Other businesses in the park can load products or materials onto trucks and put them on railroad cars at the port, of course. REC Silicon has done such “transloading” extremely well for more than 20 years, said TIFID administrator Kristen Rosa.

While the rail lines at the Port are a “tremendous asset,” Rosa said, spurs into the rest of the industrial park would be a big plus.

“To date, we do not have anywhere that we can put somebody and say it’s already served,” Rosa said. “Our goal is to create a plan so that when that person (company) comes and they are really in need of rail service, we have it there.”

The TIFID has $13 million to $15 million in reserves. Like all tax-increment districts, property taxes from new developments in the area are captured so they can be reinvested there instead of being doled out to all other local government units and schools.

Until recently, however, the TIFID lacked an available tract of land needed for new rail spurs. That changed when $30 million in upgrades to the county’s Metro Sewer Plant were completed last year.