Finkbeiner forms panel to study intermodal hub

6/9/2008

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner has announced the makeup of his 10-person committee to study where an intermodal transportation hub could best be located in Toledo and how it could be financed.

The chairman will be James Tuschman, an attorney, member of the Ohio Board of Regents, and a former University of Toledo trustee.

Other members of the intermodal committee are:

•Rick Anderson of Waterville, president and co-owner of Radco Industries, Inc.

•Ed Bryant of Ottawa Hills, former executive vice president of operations for Libbey-Owens-Ford Co.

•Jerry Chabler, of Sylvania, an Ohio state racing commissioner.

•Keith Earley of Holland, Lucas County engineer.

•Edwin J. Nagle III of Toledo, president and chief executive of the Nagle Companies, a Lake Township-based trucking company.

•J. Patrick Nicholson, founder and former president of N-Viro International Corp.

•Harold Salverda, a retired assistant director of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments.

•Sue Wuest, assistant director of the Urban Affairs Center at the University of Toledo.

•James White, Jr., a partner in the law firm of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick.

The committee's goal is to collect data from the Regional Growth Partnership, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, the Toledo Metropolitan Council of Governments, UT's Transportation Institute, and other sources.

Mayor Finkbeiner last week professed his support for intermodal, the term used by shippers to refer to containerized freight that uses multiple forms of transportation from origin to destination.

The mayor raised the issue and promised to create the committee after he accused developer Brian McMahon of misleading some local media and fabricating the existence of a petition to extend city water lines for an intermodal facility at Toledo Express Airport.

Mr. McMahon, whose firm is a partner in a limited liability corporation that owns land around Toledo's airport, has advocated developing such a terminal near the airport. He said the document, a request for an easement to tap into the city water line on the opposite side of Airport Highway, was delivered to Mr. Finkbeiner.

The mayor also said the city is close to concluding negotiations for a joint economic development district with Swanton and Monclova townships for land around the airport.