Clinton, Iowa, celebrates railport with groundbreaking ceremony

It was a hammer instead of a shovel that ushered in the groundbreaking of the Lincolnway Railport on August 20, the Clinton Herald reports. With Iowa 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
railroad 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 the start of construction 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 commitment 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."