Donovan Estridge, LaPorte Herald-Argus

LA PORTE COUNTY - What started as a small gathering at a Union Mills diner exploded in August into an all-out movement, with more than 600 people crowding into the Noble Township Volunteer Fire Department to discuss what would become the No. 1 story of 2007 - the possible location of a rail intermodal facility in La Porte County.

In June, Mishawaka-based development company Cressy & Everett told The La Porte County Herald-Argus that it had optioned the necessary land for an intermodal facility near Union Mills, prompting Ruth Minich of Kingsbury and Ann Milner of La Porte to organize residents of the town to hold the town hall meeting that drew hundreds, including elected leaders at local, state and national levels.

Concerns expressed at the meetings, and in the following months, included the congestion and pollution that might result from a rail yard the size of a small town, as well as the loss of homes and farmland.

"That was one of my first meetings with the group," Ty Murray, head of the anti-intermodal group Stop Intermodals/Save Our County, told The La Porte County Herald-Argus. "It really started to gel from there."

Due to pressure from groups such as Murray's, the county in September formed a 21-member task force to study the impact of an intermodal on the county and to evaluate any possible intermodal proposals.

The task force was controversial from the start, with one elected official referring to it in a public meeting as the "what if" committee, and with many others questioning the group's initial budget request of nearly $100,000, an amount eventually pared down to only a few thousand.

As rumors mounted that the location of an intermodal facility in the county was imminent, officials repeatedly reminded residents throughout the latter months of the year that "the county has never received a proposal."

Still, economic development officials repeatedly touted the benefits of an intermodal facility, including possibly thousands of well-paying jobs and a significant property tax boost.

As quickly as things heated up, however, they cooled in late November with word that at least two major railroads had no interest in La Porte County. That news put a temporary halt to the actions of the intermodal task force, which had planned to commission economic and environmental studies and tour a nearby intermodal facility in Elwood, Ill.

Still, county officials maintain a proposal is still possible. The real estate investment trust First Industrial, which has been linked to intermodal development in the county, is reportedly still "aggressively seeking suitors."

"We are very hopeful that developers keep a keen interest in La Porte County," La Porte County Economic Development Corp. Director Matt Reardon said.

And Murray?

"I'm just waiting for the nuclear plume to explode," he said.
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