By Kris Leonhardt

Editor

MARSHFIELD — During a special meeting of the Marshfield Common Council Oct. 3, city leaders voted to allow the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) early occupancy into the Yellowstone Industrial Park to begin work on its new facilities.

City Administrator Steve Barg said that ownership of the property will transfer Nov. 1, but the company requested to begin work prior to that date.

“They want to get constructing on that property,” said Barg. “They would like to get access to the site and begin moving some dirt and doing some preliminary site preparation.”

At its regular meeting on Sept. 26, the council voted to extend an east side railroad spur to accommodate PCA’s needs and any future development that might occur.

“One of the things they needed in order for this factory to be successful is rail line access, and of course we do have rail service that goes down to the Completion Industrial Minerals plant, but we couldn’t get that rail service without a very expensive expenditure all of the way up to the property they are going to be on,” Mayor Chris Meyer said, “so what we looked at is adding a second rail spur off of Veterans Parkway to cut across Galvin Avenue into the business park or the industrial park. The spur would certainly be put into place to serve PCA, but it would be designed so that it could be extended into the rest of the park and serve future tenants as well.”

Construction on PCA’s expanded plant to replace its current facilities in Colby is scheduled for completion in the spring or summer of 2018.