Residents grill Norfolk Southern on proposed Jeff Co. facility

A packed house greeted Norfolk Southern for their first public meeting regarding a 280-acre intermodal transport facility in New Market.

But many in the middle school auditorium weren't welcoming the railroad with open arms.

"Yeah, it was a tough crowd. It was a challenging crowd. People have some legitimate concerns," Dr. Robert Martinez, Norfolk Southern's Vice President of Business Development, said.

Many carried signs referencing farmland they'd like to save or suggesting another site for the proposed truck and train transport center. The full house grilled the railroad on their plans for Jefferson County.

"Will you give this a fair, hard look at putting this down the road in Mascot?" one woman asked.

Many people have suggested a piece of property formerly used as industrial land just south of the proposed site in Mascot would be a good compromise.

However, Norfolk Southern again Thursday said the topography of the site makes it financially impossible to build on.

Among the dozens who asked questions and spoke out against the rail facility, one Greene County landowner issued an invitation, offering up the support of her neighborhood in Mohawk, Tenn.

"We'd like to have a little prosperity for our children, so they don't have to wait until we die to do it. So yeah, if the price is good, we'd sell," Peggy Wilder said.

But no other site offers the potential of the New Market site, according to Norfolk Southern.

"We want to be welcomed here, and we want to negotiate with property owners," Martinez said.

If it's built, it would bring an estimated 1,800 jobs and 250 additional trucks a day to Highway 11-E. It would also bring three to four more trains in and out of the facility each day.

Perhaps more important to the region, Norfolk Southern said it would open up east Tennessee to intermodal international trade. The rail lines would run from New Market to Norfolk, Virginia and the international port.

There are roughly 20 parcels of land that Norfolk Southern needs to acquire to make the New Market site work.

"We want to be welcomed here, and we want to negotiate with the property owners," Martinez said.

From here, the railroad said they plan to move forward with a traffic study this fall with an opening date sometime in 2013.