ORDC approves grant for megasite

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A grant of up to $500,000 was recently approved by the Ohio Rail Development Commission for the rehabilitation of a portion of rail line into a 1,600-acre Job Ready Site in Van Wert County that could generate up to 2,500 jobs and improve service and business for two existing companies.

The ORDC board approved the grant during its meeting held January 20.

The grant would pay for rehabilitating a 4,200-foot branch line currently leased and operated by the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad that currently services Scott Equity. Work would include bridge repair, tie replacement, crossing repairs and related track work.

Money for the project will come from salvaging 10.6 miles of railroad track on what is known as the Spencerville-Elgin Railroad line belonging to the Van Wert Port Authority.

The track upgrade would allow the spur to meet rail standards and handle 286,000-pound cars – the size that would likely travel on it if a major industrial plant would be located on the 1,600-acre Job Ready Site when infrastructure work on it is completed.

A breakdown of the work being paid for by the ORDC grant is as follows:

Surface and line track, $21,000; ballast, $25,000; Town Creek Bridge repair, $200,000; road crossing repair, $150,000; select rail replacement, $10,000; tie replacement, $71,400, for a total of $477,400.

The ORDC grant funding would allow the Van Wert Port Authority to complete a $4.7 million rail project to bring rail to the Jobs Ready Site. The line would also pass by the Plastic Recycling Technologies site, which would also consider building a rail spur into its plant when the JRS rail line extension is completed. The company is also noting that doing so would also result in an expansion of its local facility from 40 employees to 60 employees.

Local economic development officials recently received financial commitments from Van Wert City Council and the Van Wert County Board of Commissioners to fund any funding shortfall in the JRS infrastructure project, which calls for installation of utility and rail lines to the 1,600-acre site located north of Van Wert. The total project cost is estimated at more than $10 million. The largest chunk of funding for the site is a $5 million Job Ready Site grant from the Ohio Department of Development, while a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant totaling $2.3 million is also in the works.

Van Wert officials project that the megasite could generate approximately 2,500 jobs and $500 million in investment based on comparable sites.