HAMPTON, IOWA – The mayor of Hampton had stern words – and perhaps an ominous warning – for anyone coming to his town who disagrees with him.
Hampton Mayor Brook Boehmler last week became the latest high profile person to negatively label the people of North Iowa who disagree that a massive pig slaughterhouse is great for the area. That development project was turned down in Mason City on May 3 after citizens protested, and Prestage Foods has been searching for a new home in Iowa ever since.
On June 9, Boehmler was present as his city council unanimously passed a resolution in support of welcoming Prestage Foods to Franklin county and authorizing the county board of supervisors to work to bring the North Carolina pork processor to the area. At that meeting were some Mason City and other out-of-town folks who disagreed with the resolution and came to Hampton to voice their opinions against the Prestage plant.
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After the meeting, on June 10, Boehmler shared via social media a KIMT story titled “Hampton city council supports Prestage Farms.” As he shared the story – which shows a photo of himself and the council – Boehmler wrote (sic) “We see where this is going. When haters from the North, come to my adopted home of Hampton Iowa, and try and tell me what to think and do, The Outlaw Josey Wales kind of comes out in me.”
The character Josey Wales killed 54 people in the movie Boehmler referenced.
In calling persons who disagree with him about the Prestage pork plant “haters”, Boehmler joins Ron Prestage of Prestage Foods and Mason City councilwoman Janet Solberg and others in the name-calling and negativity. Ron Prestage called North Iowans who opposed the plant “kooks and racists” while Solberg chimed in with support for those remarks, saying racism killed the plant in Mason City. Mason City councilman Travis Hickey said he would not do business in Mason City if he owned a business, as a result of the “no” vote on Prestage.
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After his remark about “haters from the north”, Boehmler made another comment. On June 12, he wrote “We know who we are and we don’t need others to tell us what we already know” as he shared yet another KIMT story about Prestage, this one titled “Prestage discussions continue in Franklin county.”
Brook Boehmler is more than just the mayor of Hampton; he is a highly-educated man (MBA, University of New Mexico) with a deep resume, which includes past stints at the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce (Executive Director), Thomson Elite, and ProLaw Software, according to his LinkedIn profile. Currently, he works in Mason City – where his June 10 and June 12 comments seem to be directed. He is the NIACC Pappajohn Center Small Business Development Center Director.
In response to Brook Boehmler’s comments and requests from readers to seek clarification, NIT Publisher Matt Marquardt made attempts to speak with him via phone.
Eventually reaching Boehmler at his desk in the Pappajohn Center in Mason City, Marquardt asked Boehmler about his remarks.
“I wanted to ask you about the comments you made,” Marquardt said to Boehmler. “First, you called people who disagree with you ‘haters’. Can you explain that?”
In response, Boehmler laughed.
“You reference the movie ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’. The main character played by Clint Eastwood killed 54 people in that movie. Is this what you had in mind for the ‘haters’?” Marquardt asked.
In response, Boehmler laughed. He then said “No, no, no,” still laughing heartily. “That’s a Missouri thing. They were a free state.”
Boehmler then denied that his comments had anything to do with Prestage Foods. He said “You need to call me later. I am at work” and offered his cell phone number and a chance for second conversation.
As a person charged with the economic well-being of the Hampton area, Greater Franklin County / Hampton Chamber of Commerce President Donnis Borcherding was left a message seeking comment. She returned the call at 4 PM. During the ensuing discussion with NIT Publisher Matt Marquardt, she claimed to have no knowledge of Boehmler’s remarks. When the remarks were read back to her and asked if she values visits to town from Mason City folks, she refused comment, but was invited to look at Boehmler’s Facebook page for herself and phone back again with a comment.
Also, NIACC Pappajohn Director Tim Putnam was phoned at 2:50 PM and a message was left, seeking comment on Boehmler’s remarks. That message was returned after 4 PM. Mr. Putnam said he was unaware of Boehmler’s comments but said he understood why NIT was asking him questions. He declined to comment after the comments were read back to him, but did claim that Boehmler’s remarks were “made as the mayor of Hampton” not as a NIACC employee. Marquardt said the remarks were on Boehmler’s personal Facebook page, not a press release from the city of Hampton.
At about 3:30 PM, Boehmler edited his June 10 Facebook comment referencing the murderous rampage of Josey Wales. He changed his comment to say:
“It’s been an interesting story, but all I’m saying….is give peace a chance.”
Boehmler returned a call to NIT at about 5:20 PM.
Mr. Boehmler stressed that his comment on June 10 about The Outlaw Josey Wales was not meant to be taken literally, and referenced the recent Orlando shooting tragedy and how in “today’s climate” he could see where a comment like that would be inappropriate.
He also stressed that Hampton is a “welcoming community” that respects the views of others.
EDIT HISTORY OF THE COMMENT
That 4×4 on the side of the farm welfare guys $ 60,000.00 peekup clearly states he works 4 weeks in the spring and 4 weeks in the fall – the rest of the time WE work for him –
Also, Missouri was not exactly a “free state.” Slavery was legal there until 1865.
Dismissing the the true description of the “No to Prestage” people educated with facts in lew of a word that is NA “haters” shows his ignorance of the topic.
This guy is a complete nut!!! Right up there with Bookmeyer and Solberg! He is out of control with his mouth and has no business being a mayor!!!!!!!!
all Iowans should do what the state of North Dakota did and vote to keep family farms what they are suppose to be family farms. They voted against corporate ag. They come in and rape the land pollute the water and leave.We need to get rid of people like him. We need different and progressive thinking. One acre of industrial hemp will produce more fiber than 4 acres of old growth forest. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
The funny part is North Dakota is as republican state as they come . Yet they can see what would happen to their state if big ag moves in.
You know it is funny how things go. People wanted more food and cheaper, so ag had to boost things up and grow more for less. Now they want food cheaper yet and most farmers can barely survive on what they are making now. So we have to get bigger or die. Don’t cuss out a farmer when your belly is full.
Barely survive. What a joke. Look at the farm houses today. Look at the Brand new 60K vehicles they drive. They work five months out of the year and run south during the winter. They are guaranteed money thru farm subsidy’s and have government protection from crop failure. They are ripping off the American taxpayer. The only ones worse are the so called public workers.
Very true. Farming is not the same as when our older generations did it. Farmers have it made these days, if they have a bad year, the government bails them out. The gamble isn’t there anymore.
Cerro Gordo needs to hurry up and adopt their own rules and laws to keep cafos and factory farms before any other dumbass town picks up this plant. Keep them away!
That is an outstanding observation/suggestion. It would certainly be a worthwhile goal of all those who spoke against the hog kill operation. Lets get energized and begin to push this agenda!
It is obvious you have no idea what current day farming is about or what it takes to manage such a business.
Ya, poor farmers.
According to the EWG database, farmers received $342,000,000.00 between 1995-2014….. just in Cerro Gordo County alone!
And for the same period, farmers just in the State of Iowa received 26.9 BILLION dollars, that’s billion with a “B”
All of this was taxpayer money.
Ya, poor farmers.
That should not be called Farm Subsidies, call it what it really is…
Farm Welfare.
Devide that out. How many farmers are in cerro gordo county? Say there is 100. Then take that decided by 19 years. More people make more money on welfare than the farmers are right now. You have never been in the position where your bank tells you that you can’t do what you have done your hole life and you have to sell what you have and get 2 jobs just to stay a float. The banks will hand out all kinds of money when things look good but when you need them most they turn there backs on you. And as for government bail outs that is for wall Street not for farmers. There is no bail outs for us.
OK, let’s use your scenario.
342 million dollars divided by 100 Farmers = 3.42 million dollars per Farmer.
3.42 million dollars per Farmer divided by 19 years = 180,000 dollars per Farmer per year.
And that is just in Government welfare, add their net profit and what does that amount to?
Per person, people on social welfare don’t even scratch the surface compared to that.
Look, I respect Farmers and what you do, but please do not try to tell me that you (as a group) do not get enormous Government handouts.
It is obvious, from the number or racist based comments to this article, that racism played a big part in killing Prestage in Mason City.
You’re not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, huh John?
I’ve seen many of your comments on this topic, here & on the Globe Gazette site.
You have your head so far up Bookmeyer’s ass, that you need to have Eric install a Plexiglas bellybutton so that you can see where you are going.
Do you have something intelligent to add to the discussion? I didn’t think so.
Its not a racist issue at all. Outside of the wateruse, environmental impact, air quality issues. There are several others. MONEY! Prestage wanted Mason City to give them all kinds of incentives, so they could take their profits back to the Carolinas with them. They wanted to ship in hundreds if not thousands of people to our community to live at poverty wages. The turnover rate so high, everyyear we would have 400-800 people to be blended into our community, on welfare no doubt, who don’t want to work at a shitty job for peanuts anymore. Not to mention the school system would have been run into the ground, money problems for MCCSD would have gotten much worse than already are(no thanks to Anita). Really not much good coming fromit, other than a few private entities make some personal money off of it.
It was racist. The rest is B.S.
I would like to see you do what I do on a daily basis and see what you think. If you think we only work 5 months you are sadly mistaken. It is a 12 month job that is most of the time 60 hours a week and in busy times more yet.
Wheel jew have to build a wall on the south border of cerry gordo county? How tall of de ladders wheel we need to cross – anyone see any catapults on de craigo listo ?
Geez! Do you think he carried the mexican vote in the last election ?
Poster child for any nut house or Lieing Hitlery rally.
He is like a pimple on Clint Eastwoods ASS. Take your political lieing correctness to the middle east you tryant.
He is no doubt a NWO Clintonite – have at it Boner and WE hope the Hamponites love their Chinese owned plant. Best of stinks to you and I have not visited Hampton since you south of the bordered it. Oh well alot of you demorats are selling out America and our once prosperous way of life -like the filibuster on gun control going on right at this moment in DC. – All the while sneaking in 100k muslims from Syria into the U S right under our noses and violating the sovereignty of the United States of America.. GO DONALD TRUMP>
For those of you who try to claim its a Hampton, or Franklin County issue and others should stay out of it … Let me assure you it most certainly is not!
This new slaughterhouse will spawn hundreds of new factory farms, which will destroy the quality of life, home values and health of hundreds of families across Iowa and MN. The billions of gallons of raw sewage from the hogs will be smeared all across north-central Iowa and wash into our water ways, polluting drinking water, fouling lakes and destroying recreational opportunities.
Animal Ag is one of the largest contributors to global; warming gasses. A plant such as the proposed will kill 20,000 animals every week, increasing the demand accordingly – a massive addition to climate change all citizens should be concerned with.
Factory farms are infested with anti-biotic resistant bacteria. workers from the filthy farms as well as the slaughterhouse bring the bacteria into our schools, hospitals and doctor’s offices, threatening the health of our children. And this MRSA bacteria kills thousands every year – its no joke.
So no, its not a Hampton issue. Its Iowa’s issue, a regional, national and even global issue. And I hope we can generate the regional response needed to make sure this blight never comes to our state.
This a short sighted, uninformed attitude. You must think meat a the grocery store appears there by magic.
Your comments are way beneath what is required and expected from an academic, business professional. Be sure to include them on your resume when you pack up and leave town. Your comments have defined who and what you are. Good luck.
See how THEY are! Who likes that kind of person anyway…really?
Gross. Arrogant and ewwwww another Bookmeyer. Do they hang? Got to, it’s just too perfect of a match. Ewwwwwwh shivers
When it was first announced that Prestage was coming to Mason City I thought great we could benefit from a big employer here. Then after more information was released I was less then impressed. For me it wasn’t the “outside labor”, if they are moving here to work they’re going to be working not creating problems. It wasn’t the “environmental impact” so much either. It was going to be a brand new facility being built under the strict guidelines of several agencies with many safe guards. I understand that any accident can happen to anyone at anytime to any business no matter how many safe guards they have. For me it was the feeling of it getting rushed thru the “process” with the City giving Prestage everything to get them here with the City getting nothing in return. With that being said my feeling is that it was a Mason City issue that should’ve been decided by the majority of Mason City citizens by voting. Now it is Hamptons issue that should be decided by the people of Hampton. I don’t live there so I don’t feel that it is my place to tell them what they should do in their community. Just like I felt that outsiders shouldn’t of been telling Mason City what to do with their town. Don’t get me wrong, under the Cities proposal I’m glad that Prestage isn’t here. At the end of the day it should be a community decision decided by its own citizens.
The Hampton mayor claimed Mason City let all of North Iowa down by not passing the development agreement. Yet when North Iowa weighs in of some facts, he goes Josey Wales. That kind of poor judgment should be rewarded with a pink slip. It’s an Iowa thing.
Hampton can’t get right. What a dump. All those Mexicans run the town into the ground. 30 years later they ain’t come back yet. Yikes. Mason City for sure dodged a bullet. And dumb ass Hampton wants it. Ha Ha
O look everyone another stupid racist.
O look everyone, another dipshit!
If he doesn’t like Mason City, maybe he should keep his dirty Franklin ass out of Cerro Gordo, out of Mason City and out of NIACC. Hampton is a dirty shithole anyway. A slaughterhouse would fit in good down there, as long as you block of 65 south of Sheffield.
Hampton should change their name to Mexico City it full of people from Mexico
no wonder prestage thinks we are racist up here with people like you making racist comments like that maybe you need to find a different place to live, you make me sick.
I liked your comment Jim!
This is the kind of near slave labor this moron thinks is good economic development … A small handful, like the mayor and his buddies get rich – everybody else pays the price.
http://iowapublicradio.org/post/working-chain-slaughterhouse-workers-face-life-long-injuries
Funny how Putnam was unaware of the mayors comment he liked his comment on Facebook shortly after it was posted. And the mayor should worry bout the drugs and robberies in Hampton before he talks shit. Have you driven through that crap hole town
That’s not all Putnam’s unaware of. He’s completely unqualified for that $150,000 a year job. He ran Pizza Huts before that!
You mean he “barely” ran Pizza Hut. He is a clown, a putz, the whole program out there is a joke. The money could be much better spent elsewhere, than a small business handout.
Baloney! My father worked in a packing house for over ten years. Made a good living at it. Are there some people who can’t handle such work, yes, but it is hardly slave labor. Good grief.