Bobcat Co. could start shipping goods intermodally from Bismarck in six to eight weeks, after Mayor John Warford announced the launch of a rail contract at the Bismarck City Commission meeting Tuesday night.

Along with the announcement of the contract, the commission approved several measures to move forward with phase two of NPCCconstruction and operations, which will cost an estimated $2.3 million.

NPCC is an industrial transmodal park project that was conceived informally in 2004 to help address transportation limitations that Bobcat Co. and, ultimately, the Bismarck-Mandan area faced.

In June 2006, Bobcat's manufacturing service center became operational with some access to rail. The clincher, however, was that Bobcat needed intermodal service - a high speed, no-stop service - to be fully functional.

In August, Saskan Pulse Trading - a pulse-crop processing company - announced plans to open a facility at the park, but also expressed the need for an intermodal rail connection.

Commissioner Sandi Tabor outlined difficulties in negotiations as well as the funding of the transmodal industrial park, addressing concerns that the process of securing a rail contract with Burlington Northern Santa Fe had stalled.

"It is a massive undertaking,"Tabor said.

But after a year of negotiations, the city was able to secure an agreement with Bobcat on its minimum amount of freight, and with BNSF on rates and volume.

Tabor said the agreed-upon manufactured goods rail rates with BNSF are very competitive, but the agricultural goods rates were not.

"Part of it is (the agricultural goods)don't have a great profit margin,"Tabor said.

A 300-foot rail extension for Bobcat will be put in place as soon as possible, after the commission agreed to go forward with its construction without opening the rail to a bid process.

"Bobcat is ready to start,"Tabor said.

The remainder of the rail for the center will go through the normal bid process.

The commission also approved an amended infrastructure plan that removes a proposed warehouse at the facility, taking note from NPCC operations management company Mallory Alexander International. Mallory Alexander had said the warehouse was not needed for the tenants interested in the facility at the time.

New funding was also allocated for the facility.

Tabor said the first phase of the facility cost $12.4 million - none of which was used from the tax increment fund, she noted.

Most of the funding, $5 million, came from the Vision Fund, which allows for $1.5 million a year to be set aside for economic development.

The fund had accrued to $7 million by 2006.

The commission had also previously agreed to allocate $500,000 from the fund each year for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

An additional $500,000 a year was approved for 2009 and 2010 on Tuesday night.

Tabor also discussed operating losses and gains, saying the park would only have losses -$160,000 worth -in 2008. With the new intermodal contract in place by this fall, the facility could break even this year or make $9,000. The estimates were conservative, she said, and based only on revenues from businesses that Mallory Alexander had said were committed to the center.

The commission also voted to provide for the park's operating loss in 2008 from the Vision Fund.

"I'm very excited,"said Warford. "It's been a long process. I'm very happy we as a commission had this discussion tonight."

Warford said that because most negotiations had to be done behind closed doors, there was a false assumption that the city had dropped the ball on the industrial park.

"It will give taxpayers comfort that we're trying to have great fiduciary responsibility,"Warford said.

(Reach Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@;b ismarcktribune.com.)