Centerville — Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) made a stop in Centerville Saturday during his four-town tour over the weekend. He was also scheduled to stop in Corydon, Chariton and Osceola on Saturday.

Harkin met with local officials and citizens near the railroad, adjacent to Curwood and Smith Fertilizer and Grain.

Harkin recently endorsed federal grants and appropriations that will give the Appanoose County Community Railroad $2.2 million for rail improvements.

“I’m down here basically to thank the seven-county regional transportation group and the community leaders here in Centerville and Appanoose County for saving the railroad,” commented Harkin. “I wanted to let them know that I was pleased to get them the extra million dollars to put into this railroad. I also wanted to emphasize that we need rail traffic in this country. It saves us energy – we can ship goods by train with one-seventh the amount of energy as we can truck it. It just makes common sense to save our railroads.”

Chariton Valley Planning and Development, which is headquartered in Centerville, played a large role in acquiring the funds for the Appanoose County Community Railroad.

“We are a multi-county governmental entity and what we do is help our local governments secure grant funds and work through the federal and state processes anytime there is a need for infrastructure or any sort of help for economic development,” commented Tracy Daugherty Miller – Executive Director of Chariton Valley Planning and Development. “In this case, we wrote the grant application and coordinated arrangements with our federal partners so we could secure the money and will help them work through the process of using the money.”

Harkin will post daily entries chronicling his trip on his Senate website at http://harkin. senate.gov/.