The U.S. Department of Commerce announced last Thursday it would pledge $1.5 million to the city of Mount Vernon, Texas, toward railroad improvements to support business development and expansion in Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas.
Some estimates show the project is expected to create 82 jobs, retain 55 of them and generate about $2 million in private investment.
"We put lots of effort into this. We had to raise funds in order to receive this money, as this was based on matching funds," said Brad Hyman, president of the Mount Vernon Economic Development Board. "Writing a grant proposal was just a small part of this, but we wanted to make this happen, and we did."
The money raised will mostly go toward building Franklin County Transload Terminal, where goods can be transferred from trains to trucks and vice versa. The terminal would give rail companies an alternative to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
"The additional train traffic coming into the area and using the Franklin County Transload Terminal will bring about the improvement of the" rail line between the Metroplex and Mount Vernon, Hyman said.
The corridor is managed by Northeast Texas Rural Rail Transportation District, which represents the counties around the rail line. The district controls 65.6 miles of operational railroad and a total railroad corridor of 88.8 miles in Northeast Texas between the Titus-Franklin county line and Wylie, Texas, originally the "C-branch" mainline of St. Louis Southwestern Railway, according to the district website.
"This line is one of the few regionally controlled rail lines remaining," Hyman said. "It is owned and controlled by the surrounding counties represented by NETEX, as opposed to most other rail lines, which are owned and controlled by private rail companies."
The improvements will allow for more efficient movement of international shipping containers provide the opportunity to access new markets and cut transportation costs.
Hyman anticipates other benefits for the community.
"The facility and infrastructure improvements will create job opportunities for those who live here," he said. " The increased business activity and presence in the community will hopefully encourage our young people to return or to stay in the community. Things have been hard these days for many rural communities, and this will help ours."
This announcement has been a boost for local morale.
"There's a lot of pride and excitement," Hyman said. "Rural communities are struggling to get good economic news these days. Businesses will have incentive to come here. We welcome them with open arms."
Hyman says the Mount Vernon Economic Development Board, an all-volunteer organization, deserves full credit for the work put into making this project happen.
"I'm a volunteer, as we all are," he said. "We do this because we believe in it."
Work on the transload terminal and rail line upgrades are expected to be completed by December.