MASON CITY – The Prestage Foods hog processing plant that seemed like a done deal just hours ago was defeated with a tie vote Wednesday morning.
The 3-3 vote came after Bill Schickel revealed he would not be supporting the development and then in a bombshell emotional moment, John Lee said he would be voting no. The council had been considering an economic development package for Prestage Foods worth over $15 million over 10 years of tax breaks.
Mr. Lee had seemed like a solid backer of the project until he began to talk about his family and the hours upon hours of time he had dedicated to researching the proposed $240 million development with Prestage Foods. He referenced a note that his daughter had written and slid under a door at their home, in which she wrote to her dad that she knew he would do the right thing.
The 3-3 tie vote essentially stops the Prestage development. There is always a chance – however unlikely – that more negotiations could take place between Prestage and the City and another development agreement brought forward. It was mentioned in the meeting that Prestage had looked at Charles City as a possible destination.
This is wonderful news.
Just wondering what the current starting pay is for manufacturing jobs in this area? A lot of people that work at Kraft, Curries, Graham ect. work for temp companies with low pay and no benefits. Also where do these people work that are downtown picketing against jobs during the day and how much do they earn? Can someone enlighten me please?
Casino – casino -casino – Your a bunch of Bernie Sanders wanting something for nothing – taxes have gone up 30% and jobs at the casino pay as little as 8 bucks. Free stuff free stuff 25% of my taxes are added school and TIF (pay taxes for corporations) – By the way the Northwood Lumber was closed down – seems he owed the casino more than $250,000.00 all from trying to get free stuff.
IF Bookie and crew hadn’t tried to push/sneak this thru, like everything and brought it to the public first, they may have gotten a different outcome. I was on the fence about the plant because I didn’t have much info. I don’t trust Bookie and I don’t like the way this was presented to the public!
We need a factory that builds robots. That is the future.
“Corrections worker” that by far is the best comment on here, but our judges only give out suspended sentences so the prison wouldn’t have many customers. I feel $13 an hour and a little stink isn’t to bad. I was not for it nor against it. I started working for General Foods (Kraft) in 1987 making $8.50 an hour and if my mind can think back that far I think that plant was a big issue and almost failed the vote and look at it now (bought me a lot of toys). I made a pretty good living for the 23 years and 11 months there and now with my PENSION and 401k I think I made the right move. We have lost a lot of things for Mason City for one reason or another. Trust me People not everyone makes $13.00 or higher in this town. Our mayor and his council need help but they did try to get some jobs here which we badly needed. I believe there are more people free loading off the working class in Mason City than there are workers so why bring in jobs. Keep bringing those statues the humpty dumpty sat on the wall one is great!!
I foresee a change to the City’s rules that will allow the Mayor to cast a vote on ties.
After Hickey’s comments at the end of the meeting last night I am calling for him to resign and step down.
He made the comment if he owned a business he would never come to Mason City to build. We do not need that type of attitude on our City Council, just because the vote not go your way. For that matter Janet needs to go to she agreed with him.
Show love to John Lee and the other two who were elected by and spoke for the people when it mattered!! There are other employers in the area who wont pollute our living area!!
So what happens if they get approval to build nearby such as Northwood or Hampton? All of the same concerns but now without a buffer zone, school incentives, or tax revenues. Sounds a lot like how the casino played out. I don’t know if I would celebrate too much until after they have picked their next location.
maybe we could land a nice prison!
A tough issue with both pros and cons. After all the research, the risk of the cons outweighed the pros. Any council member that approached this with a open mind and did legitimate research had a hard decision to make. The decision was easy for Hickey because does what the mayor said. Solvers just leans over and copies off Hickeys test. Schoneman also had a easy decision because he was set to flourish off of low income housing for all the migrant workers. Kudos to the council for time, efforts and honest thinking about this. I’m sure it has been consuming!
This is an example of how the process should work, a call with pros and cons. Both sides had good reasons for how they voted and we should thank them.
Any honest person knows that the consequences FAR out numbered the Benefits ! President Trump and a healthy Mason City –The boo hoos are the ones crying here because their corporate lobbyist cash bribes just faded like SMOKE AND LYING TED. Make America great again by jailing all corrupt elected officals.
Also leave your emotions at home, you guys were voted in to work for our city, Ive made a lot of decisions at home with my children and if I let my emotions make my decision I would have the most spoiled brats in this town. Get out of politics guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All I will say is all you people that want jobs but then again dont want them your not going to get any decent corporations to come into good ole river city because this town is a f**king joke. Most of us in town dont know our heads from our asses. Sorry to say but if you look at Mercy Hospitals starting pay for clerical,food, sanitation and other workers not having a degree in the medical field you will find that the STARTING WAGE IS 10.00- 12.00 an HOUR. People pull your F**KING heads out until you hear that POP. Now you have your head out of your ASS!!! Just a pretty sad day.John Lee you lost my vote. Pretty boy your a joke and shitkle you need to go back to the radio.
Can someone enlighten me. What is the starting wage for local manufacturing jobs? Curries, Graham, Wood harbor, ect. A lot of companies employ through temp services and the employees get no benefits and the wages aren’t so good, but what are they? Also where do these people work that are down town during the day picketing when I am at work? How much are they making that they can take off work to protest against jobs? I used to work in manufacturing and once a year we would have an all employee meeting and the bosses would tell us how we were doing and if we received a raise or not. They always did a wage survey of local factories and told us the results to show if they were comparable. Is this a done deal? can we renegotiate? I did have some questions but felt the good outweighed the bad. Thank you city council. That was a tough one.
With this whole issue that started with viting, without questions being asked, I wonder how many council members are going to lose seats in upcoming elections. Can’t wait to see Book’s political career die out now that the people see he does only what benefits himself. What a sleeze.
Thank you to everyone that researched all the true components of this issue. There would have been some good coming from a deal like this, but there was an overwhelming pile of bad to go along with it. Good job fighting for your city. I don’t see nearly enough people getting involved in things that directly impact them.
This plant will never be built in Charles City with the same incentative package as Mason City – 1 – they taxpayers cannot afford the tens of millions in incentives (sewer/water/misc) and the 1.5 million in Added taxes (TIF) that the residents have to pay instead of the company for 10 years) fk the large corporation feeding off the little guy – and they wonder why the little guy (private sector is going belly up along with our economy) If it is built in Charles City so be it – I lived in Mason and worked at Oliver back in the 60s – No big deal driving the 30 Miles. Great day yesterday for the city of Mason that finally said no to this corporate monoply and a great day for ALL AMERICANS (private sector working class as DONALD TRUMP WILL BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT – and hopefully clean out our corrupt government and bring charges against most of our elected crooks getting rich off of corporate BRIBES ! — Happy days are here again !!! WHOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!