NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) – The Nebraska International Port of the Plains discussed the progress on the rail park on Tuesday afternoon.

The discussion centered on the progress of the future Lincoln County rail park located near Hershey. Further discussions centered on a track line that belonged to the Greenbrier Rail Company; the transportation company halted operations in Hershey in 2020, sending 24 employees home.

The company had rail access to re-manufacture, inspect, repair, and assemble rail car wheels, roller bearings, and wheel car assemblies; one of the company’s key clients was Union Pacific. The rail access and facility formerly occupied by Greenbrier.

The Nebraska International Port of the Plains, the entity has the goal of not only having surrounding companies import and export supplies in and out of this facility when completed but to also storing railcars there. As for Nebraska International Port of the Plains chairman Vince Dugan, the reality of this is becoming more and more real.

“Everything is becoming a lot more real. I think we want to coordinate, we want to understand. I think I have a better understanding than I have ever had during the entire process. what we are talking about doing is exactly what the airlines and air carriers do. The airport does not employ the people that take everything off, and the airlines go through a third party, and companies do that, and that is exactly what you are talking about doing with the rail spur,” Dugan said.

The Inland Port Authority discussed tracks that once belonged to the Greenbrier Rail Company but also the products that local businesses could import to the rail park. The board has said that small products will help improve local businesses in distribution as well as their production.

“It’s becoming quite clear to me, and also, I like the specialty product thing because what do we know about specialty products? You get more money for them, you get more value, and that could jump-start us before we consider commodity value products because one thing is for sure we are not going to be the barrier to a successful venture; we are going to make it happen,” Dugan said.

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BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – There’s no question, the walleye is the most popular fish in North Dakota, but the walleye is far from the only game fish swimming in our state. In This week’s Pro’s Pointer, Johnnie Candle is talking about one of them.

“There’s a nice eating size crappie, although we are not keeping them today. Let me get this one put back and we’ll talk about them,” began Johnnie Candle, MWC World Walleye Champion & N.D. Fishing Hall of Fame Member. “Crappie are abundant throughout North Dakota. We can find them in the upper reaches of Lake Oahe, south of Bismarck, Lake Tschida to the west, Jamestown Reservoir to the east— loaded with crappies— and today we’re here at Nelson Lake, you can tell by the power plant over my shoulder. Just hammering the crappies, having a blast.”

“They’re fairly simple to catch. A plain hook, a sinker and a lively minnow below a red, white bobber is classic. It gets the kids involved, they have a lot of fun and if you want to go after them with artificials, a jig with a spinner and plastic tail— maybe a small hair jig, a small tube— usually is all it takes to catch them,” continued Candle. “And you want to remember, crappies are predators as well. Today while we were fishing for bass, we caught more than a handful of crappie on what would be traditionally referred to as a walleye style crankbait. So there’s not always about walleyes. Get out there, have fun, get the kids involved, catch a nice mess of eating-sized fish and hopefully have a crappie day! I’m Johnnie Candle and that’s this week’s Pro’s Pointer.”

Next time, Candle will show us something that’s almost entirely used by women that may be found in your boat, after you see his Pro’s Pointer one week from today.

Copyright 2024 KFYR. All rights reserved.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Ohio tourism saw another increase in 2023, with overall tourists, spending and tourism related jobs up from 2022.

According to Governor Mike DeWine, tourism in 2023 surpassed $56B in spending, surpassing pre-pandemic levels of $48B in 2019. More than 436,000 tourism jobs are also now in Ohio, also an increase from previous years.

In addition to the natural increase in tourism, Governor DeWine says his administration has made an effort to encourage people to spend more than just a few hours in the state. According to the state, tourists spending a day in Ohio will spend around $106 per person, while those who spend the night will more than triple that, spending $327 per person.

That desire to encourage people to stay longer has been shown in improvements to the state’s 10 park lodges. All of those will be updated prior to the end of 2024, hopefully leading to people using the parks and spending money. The state saw 48M overnight visits, with 238M visits in total.

Copyright 2024 WOIO. All rights reserved.