Railroad project gets boost

By Staff
RAIL-DEPENDENT JOBS About 1,200 people from Mississippi and Alabama work at this plant in Waynesboro, Marshall-Durbin grain storage and blending plant, a chicken hatchery business. Officials say those jobs and about 800 others in Clarke and Wayne counties are dependent on the improvement of a 55-mile stretch of railroad that supplies the plant, which is located in the Wayne County Industrial Park. Submitted photo.
By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
July 14, 2004
WAYNESBORO A key 55-mile stretch of railroad in Clarke and Wayne counties could be one step closer to being improved.
Wayne County economic development officials have been granted permission to file a grant application for $2.2 million to fund the repairs directly to the U.S. Economic Development Administration sidestepping a usual application with a local planning and development district.
Officials say the repair of the railroad could help retain more than 2,000 jobs held by Clarke and Wayne county residents and possibly create new ones. And, they say, the direct file of the grant application could boost chances to obtain the necessary funding.
The announcement comes two months after Meridian Southern Railway LLC which owns the track committed $250,000 to the refurbishment project.
Economic development districts and boards of supervisors in Clarke and Wayne counties are working to obtain federal funding as another funding component.
The railroad links Waynesboro and Meridian, where it then connects with Kansas City Southern Railroad and other carriers.
Miller was hired by Wayne County and Clarke County to investigate the line's problems and locate funding for repairs. Some of the track is believed to be nearly a century old and few repairs have been made over the past three decades.
Couple that with last spring's round of flash floods in East Mississippi, he said, and some people fear the line could become impassable.
The biggest plant that could suffer from the condition of the railroad is Waynesboro's Marshall-Durbin grain storage and blending plant, a rail-dependent chicken hatchery business located in the Wayne County industrial park that provides about 1,200 jobs in Mississippi and Alabama.
In Clarke County, about 650 workers could be affected if the railroad had to close.
James Walker, president of the Wayne County Economic Development District, said as the economy has rebounded in recent months, interest in the county's industrial park has peaked. And, Walker said, the railroad's improvement is crucial to helping land any prospective industries.
The preservation of the jobs at the Marshall-Durbin plant and others was the main reason East Mississippi economic developers, business leaders and elected officials teamed to find money to fund the repairs.