Things are the usual, "officially" quiet, when working with large corporations such as CSX. Until they decide to release information, we'll just snap some long range photos and speculate on what is a happening!

We are within a year of the estimated opening of the Northwest Ohio Intermodal Yard west of North Baltimore, in Henry Township. There appears to be much going on out there, with the lighting standards being installed, piles of rail ties sitting around, truck after truck passing through the 4-way stop at South Main and State Street and wide loads and many different types of construction equipment pulling through town.

From what we read on the Internet and what we "hear" around town, there is much going on. Rumors and speculation have done their usual course, in and out of our reality. Some folks keep the fires burning, others try to dispel and clarify the rumors, and still others, well, they just hope it all goes away and we wake up with our small town of the 50's and 60's back, with great services and businesses and things to do!

This yard is going to be a BIG deal for just about everyone within 60 miles. Everyone wants to get in on the action, wants a piece of the pie, wants what they "deserve."

Pretty soon the cranes will be arriving from Europe, coming in on a freighter to the Port of Toledo on Lake Erie. I am supposing that much of the equipment will come in on rail. I'm pretty sure much of it will be trucked in. We are going to continue to see the intermodal yard take shape. It's going to be BIG, literally! 4 miles long, hundreds of yards wide and it is going to be a hundred feet tall, with the lights and cranes!

We can only hope that the powers that be who are in charge and control the purse stings, are planning on helping us small town folk out with this. We're going to need the overpass at Liberty High Road FAST - we are going to need Eagleville Road straightened out and upgrade FAST - we are going to need a PEDESTRIAN OVERPASS IN DOWNTOWN... fast! There are so many projects that need massive amounts of money! We locals are tapped out, taxed very heavily, the cost of utilities are increasing and we are just trying to eek out a decent living here!

We didn't ask that CSX come here...we don't want to be in the way of their project...so much of this and that is speculated - more jobs and businesses, but what will it mean for us locals? Where will they locate? Where will the workers live?

Many of the people who are coming to work in and around the yard ARE NOT coming from towns of 10,000 or less! Many, if not most, are from cities and suburbs and cul du sacs and planned developments. They are used to multi-plexes and restaurants galore, shopping and services right there for them! If we are expecting ANY of these folks to locate IN North Baltimore, WE are going to have to put our best foot forward. We are going to have to figure out a way to have these folks want to live in a town of 3,000, where you have everything you NEED, just not all of the things that you WANT. We offer so much more than you see on the surface, but new folk come to town and what do we do...

(This ends this tangent for the time being - maybe, if you tune back in - I'll finish all of these incomplete thoughts... In the meantime, think about what you can do personally and we can do as a community to help ourselves out, in this our chance to change North Baltimore for the better!)