Release Date: 5/13/2010 Headline: Industrial Park in Mebane: NC Best Rail Site Industrial Park in Mebane, NC Recognized as a "Best Rail Site" As part of it's Progress in Motion Forum, the North Carolina Railroad Company (NCRR) challenged local communitites throughout the state to identify and submit sites for recognition in the Great Freight Rail Sites in North Carolina. On Monday, the North Carolina Industrial Center (NCIC), a 600-acre industrial park in Mebane, NC, was recognized as a "Best Rail Site for Small Industrial." Other categories included large industrial and distribution. The proposal submitted for NCIC addressed options for all three types of facilities. The sites were judged by such criteria as proximity and access to rail lines, roads and air service, the presence of utilities such as electricity, natural gas, water and actual usable acreage. The Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Samet Corporation, the City of Mebane and Alamance County submitted a 90-page proposal addressing infrastructure, site plans and feasibility issues for NCIC as a rail-served industrial site. Richard Wiley, Senior Consultant for Economic Development for NCRR, states that "the economic developers really stepped up and took advantage of this opportunity to showcase properties from their regions. Rail-served sites are extremely important to the state's economic growth." McCallum Sweeney Consulting, a national site selection and economic development consulting firm, worked with NCRR to develop the survey and analyze submissions from across the state.