[Winona Online Democracy]
What would happen in a Winona Foreign Trade Zone as far
as manufacturing is concerned? Just having a container port and warehouse
complex wouldn't seem to require many workers for the amount of space used. I
assume that container handling would be state-of-the-art automated. Lawrence
Transportation's warehouse in my neighborhood occupies a full three story city
block and another block or more of riverfront truck parking, but blue collar
employment is only one or two fork lift drivers per shift as far as I
know.
So, Winona containers from the orient or Europe would be
transferred to barges in New Orleans or visa-versa. During winter they would
find another route to their eventual destination, maybe using current Pacific or
Atlantic coast ports. Perhaps St. Louis would have a year round container
port. But then what is the motivation for using Winona seasonally when duplicate
infrastructure exists? We would need some sort of significant value
added role to play.
It will be interesting to see who will be asking the taxpayers
to subsidize lock and dam expansions so that barge traffic can be
increased.
John N. Finn
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 17 f�vrier, 2004 12:03
Subject: [Winona] Winona Employment
[Winona Online Democracy]
One of the e-mails I received off
line was someone expressing the opportunities for Winona to be an
Export Import Container Port and tied to Warehousing/ Transportation, Trucking
and Manufacturing/Assembly in a Foreign Trade Zone the City could
create. As more and more goods are produced outside the
U.S. the movement of
those goods becomes an increasing opportunity for those involved in
transportation. Any person simply needs to look at the rail cars
carrying containers with foreign marking to see the volume and opportunities
created by being on the river, the least costly mode of distant
transportation.
Think of the number of goods now
sold thought retail stores, distributed by Fastenal, UBC, Menards and others
that are imported and at some point containerized. Look at the
opportunities for employment and job growth. While most of us think of
bulk commodities when we think about barges the future of containers moving up
the river on barges and being unloaded or loaded at Winona can be
exciting, create jobs and jobs that pay well.
It will be interesting to observe
the battle for river front uses and in particular to see who support higher
paying blue collar jobs to attract and sustain young families verses the trend
to move to lower paying retail and tourism employment.
Paul Double
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