The company proposing to construct a railroad loading station and a sand drying plant in Buffalo County hosted an open house Thursday at the Waumandee House Resort.

Ike Thomas, co-owner of Glacier Sands of Menomonie, the developer of the project, says the project will create new jobs and help the area economy.

Jeanne Franz lives close to the Cochrane-Fountain City School, and says the truck traffic so near to the school is a big concern.

Experts with Glacier Sands were on hand to answer the public's questions and concerns about the proposed project.

The company wants to build the railway loop and drying plant on privately owned land along Kamrowski Road in the town of Milton. The land is on the other side of a wetlands area and state highway that separates it from C-FC school grounds.

Glacier Sands wants to route mined and washed sand to an enclosed drying plant, where it would be put on covered railway freight cars and shipped out twice a week. A triple-loop railway station would be able to handle 100 or more freight cars and plans call for operating the drying plant non-stop.