Tracking the DM&E's big dream: Chapter 10

Around Huron the land flattens out like a table top and grain fields can be seen in all directions. Round hay bales dot the surrounding landscape. In town, there's a bustle of activity around the city's large grain elevator as trucks deposit their cargo of wheat, sunflower seeds and millet, and railroad cars sit on the tracks waiting to be loaded.

About two miles away at the Dakota Pork Industries processing plant, a red-tailed hawk perches on a telephone pole, sizing up some pigeons on an awning below. This is the only sign of life at the plant, which closed in 1997, leaving 700 people without jobs.

The closure was a devastating blow to this city of 12,000, and it's one reason many in the community are enthused about prospects for the $100 million operations center the DM&E has proposed building near Huron. Schieffer says the center would create about 500 permanent jobs.

"I haven't talked to too many people who are against it," says longtime Huron resident and retired bookkeeper Cleo Johnston.

Schieffer is pleased with Huron's support for the project, so much so that there has been speculation he's considering moving the railroad's headquarters there from Brookings, which has been less than supportive of the project.

In Brookings, a college town with a thriving business community, the historic railroad depot downtown has been renovated and now is home to one of the city's radio stations. The DM&E has its headquarters in a brick office building nowhere near the tracks in a newer part of town not far from the Interstate.

Here, Schieffer is battling the potentially embarrassing situation of having the DM&E's hometown turn against it.

Brookings, a city of 15,000 on the Big Sioux River, is home to South Dakota State University, which has about 8,000 students. The city is on Interstate 29, the north-south economic lifeline through eastern South Dakota, and it has a thriving business community.

As is the case in Rochester, the prospect of two dozen coal trains running through town has city and state leaders concerned about safety and traffic problems. Among public officials who have expressed concern are South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow and U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, who both say bypasses should be built around Brookings and Pierre.

But Schieffer contends a bypass is neither economically nor environmentally feasible. And he says he's optimistic that deals can be worked out in Pierre, Brookings, Mankato, Rochester and other cities that have expressed varying degrees of concern about the project.

"I don't know that there's any one big roadblock, per se," Schieffer says when asked which cities have thrown up the biggest hurdles to the DM&E's expansion plans. "It's a process, and from my vantage point, the process has gone very well."

Still, Schieffer can't help but be concerned about what's happening in Brookings, where a well-organized group, the Coal Train Issues Coalition, has mobilized opposition to the route and has called for an expensive bypass around the city.

Schieffer denies that the opposition has prompted him to consider relocating the railroad's headquarters, but he has declined to confirm that its administrative offices will stay in Brookings if the expansion is approved.