INDUSTRIAL PARKS

INDUSTRIAL PARKS. Sites designated for industrial expansion within the city of Dubuque. Dubuque's first industrial park was begun in 1955. Using two million dollars raised by a referendum and an estimated four million cubic yards of fill, LAKE PEOSTA was filled with dirt and sand. Packed down and leveled, the former mosquito-infested slough used by criminals and moonshiners became the home for as many as twenty-one industries and 1,308 jobs. Assessed in 1983 at over fifteen million dollars, the area accounted for $563,000 in local property taxes.

The person credited with initiating the Park was John A. Kerper, then a twenty-eight-year member of the Dubuque Dock Board. Kerper proposed the city buy a dredge to fill the swamp near the river. At a ceremony beginning the project, Kerper threw the switch that started the dredge-pumping fill from the MISSISSIPPI RIVER into Lake Peosta. Although Kerper died before completion of the Park, his contributions were remembered in the naming of Kerper Blvd., the four-lane road in the area.

Plans for the industrial use of the area date back to 1850 when proposals were made to extend Lake Peosta, the "western slough," into a canal. If the propositions had proven possible, steamboats would have been able to nearly reach downtown Dubuque. The city gradually bought land from Henry L. STOUT who realized his dream of farmland in the region was doomed because of the sandy unproductive soil. An urgency to develop the area came after WORLD WAR II when large industries nationwide expanded by constructing branch operations in small towns.

Recruitment of industries began when the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce assessed each of its members to supplement its recruitment fund. Although the decision of Harnischfeger Corporation, a manufacturer of motors and welding equipment, to reconsider its move to Dubuque dampened spirits of those concerned, by 1963 the area had sufficient industry to employ an additional two hundred workers. By 1969, twenty-seven plants were located in the Park.

The need for the west side Dubuque Industrial Center was apparent by the late 1970s when Dubuque began running out of industrial space. Twelve potential sites for a second industrial park were eventually reduced to three. The location along Radford Road offered a nearby railroad spur, isolation of residential areas, and proximity to the Northwest Arterial. In 1980 the City purchased the 191-acre location, with one hundred acres usable, for $941,000. Grading solved the problem of the hilly terrain. The purposes of the Park were to provide locations for businesses forced to relocate because of the US 61 project, new businesses, and local businesses that wanted to expand.

The five million dollar 236-acre industrial center, owned by DUBUQUE IN-FUTURO, sold its first two lots to the A.Y.MCDONALD MANUFACTURING COMPANY and FROMMELT INDUSTRIES. Construction of the Frommelt Industries building began in 1983.