Colfax plan commission recommends village board pursue RFPs for rail spur

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  The Colfax Plan Commission has recommended that the Colfax Village Board move forward with soliciting Requests For Proposals to build a new rail spur in Colfax.

The plan commission, along with village board members, met with representatives of Timber Technologies and Woods Run December 20 to discuss the possibility of building a rail spur.

The proposed rail spur would be located on the west side of village, extending south from county Highway BB.

A company called Star Blends had been interested in locating in Colfax but there was no rail spur available, and Star Blends ended up with a $6.6 million building in the Wissota Industrial Park, said Scott Gunnufson, village president and chair of the plan commission.

The only rail spur currently available in Colfax is along the section of track south of Railroad Avenue.

Star Blends is a feed manufacturing facility that specializes in custom feed for dairy producers.

Woods Run Forest Products unloads lumber from rail cars and reloads onto semi-trucks for a variety of customers, said Bruce Ayres, owner of Woods Run.

Woods Run currently unloads several hundred rail cars per year, and the potential for doubling the number of rail cars would exist with another rail spur available, he said.

“It’s good business for the village and for Woods Run. It’s steady business,” Ayres said, noting that truck drivers buy fuel in Colfax and train crews eat at local restaurants. 

The existing spur presents logistical problems for Timber Technologies and Woods Run because their train cars come and go at different times and are on different loading or unloading schedules. 

Timber Technologies currently unloads lumber to a lot owned by the Commercial Testing Laboratory, and the materials are hauled four blocks by truck to reach Timber Tech.

Estimated cost

An estimate from the construction company of Market & Johnson places the cost of a rail spur at $190 per lineal foot. 

The proposed rail spur would be about 4,000 feet long, so the cost for the spur would be somewhere around $760,000, not including development costs such as a drainage pond and rail access.

The land where the rail spur would sit is expected to sell for $20,000 an acre for 20 acres in phase one and 20 acres in phase two, for a total land acquisition cost of $800,000.

The rail spur would be expected to help businesses already located in Colfax as well as helping to attract new businesses to Colfax.

Gunnufson said there are transportation grants and economic development grants available and that perhaps most of the project could be paid for with grants.

Part of the Requests for Proposals from the engineering companies should include information about grant writers on staff, he noted.

The rail spur would not be owned by the village, but instead, would be owned by a cooperative that would operate somewhat like a home owners’ association, Gunnufson said.

Ethanol plant

A sales consultant for Canadian National railroad said he thought there were already survey plans that included a rail spur for the ethanol plant now located between Wheeler and Boyceville, Gunnufson said.

Colfax was the first choice as the site for the ethanol plant built by the Western Wisconsin Renewable Energy Cooperative.

Local opposition to the ethanol plant caused WWREC to find a different location in the Town of Hay River.

According to the 2015 Dunn County treasurer’s annual report, the ethanol plant, now known as Big River Resources, is worth a fair market value of $12 million, nearly twice as much as the Star Blends facility, and paid $255,662 in property taxes in 2015.

Big River Resources is the fifth largest business in Dunn County. 

The Wal-Mart distribution center is the largest business, with a fair market value of $64 million and annual property taxes of $1.5 million.

“Rail is going to grow, and trucking is going to get harder,” Ayres said.

“Gas prices will go up at some point, so rail will be more viable,” said Gary Stene, a member of the Colfax Plan Commission.

“We’re not looking ten years ahead, but 20, 30, 40, 50 years in the future,” he said.

“If businesses know the village is a player, that will help get the word out,” Stene said.

“I think it’s a good idea. In the long run, the village would benefit…you can target bigger businesses with a rail spur,” Ayres said.

“Many small towns do not have a rail line,” noted Dave Hovre, plan commission member. 

Although Anderson Bridges was not able to send a representative to the meeting, a letter from Kory Weathers of Anderson Bridges expressed support for a rail spur.

“Our business has been growing over the last 10 years since moving to Colfax, and I have no reason to think it will not continue to grow in the coming years. This potential growth could create a need to use the railroad in the future, and we would certainly like to have it available. From a current usage standpoint, I would support this measure in order to help the other businesses in the area. Our success in Colfax is linked to their success as well,” Weathers wrote.

The Colfax Plan Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the Colfax Village Board solicit Requests For Proposals for a rail spur.