention/Expansion & Entrepreneurial Development: Origer had met with Les Ezra of Metal Fab Engineering, Tom Bonnell at T&S Recycle, and Kyle Trent and Paul Overton of U.S. Aggregates – Francesville quarry; he had discussed the freight-rail and the aforesaid Monon-rebuild proposal with Trent and Overton. Peggy Hosea returned to Pulaski County to speak at the final Year-of-the-Entrepreneur event. Origer met with Ron Gifford, of the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center, and PCED board member Dave Zeltwanger’s son, Ryan, regarding a potential start-up agricultural business that the younger Zeltwanger is considering once he returns from college to Francesville. 

Workforce Development: Origer reported that the PACE/Extension two-week welder-training courses has been put on hiatus until the impact of the SCILL Center’s welding program in Knox could be measured. It is a time-intensive, costly, but more thorough program, and it offers the opportunity for AWS certification. Origer will include a story about it in the next quarterly newsletter. Some Pulaski-County manufacturers already have involved themselves in the program, and others likely would benefit from investigating it.

Pulaski County’s unemployment rate was 7.0 percent, up from 6.1 percent in October; most counties saw similar increases. Pulaski County dropped from second-best to being tied for third-best in the northwest part of the state.

Financial Report: At the end of 2012, PCED had expended $98,715 of its $124,277 appropriation. The entire CEDIT Fund experienced a net decrease of $25,272 in 2012. After 2013 appropriations, the fund had a remaining balance of about $1.607 million. The Donation Fund had a balance of just more than $2,000; all repayments continued to be made on time on revolving loans.

Priority List and Monthly Calendar: Forthcoming events on the director’s schedule were reviewed.

Origer was scheduled to attend his first meeting of the Northwest Indiana Forum’s Economic Development Committee as a member of the Forum. At its January meeting, the Winamac Town Council was scheduled to hear a tax-abatement request from GalCo, Inc., for real-property tax abatement related to the proposed expansion at Galfab. Also, Origer was scheduled to attend his first meeting as a member of the advisory group for NIPSCO’s Reynolds-Topeka transmission-line project. On Jan. 30, he would attend a business–start-up workshop, conducted by the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center, in Knox.

Origer noted that the Francesville Town Council has moved its meetings from 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., still on the first and third Monday of each month.

Old Business

2012 CDC Accomplishments: The board voted to approve the 2012 report, as presented.

New Business

Community gardens: Board member David Broad asked Origer to include in the meeting packet an article from the Logansport Pharos-Tribune about a community-gardening endeavor underway in that city. Broad invited Dan Garigan to speak about his experiences with such projects and his thoughts on the possibility of such an endeavor in Winamac. Broad noted that he saw such an endeavor as a way to foster community cohesiveness and to provide fresh produce for local food pantries. After Garigan concluded his remarks and some discussion ensued, it was suggested that while the idea is a worthy one, it was not one the PCED could or should take the lead on.

Winamac Lumber Yard Revolving Loan Fund request: It was reported that company owner Phil White had requested a two-month reprieve from loan repayments while he undertakes some restructuring and endures the slowest part of the year for the building-trades industry. Discussion ensued,  and and board member Lawrence Loehmer, who owns a hardware/farm-supply store, confirmed that the winter months can be slow. The board voted to approve the request, and Origer was instructed to prepare a document to be signed by White and PCED. Zeltwanger suggested that RLF guidelines be amended to address a situation like this in the future.

[Note: Rather than accepting a full forbearance, Winamac Lumber Yard, LLC, will make payments in January and February sufficient to keep them at pace with required payments; previously, they had been overpaying, which they intend to do again beginning in March.]

Quarterly newsletter 1.4: Origer solicited suggestions for sections not yet completed in the forthcoming newsletter; discussion ensued.

2013-2014 vacancies: Origer asked members to submit recommendations for new members; three individuals had already expressed interest. He and membership officer Jamie Bales will review all candidates before presenting recommendations in February to fill two at-large vacancies. Members were also asked to consider 2013-2014 officer nominations.

Other Business Deemed to Be Necessary

PCED shirts: Zeltwanger suggested that PCED should consider having shirts featuring the organization’s logo on them made, so that members could dress uniformly at PCED events and be able to advertise the organization in public.

Theme for 2013: Zeltwanger suggested that, in following 2012’s being the Year of the Entrepreneur, PCED should develop a theme and programming for 2013.