FREMONT, Neb (KMTV) — Senators Justine Wayne and Terrel Mckinney believe a proposed business park near Eppley Airfield has the potential to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development.
“The state is putting dollars in, you have private companies putting dollars in, but coordinating that effort is going to be very hard if we don’t figure out how to put an overall structure around it,” said Senator Justin Wayne.
Their plan, presented to the city council on Tuesday, would focus those efforts comes in the form of an inland port authority to coordinate developments that take advantage of nearby rail connections, airports and waterways.
The Port Authority would come in the form of a 9 member board, appointed by Mayor Stothert, that would be given authority to oversee investments in the area.
Its a step that one of Omaha’s neighbors to the west took years ago.
“In Fremont we did a lot of the legwork early on. So in 2021 when the law was passed we got ahead of it and designated this area as a potential growth area for our community,” said Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg.
Like the proposed authority near Eppley Airfield, Fremont’s inland port authority is focused on bringing in large commercial and industrial developers to the city to utilize nearby rail lines on the south east side of the city.
Developers that the city estimates could bring thousands of jobs to Fremont.
“They say over ten years it could provide over 3000 jobs with the development of the inland port authority,” said Spellerberg
For Spellerberg the impact that the inland port authority will have on his community can’t be overstated and he believes other communities can harness the same potential if they follow in Fremont’s footsteps.
“We want to make Nebraska and Fremont a great place for businesses to want to locate and continue to grow and attract a work force. These would be great paying jobs and this will be the future of the Fremont area,” said Spellerberg.
