21st century name urged for industrial park

I'm surprised they don't want to call it obama park

POCOMOKE CITY, Md. -- The Pocomoke City Industrial Park may get a new name.

"Use something more 21st century and more flexible," said U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., at a meeting with the Worcester County Commissioners on Tuesday.

Instead, the senator suggested, why not call the area an "enterprise park" or something else that denotes the technological and modern conveniences that are being integrated into the facility.

With a new broadband Internet line -- part of the Maryland Broadband Cooperative project -- and infrastructure money for green buildings, the park is an example of the amenities Worcester County officials and Mikulski agreed need expanding as companies serving the growing activities at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility seek their own locations nearby.

Wallops' Mid-Atlantic Regional spaceport will be the launch site for Orbital Science Corporation's Taurus II rocket program -- a 130-foot rocket that will take supplies, food, medicine and spare parts to the international space station -- and Mikulski said the project can spur local economic growth. Mikulski on Monday attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new launchpad to support the Orbital project.

"It's all part of looking at how we can have jobs here on the Eastern Shore," Mikulski said, stressing the importance of digital and more traditional local commerce. Construction of the launch facility is expected to create nearly 300 new jobs in the near future and bring another 400 high-tech jobs to the area by 2010.

To lure those companies north of the Virginia border, Worcester County Commissioners President Louise Gulyas said local officials are "chomping at the bit to help them have what they need."

But Accomack County and state officials also are eager to bring to Virginia the jobs and dollars that will come along with the Orbital project and other commercial ventures expected to use the spaceport in the future. They hope to lure business to the newly created Wallops Research Park, located on over 200 acres just outside NASA's main gate.

Accomack County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve Mallette along with NASA and Marine Science Consortium officials two months ago -- after a decade-long effort -- signed the document legally forming the park, which is a cooperative effort of the three entities.

The Marine Science Consortium, which has been at Wallops since 1971, recently held a groundbreaking on a $15 million campus renovation and plans to expand its scope to reflect its new association with NASA and the park.

BaySys Technologies, a company which specializes in installing luxury interiors in airplanes, and Navy contractor Northrup Grumman are the first two park tenants. The research park master plan also includes a workforce training and business incubator facility on the site.

Officials expect to hear this fall whether a federal appropriation to pay for construction of a $4 million taxiway linking the research park with a NASA runway will be approved.

Additionally, an open access fiber network is being constructed through the Eastern Shore Broadband Initiative that will make broadband service available to park tenants.

In additional efforts north of the state line, along with improvements to the Pocomoke City Industrial Park and the laying of broadband cables throughout the county, Worcester County has plans for a rail link from the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Frankford, Del. The railroad would follow an existing track, which serves the Tyson Foods Inc. chicken feed facility in Snow Hill and parts of the southern end of the county.

Jerry Redden, the director of economic development for the county, explained the project to Mikulski, asking for help in acquiring federal transportation stimulus money for improvements to the aged infrastructure and to connect Pocomoke City and Wallops Island into the rail system.

"What we are talking about here is a track that goes from Pocomoke City to Wallops Island for these rockets," Redden said.

While Mikulski seemed to approve of the idea --- mentioning that it was good for high-tech jobs and traditional agriculture -- she said the county would have to "flesh it out" with Wallops and the other stakeholders before she would back the plan.

"This is a big deal," she said. "It's not only who can do it, it's who will own the rail, it's who will maintain the rail."

The senator's infrastructure priorities are the availability of broadband Internet for businesses, schools and residents; improvements to wastewater facilities; and the expansion of Route 113. Mikulski told commissioners to actively appeal to the governor and state agencies for stimulus money for wastewater projects. She also said an additional $2 million was being allocated for phase three of the highway dualization project and that reliable high-speed Internet may help to spur the local economy and reduce the "staggering" 15 percent unemployment rate.

"I've thought very much about broadband for the Eastern Shore and western Maryland, and it really is going to be our information superhighway," she said.

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