Plans to develop a rail-served industrial park on the west side of Pulaski County are not dead yet, but county officials are considering whether it’s worth moving forward. “The CDC has kind of put it on the back burner for a number of reasons,” Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer told the county commissioners last week. “I’ve done some financial calculations and seen roughly how many dollars assessed value per acre it would need to break even, like 25 years down the road, 80 years down the road.”
Now, Origer is asking to meet individually with county commissioners and council members to discuss some possible options. “Two months, six months down the road, we might be in a position to talk more publicly and get further along,” he said. “We might just say it’s not worth it. But we’ve continued the conversations at the CDC. I’ve done the additional data research, and I’d like to be able to present some of that to you without tying up too much time here.”
Developing a west side industrial park has been a goal of the CDC for several years now, not only to give manufacturers access to rail but also to a larger pool of workers to the west.
