GREDA:
The Mangieri era begins
by
Mike Kroll
The Galesburg Regional Economic Development
Association (GREDA), is funded by a combination of tax dollars and private
business contributions and most recently spent millions to create the
still-empty ÒLogistics Park Galesburg.Ó The move away from the so-far fruitless
quest for manufacturers toward this new direction was the brainchild of former
GREDA president Eric Voyles who resigned this past January to take the number
three position in Rockford's equivalent organization. Voyles' exit was timely;
he had expended his local credibility with much of the public and even amongst
numerous GREDA insiders who only admit so privately.
In January the GREDA board quickly formed a search
committee and named Greg Mangieri Interim Executive Director February 1st. In
June, they announced that Mangieri's status was no longer Òinterim.Ó Mangieri
inherits an organization badly in need of introspective reflection, adjustment
and a restoration of some semblance of public confidence. No information has
been made public about the 20 candidates who applied to replace Voyles but
Mangieri is candid about his almost total lack of economic development
experience. He acknowledges that what he brings to the GREDA table is a
first-hand knowledge and understanding of railroading, specifically as relates
to intermodal logistics. ÒLogistics is the focus of GREDA's efforts today as
Galesburg works to leverage the huge BNSF presence here. I not only have an
intimate understanding of intermodal railroading but I believe it is the key to
economic development success for our area,Ó explained Mangieri.
Born and raised in Galesburg, Mangieri has spent his
entire life working for or with railroads — notably including the former
Burlington Northern (BN) and the Canadian National Railway (which frequently
runs trains on BNSF track). He rose through the ranks at the BN from clerk to
yardmaster to a series of corporate positions and ultimately becoming BN's
system-wide director of inland logistics. Like many former BN managers,
Mangieri's career there came to an abrupt end with the merger of the BN and
Santa Fe railroads in 1995. He moved to the Illinois Central Gulf to manage
their intermodal operations and the IC was acquired by a privatized Canadian
National railroad in 1999. That same year the CN attempted to merge with the
BNSF but the federal government's Surface Transportation Board killed that deal
amidst fears that a Canadian company would subsequently control the largest
rail system in North America. Meanwhile Mangieri was in the catbird seat as the
CN-IC combination became the major north-south NAFTA rail route connecting the
busy port of New Orleans as well as Mexico with Chicago and the breadth of
Canada. The national intermodal business was taking off even as Galesburg's two
small intermodal operations had shut down only a few years before.
Mangieri ÒretiredÓ in 2001 to return to Galesburg
where he and his family bought the Ralston Garden Center on Grand Avenue from
Dick Ralston. While his wife and other family members handled the day-to-day
garden center business, Mangieri kept his hand in railroading and intermodal as
a consultant and even donated some of his experience and knowledge to Voyles
during the conception of the new logistics park.
Historically, Galesburg had been a blue collar town.
Most of the best local jobs have been manufacturing jobs at companies like
Butler Manufacturing, Gates Rubber, Admiral/Maytag and Outdoor Marine
Corporation. Today just about all of those jobs are now gone; only a token
Gates presence remains from this list and the 1985 closure of the Galesburg
Mental Health Center meant the loss of yet another huge local employer. A once
vibrant blue collar workforce has seen it membership shrink dramatically. The
best, most ambitious of those who lost these jobs have successfully sought
employment with Deere & Company, Caterpillar, the BNSF Railway, Mitsubishi,
Komatsu and others — most an
hour or more commute away. Many young working class families have simply left
town in search of pay and benefits necessary to support a family today.
Local officials had already begun economic development
efforts even before OMC began what has become a mass exodus of manufacturing
employers from Galesburg but in nearly 30 years have had little success. The
single large new employer to arrive in Galesburg since the late 1970s was when
the state opened the Henry Hill Correctional Center in what was our originally
designated industrial park. These officials have consistently told us they were
soliciting new manufacturers to come to town but the absence of results has
come at the cost of the community's confidence in itself. Almost no one today
entertains a reasonable expectation of any new mid-size to large manufacturer
relocating to Galesburg. Even local economic development officials have altered
their objectives in recent years but sadly continue to experience no luck.
ÒWhen
Eric announced he was leaving, I approached Jon Polillo and Guy [Vitale] about
assuming the interim operation of GREDA during their search. At the time I
didn't have any specific interest in the permanent position and recognized my
total lack of economic development experience. But after just a few weeks I
found that I really liked this job and thought I could make the logistics park
idea work so I threw my own rŽsumŽ into contention for the permanent position.Ó
Since assuming the interim position, Mangieri has had
to get himself up to speed on the full range of GREDA activities. He has
already made quarterly reports to both the Galesburg City Council and the Knox
County Board describing much the same activity as Voyles did for years. One
GREDA initiative many of us had already written off, the ÒChina Project,Ó
remains alive according to Mangieri. ÒWe are simply altering our approach to
working with the Chinese. Instead of sending a huge group of people to meet
with as many Chinese as possible we are trying to be more targeted in our
contacts. We have hired a consultant named Andy Sze who will help setup these
Chinese connections and we will then send one or two of us to those meetings in
China.Ó
Sze is Chinese but American-educated. He studied at
Northwestern and has relatives in Singapore who are high level in the Chinese
business community. Mangieri explains that GREDA will be placing a lot more
responsibility in his hands and altering their targets. ÒOur China effort will
be much more focused now and less concerned about finding Chinese companies to
make substantial investments here. Instead we will focus on establishing
partnerships with Chinese manufacturers who want to ship their goods to America
for direct resale or collections of components to be assembled and sold. We
will work on this end to find American partners to put together a deal that is
a win for everyone including the Galesburg community.Ó
Here in Galesburg, Mangieri is devoting much of his
time trying to create a situation that would entice a large intermodal facility
locating in Galesburg. Chicago is already a huge intermodal area with
additional facilities already in operation west and south of the city. Mangieri
acknowledges that Galesburg is too far removed to be a contender for an
intermodal facility directly serving the Chicago metropolitan area. He sees two
different opportunities for Galesburg.
ÒFor the short term my goal would be to create an
intermodal operation to service central Illinois manufacturers like John Deere
and Caterpillar We need to meet a minimum threshold of at least a couple
hundred containers per day to get the BNSF to service such a facility. This
could be done if a we could match area manufacturers with an intermodal
logistics company as a means of avoiding the need to go through the Chicago
bottleneck.Ó
A success like this wouldn't create a huge number of
local jobs directly but it could be the impetus to spark additional activity at
the logistics park. Two-hundred containers per day would create at least
250-300 truck driving jobs plus maintenance and management jobs at the
logistics operation. Mangieri emphasizes that this is more than just a pipe
dream. He says his plan is modeled after a similar project in Marion, Ind. This
is a community similar to the Galesburg area in many respects, according to
Mangieri. Until recent years home to manufacturers of heavy equipment for the
strip mining of coal local officials found their town's economy take a nosedive
when those companies closed. They attracted Snyder Trucking in conjunction with
the CSX Railroad that had its mainline going through Marion and created a
dedicated intermodal operation just like that described above.
ÒThe reason Galesburg has had the success it has is
due to the presence of the railroad. It is as simple as that. If you look at
economically viable American cities most sit on rivers and just about all are
astride a main rail line. Because we don't have a river the railroads that are
here are so much more important to our future. Whatever economic success we
experience in the future will depend heavily on the role of the railroad. I
understand railroads and appreciate their importance and I believe that is why
the GREDA board of directors hired me for this position. Both they and I know I
have a lot to learn about economic development but I am a true believer in the
value of the logistics park.Ó
The longer term intermodal goal of Mangieri is to sell
shippers on the value of avoiding the Chicago intermodal hub for shipments to
and from the west coast and targeted to downstate Illinois and areas of the
Midwest along the western bank of the Mississippi. ÒAnything over 500 miles is
a good fit for intermodal shipment and thanks to the BNSF lines to the
international ports in Seattle and Los Angeles that join right here in
Galesburg I think we can make a good case. We need to concentrate on
time-sensitive cargoes that can save a day or two of shipping by being
processed here in Galesburg rather than the Chicago area. An operation of that
size would create lots of area jobs but it will be some time before it is
possible to assure sufficient volume to justify such an investment. However,
the potential of such business should make it a little easier to attract a
smaller intermodal operation run by a logistics company with an eye toward
future growth here in Galesburg.Ó
Mangieri's personal commitment to this project is
evident. He is all too well aware of the uphill climb before him and is
becoming more and more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing
GREDA operation. Perhaps the best reason for optimism is that Mangieri
acknowledges the need for change in the GREDA operation and welcomes greater
community involvement. ÒI relish the opportunity to get input from the
community beyond just the GREDA board and local officials. I really do want
citizens to bring their ideas to me and promise that I will not ignore any
reasonable proposal. One area where we have not performed well is public
openness. Obviously, many things must be done in confidence but I do believe we
can learn from our less successful efforts.Ó
Mangieri comes off as genuine and he is refreshingly
modest about his own capabilities. When I reiterated a range of the historic
criticism we at The Zephyr have leveled at GREDA and it predecessor agencies,
he even concurred with many of them. Whether he is immediately successful or
not is less important than whether he has truly learned some lessons from the
past. Only a fool would mandate economic development success from a person in
Mangieri's shoes but it would be equally foolish to continue allowing GREDA to
escape all forms of public accountability. Just as Mayor Gary Smith promised
when he was elected, Mangieri pledges GREDA to be more accountable and that
would be a public-private marriage everyone in Galesburg should welcome.
06/29/06