The members
• David Christian, president of AMPCOR, La Porte, and Indiana Manufacturers' Association chairman.
• Hugh Glasgow, Union Mills farmer.
• Don Babcock, NIPSCO economic development director.
• Marie Gilliland, La Porte Hospital.
• Henry Lampe, SouthShore Freight chief executive director.
• Gary Husky, Building Trades unions.
• Sharron Jenkins, Purdue University-North Central professor.
• David Decker, La Porte County Convention & Visitors Bureau vice-chairman.
• Bill Turner, Teamsters Local 135 representative.
• Ken Purze, Michiana Shores, businessman.
• Al Walus, Michigan City Sanitary District director.
• Gerry Jones, Stepping Stone shelter director.
• Ruth Minich, Kingsbury, former La Porte Community Schools board member.
• Jodi Warner, KOP Circle resident.
• Pat Cicero, La Porte County Sheriff's Department detective.
• Joe Coar, Tonn & Blank Construction.
• Doug Biege, La Porte, attorney.
• Scott Hamilton, New York Blower production manager.
• Robert Boklund, environmentalist and former La Porte County Health Department administrator.
• Marie Schwieter, El Puente Community Center executive director.
• David Chlebek, United Steelworkers.
Stan Maddux, For The News-Dispatch
LA PORTE - A 21-member citizen task force has been created to help oversee the siting of a potential intermodal facility in La Porte County.
The La Porte County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the names Tuesday night.
"The goal was to design a process that is as open and fair and inclusive a process as possible," La Porte County Attorney Shaw Friedman said Tuesday.
Commission President Barb Huston said the list needed paring down from a tremendous number of applicants, who could be called upon to serve in the event of a future opening.
"It drew an overwhelming response," she said.
Applications were submitted to each of the county's commissioners, who contacted certain individuals during the selection process to gauge their interest
in serving.
Task-force members include area farmers and members from the United Steelworkers Union and other labor organizations, along with local industry such as NIPSCO, Tonn & Blank in Michigan City and New York Blower in La Porte.
Purdue University-North Central, La Porte Hospital and the La Porte County Convention & Visitors Bureau also have members on the group, which could meet for the first time next week.
"It's a good cross section and should be very helpful as we move forward," Friedman said. "The commissioners worked hard during the last couple of weeks for a diverse group."
According to a University of Illinois study, Friedman said task forces are a key ingredient to finding sites for intermodal facilities like the one in Joliet, Ill., which has been visited by some local officials.
Task-force members sit down with railroads and real-estate developers to consider positives and negatives of each prospective site before agreeing on a location, he said.
Friedman also expects the task force to view the projected job creation from a railyard and other economic-development benefits, along with potential drawbacks on the environment, noise, traffic and other quality-of-life concerns.
Jody Warner, a resident of the KOP Circle, a subdivision inside the former Kingsbury Ordinance Plant, said Tuesday she's looking forward to participating in discussions.
"It's definitely got my interest at this stage of the game," said Warner, who attended a community intermodal meeting last week she said "opened (her) eyes.
"I think I'm getting a good insight into what the county's going through. There's so much unknown right now, though. I don't really have an opinion formed yet."
Despite agreements to acquire several thousand acres of land, Friedman said no formal proposals for an facility have yet surfaced.
"Even the proposal that is pending in Union Mills doesn't have a railroad attached to it," he said. "It's a real-estate development firm that has some property under option."
"It's like a three legged stool. You got to have the real-estate development folks. You got to have a railroad that's certainly committed to it and you got to have public support of it.
"That's what it's going to take if ultimately the project is going to come together," Friedman said.
Reporter Jason Miller and News Editor Scott M. Lawson contributed to this report.
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