this will not be a slam dunk

<$BlogMetaData$>April 5th, 2011


This will not be a slam dunk!

I don’t normally write about rumors, but this rumor has been confirmed many reliable sources, so I am going to spend a few minutes explaining what is going on that you may not know about , but I cannot imagine that you don’t.

A Real Estate agent from Rochester MN has secured an option on 280 acres of land five miles south of Beresford at the I-29 and Alcester exit to build a “Kosher” meat packing plant between the interstate and old Hwy 77. The fact that it is a kosher plant may raise a few eyebrows, but the rest of the facts should raise everyone’s eyebrows. If I’m wrong you can guarantee I will hear about it. That’s okay, but I don’t think I am. If I am, it will get the true facts out in the open for everyone to know.

Let me give you the facts as I know them, and you decide whether or not this is going to be beneficial to the community or whether we are in between a rock and a hard spot.

1. This will be a kosher meat packing plant run by a group of Muslims. Those two facts right there don’t make sense, but this is what it is.

2. They will be processing up to 7000 head of cattle per week.

3. The area they are going to purchase is 280 acres at the junction of I-29 and the Alcester exit.

4. One of the items that isn’t clear is that a mosque will be built to service the employees. Whether or not it will be built on site or in Beresford isn’t clear, but it will be built.

5. The plant will build a wind farm to provide its own electric service.

6. There will be 65 trucks in and out each week

7. They will build a 12 foot fence around the entire area to close it off. They have done a terrorist threat level check of this area and have determined this area is rural enough and far away from potential terrorist activity not to be a problem.

8. They may provide onsite facilities for living quarters for the employees and their families.

9. The land went for $8000.00 an acre for a total of almost $3 million dollars. (give or take)

The one thing about this deal that really blows my mind is that they held a meeting in Beresford last Wednesday and were selling the visitors to the meeting shares in the company. I don’t know why they would be doing this other than to ensure their acceptance into the area.

Now that I’ve given you all the facts, I’m going to put my spin on this and see how close it comes to what may or may not happen. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what is going to happen.

The initial offer was made to the Larsen’s and they turned the offer down. I am so thankful to them for doing this and everyone should also thank them. It would be tough to turn down an offer for $3 million, but they thought more of this community than their personal gain. They can always build it someplace else and for Larsen’s to turn this down is magnanimous on their part.

If I’ve said this once, I’ve said it many many times that this is ag country and farmers are not comfortable with refineries and now a meat packing plant right in the middle of everything. Granted there was Morrells in Sioux Falls and Sioux City and the Lamb slaughter in Hawarden, but this is Union County. I hate to use this term, but it is cropping up again; NIMBY!

Remember back when, when so many of us were called NIMBY’s because of the refinery. I wonder how many people in Beresford are going to wake up one of these mornings and decide we didn’t have such a bad idea after all. I can use the same reasoning for the packing plant as I can for Hyperion. We cannot afford this. I don’t know how many people will be moving to this area, but the school budget just cut back on teachers and funds for other activities and now the school may increase in population by 50 to 100 or more. The school just opted out not too long ago and the state and county economy can’t take much more before things start to cave in. If they have on site living facilities, the town won’t be stressed for housing, but if not the town will be inundated with people looking for places to live. One has to ask themselves how this will change the demographics in town.

Do you remember when Hyperion was coming to town and everybody was passing rumors? I have to ask myself why is the county being so secretive about transactions like this. Whoever this company is, they have to get approval from the planning and zoning to change from ag to commercial or industrial. They have to have a public hearing and we get a say in what happens. Of course to expect them to turn this company down is not going to happen. You know they have talked to Mr. Henze and I know for a fact they have talked to one of our commissioners, so why the secrecy? I can guarantee you the public hearing this time will not be like the one for Hyperion. They may come here, but this time they are going to answer questions before things get approved. It Sounds like I’m against this doesn’t it? Damned NIMBY’s. This will not be a slam dunk!