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To the editor:
City council is treating local taxpayers like boiling frogs, blind to what is happening right in front of us at Gateway Industrial Park.
Last week, council approved a $120,000 rail feasibility study, backed by a $100,000 Iowa DOT grant and $20,000 in local tax dollars. They are planning a branch spur off the line west of the river into the east side of our empty industrial park. The official cover story leans on local operations like Vantec or Custom Meats, even though officials admitted neither business actually needs this rail spur.
Developers rely on tried and true formulas to fool taxpayers; use every day local businesses as cover while getting the city to use public dollars for upfront groundwork. They claim private developers will pay for spurs and roads later, but by then the community is already locked into a deal.
We have already sunk over $43 million into this park with zero industrial comers to show for it. Local manufacturing or meat processing does not justify a $120,000 rail story. What does require heavy rail access? The massive, 500,000 pound mega transformers required for a high capacity AI data center and its new power substation grid. Equipment that heavy cannot roll down local municipal roads; it demands heavy rail infrastructure.
When I presented the council with 47 pages of detailed documentation exposing these exact logistics, what did we get? No open answers – just rushed votes and quiet maneuvers behind closed doors.
Building out a data site and manufacturing those massive transformers takes three to five years. This isn't an issue to kick down the road to the next election – the Mayor's and City Council's integrity is on the line right now. Put real facts on the table. We demand straight answers today before the deal is sealed completely.
Paul Moberly
Williams