LaPorte County officials tour intermodal facility in Illinois

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ELWOOD, Ill. ? LaPorte County officials spent Wednesday on an interstate fact finding trip. It was aimed at showing the potential impact an intermodal rail hub might have here.

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Intermodals connect railroads with ground transportation and huge distribution warehouses.

The group of about 35 elected officials and task force members boarded a tour bus in Michigan City, and traveled to the tiny town of Elwood. With just 2,200 residents, it's a fraction the size of LaPorte. But it's home to one of the largest intermodals in the country.

Everyone aboard the bus had the same question as the trip began: Would that type of development fit in LaPorte County?

"This is a learning experience today, and I hope we all get a lot out of it," Dave Christian told the group as the trip got underway. Christian is the chairman of LaPorte County's newly named Logistics Task Force, formerly known as Intermodal Task Force.

He, along with other local economic development leaders, dove right in as the bus pulled out, going through facts and figures about the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Logistic Park Corridor.

The staggering numbers showed on the faces of those looking at pictures of the mammoth Elwood campus. It includes 2,500 total acres, is nearly 10 miles wide and 8 miles deep at its peaks, and includes 12.5 million square feet of indoor warehouse storage space.

The group was shown around the two largest of those "distribution center" warehouses during the tour. Both are operated by Wal-Mart, and are 1.6 million and 1.7 million square feet respectively. That puts them among the largest distribution centers in the U.S.

It all comprises a $1 billion investment that's created nearly 2,000 new full time jobs in Elwood, in addition to the 2,300 jobs created just to build it all.

It's the very thing some wanted to hear.

"What I see out of it is jobs," said LaPorte County Councilman Jerry Cooley. "We need jobs in LaPorte County, and this gives us a great opportunity to bring jobs to our community."

But others were struck by the fact that they didn't hear anything at all!

"It's quiet," said Christian, while touring the intermodal facility. "You wouldn't even know it was here."

And Christian says Elwood village leaders told the group the intermodal has been a positive revolution for their tiny town. But our cameras weren't allowed inside when they met with the group.

So we hit the streets to find out what those living in Elwood thought of the development. We found opinions are mixed.

"They're destroying a small town," said one local bar owner along the village's main drag. "But I can't say I wouldn't build it again, because it has brought a lot of new investment here, new roads, a new town hall. It's just change."

"We've not really had any trouble," agreed Ronnie Headrick, who owns Raceway Pizza, just down the street from the bar. "But, I say that as a business owner. We have had some extra deliveries to the warehouses, but because truck traffic is banned downtown here, we don't see too much extra business. Some people living closer to [the intermodal] might have a different opinion though."

And we found one, without too much trouble.

"It seems overdone to me," said Jeri King, who has lived in the village her whole life. "I do hear it sometimes, and it doesn't look very nice. But, that's the way progress goes," she shrugged.

Still, residents say the village itself hasn't changed much. It's remained fairly uneventful and quiet. But there is one thing nearly everyone seems to notice.

"You see maybe 20 percent more people here in town. But a mile out of town where the intermodal is, those roads are swamped with trucks," said Headrick.

And some on the tour said that's no surprise.

"This is exactly the way I would have seen it," said Logistics Task Force member Ruth Minnick, who owns farm land in Union Mills, near one proposed site for the LaPorte County Development.

Minnick, who lives in Kingsford Heights, has been an opponent of the intermodal plan from the start.

"I came into this with an open mind," she continued. But when asked if her mind has been changed, she replied "Not really. I still think it's not a fair trade off for this valuable farm land."

Still, even the skeptics admit the trip was an eye opening experience.

"It didn't change my mind that I'm against the intermodal," agreed Blair Purcell, a member of the group "Stop Intermodals, Save Our County" or SISOC. "But I can see arguments that others would make."

But perhaps the biggest argument from everyone on the trip is what this type of development would mean to LaPorte County, and -- for that matter -- the entire region.

And even after a 200 mile trek for facts, it's the one question some say remains unanswered.

"That's the bottom line. We don't know," said Purcell.

County leaders still don't have a proposal from any developers to actually build an intermodal in LaPorte County. In fact, both CSX and Canadian Northern Railroads told county leaders they weren't interested in building one three months ago. That's why the former Intermodal Task Force decided against going on the trip then.

So, why go now?

Christian and other local leaders say Mishawaka based real estate developer Cressy and Everett told them last month a proposal "could be forthcoming."

What exactly that means is still unclear.

The task force will meet to talk more about it on March 5. That meeting begins at 6 p.m. CT at the LaPorte County building in downtown LaPorte

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