NORTHWOOD, IOWA – NIT has received word that Worth county could be the home of the Prestage Foods hog plant.
A source connected to the Worth county courthouse in Northwood tells NIT that negotiations and talks are now underway between Prestage Foods and top officials in Worth county, including Worth county supervisor Merlin Bartz. NIT is told Mr. Bartz already met with Prestage Foods in the wake of Mason City’s renunciation of the development. Mr. Bartz did not immediately respond to questions from NIT about this developing matter.
A call to the Worth County Development Authority was not picked up Monday at 4:30.
The massive, proposed Prestage Foods plant requires millions of gallons of water and a large sewer system to operate. Over the years, Worth county has invested heavily in the area near the Diamond Jo Casino with infrastructure as the burgeoning area continues to develop. There have been rumors of an assortment of different developments that could come to that general area, which is right off of Interstate 35 and just 15 miles or so north of Clear Lake, a community which feared the environmental impact from the slaughterhouse first proposed for Mason City. The Diamond Jo casino – also rejected by the people of Mason City – has ironically been a windfall for Worth county and perhaps might give the county the cash needed to invest in the infrastructure the hog processing plant would require.
More to come on this developing situation.
TO: Dr. Jeff. Obviously you can’t read because NIT had a FAQ on Prestage Farms several weeks ago in which was a wage chart. You stated in your post below, and I quote “13.10 per 52 hour work week.” The hourly pay rate for the most menial job would have paid $13 per hour for 40 hours and $19.50 per hour for any hours over 40. So at 12 hours overtime equals $19.50 per hour. Before you make a stupid comment check the FACTS! You idiot.
I read that the other hog plants in Iowa have a 90% employee turnover each year. If the wages are so great, what such a high turnover?
Then this transient worker end up in the local area on the welfare roles further burdening the taxpayers.
NO this is not a good fit for the area.
I’m getting really weary of this malarkey. I’m almost to the point of going Vegan because of Big Ag.
Who supplies the vast quantities of veggies you would consume?
Oh right, BIG AG! (unless, of course, you grow them yourself.)
Who grows your veggies?
Grow your own and enjoy the stored canned roots veggies in your larder over the cold winter months.
If you buy veggies in a store you support big ag. just saying
wow. good luck worth county. might want to do the numbers. numbers don’t lie. how many hogs per day/ how many hogs in north iowa/how many will be trucked in/do hog trucks smell good in the summer/does 13.10 per 52 hr work weeks sound like good jobs that are career building/15 million needed to small return over 10 years/jobs below the welfare rate means title 19 benefits will triple….good luck worth county…
Get this straight – worth county supervisors have invested LOCAL TAXPAYER MONEY — TIF – forgiveable loans – ETC – Quit making them heros when we know there game.
6 miles south and 6 miles east of the casino – pretty close to Kensett where the new flesh eating chemical plant -wind mill storage – ethenol storage plant – Iowa Northern RR – $$$$$$ –
Are worth county supervisors cookin the books? – can’t borrow any more money for their upper iowa (1%) so they might have given them millions from the worth county road use fund and then turn around and borrow millions back for the road use fund. Does this sound legal to you ? TRUMP 2016 -clean out the con artists.
Cockadoodledoo!!
Thanks to county supervisor Bartz worth county taxpayers already are 28 Million in DEBT. I pay 500 dollars every year for T.I.F. (corporate taxes passed on to the stupid public) If no TIF or forgivable loan in given who cares maybe it will kill the smell from the new India owned chemical plant – Watch this Bartz -He is already talking TTP which means companies coming into worth county that are foreign owned only have to abide by United Nations Law (NWO) they are considered a sovereign state and do not have to abide by city/state/federal regulations (thanks Obama) we think this is what is happening in this county – NWO and its scary. If old bartz can’t pull a Hitlery he might be doing some pokey time for a shady land deal up here. Winnebago will probably move it entire plant to Washington because they cannot hire enough people locally. Worth county taxpayers are the losers.
You are so right, NWO rules!! Word on the street is they have a surprise partner and refuse to say who their third man is! Time will tell, but it’s just toooooooo sweet!!
Don’t you just love Socialism? TIF is public/privet tax subsidy that amounts to welfare for the large corporations. Here we go again spreading the wealth UP to Prestage Farms.
Worth County would destroy (over time) every thing positive they have done for their county.
This Prestage Farms has to love the fact that American has become s Socialist money pit for them to take advantage of.
Friends, there are much better business for our area than this hog plant. Patience boys and girls.
The information that I was told Saturday is that Prestage is being wooed with property approximately six miles south and six miles east of the casino. Which is close to a hiway and railroad.
Wow. That is close to MC… at least heading that direction. If that goes down, MC gets all the negatives and none of the positives in that deal. Prestage gets revenge for the tie vote and the naysayers and could do as it pleases.
There was a time when 2000 jobs would have meant something. Now the oligarchy wants to pay semi-slave wages to many contract workers. That means more jobs = more burden on residents, schools, medical services, etc. etc. In the case of Prestage, the only thing worse than 2000 jobs would be 3000 jobs.
That only works for a leech like you who doesn’t believe in working for a living. Damn welfare queen.
Thanks for that insight LVS
Thanks for the insight LVS
With their starting pay and the number of hours they will work it is over $800 p/week of wages at the lowest rate. A family can live on that. Try living on what the retail stores give their workers.
This is really something. Worth County gets the plant and the tax increase as well as additional funding for their schools and Mason City gets the shaft again. We will get “Those PEOPLE’s Kids” in our schools with no additional funding. We will also get the hog confinements without the money that goes with them. All due to the council listening to the Kooks and Racist. The whole damn council should be impeached and Weaver should never be allowed to talk in our town again.
If this is what actually happens I couldn’t agree with you more. Ironic isn’t it? So now who’s shortsighted?
Everyone needs to settle down.
When the casino was announced you would have thought the sky was falling. Cops going around saying the banks will all be robbed. Ministers saying the unholy heathens will control the towns. Schools saying the kids will have no shoes because the parents will gamble away every penny.
This new facility (and all of the older facilities) are in a choke hold with the DNR, USDA, and many other agencies. It’s not like the old days when any business could dump solid waste into water bodies.
All of North Iowa is ageing, what are we going to do in 10-20 years when the rest of the baby boomers die off and we have no one left to support the economies.
Two thousand NEW jobs couldn’t be any more needed around here. All of the small towns in North Iowa have stagnated, bringing in new faces will revitalize the housing crunch and get these town building again.
What good are jobs when all they do is cost the community money and cripple existing services? Sure, a handful of already wealthy will get richer. But the rest of us will suffer no doubt!
It’s amazing how closed minded and stupid people can be why is it that every time a business wants to move in the area it is chased out and is bad no matter what kind of business it is… A business creates jobs which brings in people which is good for housing schools and just the area economy in general… When the casino came it was going to bring in all kinds of bad people and crime… Where is that because I sure haven’t seen it…. And look at Hormel in Austin…. I can’t ever remember going by there and it having a bad smell also knowing how many people that plant employs and how many good people does not scare me about having a plant in the county also the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Hormel generates and donates to the Austin community… Wake up people don’t pass up and miss yet another opportunity
Could you please explain to us what other businesses that have tried to come to Worth County have been shot down or run off? at least be factual and not make stuff up when you make a post
Get a grip, they’re referring to Mason City.
Please watch this video, http://m.video.humanesociety.org/press/video.php?bctid=1621936228001&channel=931219457001, why would any human want to continue to allow animal factory’s.
A $1.00 per head tax on every hog slaughtered in Iowa would raise $40 million per year for water improvements. Doesn’t that make more sense than telling us tax payers to foot the bill?
NONSENSE
SO this idiot of a supervisor is willing to cost the one business in the area that contributes to schools and the economy all for a pig farm. I will tell Mr Bartz this one time, if he continues down this moronic path, I will make it my life mission to make sure he is one and done as Supervisor.
Can someone please tell me why does Northwood keep electing short-sided fools for office?
It wont be “a pig farm”. The plant will be huge and slaughter thousands of hogs every week. You’ll need dozens of new factory farms – and all the pollution, disease and putridness that goes with them – to meet the capacity of this new slaughterhouse.
Economy of scale. You like eggs and bacon for breakfast – this is what it takes.
Unless you would rather eggs were $6 a dozen and bacon $10 a pound?
Give us back local control of CAFO placement. Make Prestage pay the real cost of this plant to the community – the cost to education, the cost to health systems, the cost to police, infrastructure, etc. Instead they come with their hat in hand asking for tax payer “incentives”
You are right, that is what it takes and I for one will be glad that the plant that will be supplying my bacon will be in Northwood and not in Mason City. Have fun worth county with the smell, the disease and the environmental disasters that this will bring…. But thanks for the bacon!!
Anonymous #3. Your letter shows how connected you are to your food sources. Prestage Farms will not be supplying your bacon. Why don’t you try and learn what it is you are actually protesting against and learn what Prestage Farms actually does in their process.
Geez sorry, it was a metaphor for pork processing. Now pull your bunched up underwear out of your crack.
Just what we need… A stinky disgusting hog plant!!! People will be changing their minds when considering moving to Northwood!! With the wind direction people will reconsider visiting the casino!! As a business owner on Main Street.. This Will kill this town!!
Of course the casino does not want this. The processing plant would pay way better than the casino.
This would have to be the topping on the proverbial cake. Worth County gets the taxes and Cerro Gordo would probably get the CAFO’s. How dumb is our council? The misinformed citizens I can understand but the supposedly informed 3 councilmen? Just like the Casino,we blew it again.
You right it’s a good that the three council members voted no, resulting in a blow!
Get this thing out of the North Ia area!!!
You mean more ppl working nearby making money to spend in their establishment? You’re right, why would they want that?
I really don’t think Diamond Jo would want a hog processing plant by them.
Summer Lanier
Prestage Farm Public Relations
910-596-5832
slanier@prestagefarms.com
Ms Lanier,
I’m writing to you from central Iowa where we understand Prestage Farms is considering building a large meat processing plant. I am writing to inform you that many of us here do not want this plant to be built in Iowa.
Why?
In all, the price we pay for the hog industry in Iowa is just too high. When you also consider that so much of the revenue from the industry is exported out of the state, while all the social, environmental and economic problems remain in our laps, you can understand why many Iowan’s simply do not want Prestage Farms to locate their processing plant anywhere in our state.
Specifically …
We don’t have local control of CAFO placement. The very possibility of having a huge CAFO constructed too close to your home is a huge motivating factor as I’m sure you can imagine!
There has been a history of bullying – CAFO owners ignoring the wishes of the people, even being vindictive.
We are already the most polluted state in the country. Water pollution is a very expensive problem that falls on us tax payers to fix.
CAFOs are diseased. 60-70% of them are infected with MRSA antibiotic resistant bacteria. Workers and their kids bring these super bugs into our doctor’s offices and our schools. MRSA bacteria kills thousands of people in the US every year.
Good research shows that the closer kids live to CAFOs the more likely they will develop asthma. A life long and in many cases debilitating disease.
CAFOs damage our wildlife and recreational opportunities. Large scale fish kills, damage to the entire ecosystem, etc.
We pay for CAFO by losing value in our homes. People have had their lives ruined by CAFOs going in too close to them.
We pay for CAFOs by the destruction of our rural roads. This can amount to millions for Iowa counties – a price that – again – tax payers have to pay.
We pay for CAFOs by the destruction of our quality of life.
I feel like there is an increasingly powerful ag “oligarchy” in our State that has bought off our politicians. We feel like we have lost our democracy and have no choice but to ban together and fight for our rights.
If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
You just wait for the smell to come in. Bet Barney doesn’t live near the proposed sight. Low paid workers is all you will have. Mostly immigrants. We will not have any farmers left in the US. They will all be immigrants who the large scale companies will promise fast track to citizenship.
Feel free to keep your racist attitude in Maryland – where it and you belong.
Your opinion will be shipped back to you, for implantation in your rectum.
Low paid wages? Lisa Inzerillo do you have any idea what the food workers in Mason City make? It is so bad they count on you paying they by way of tips. If you want more business in town that you pay the workers I think you need to wake up. Then we have the motel workers wages! If you’re going to talk about something get it right.
Lisa Inzerillo you’re talking about low wages. Do you have any idea what the food workers in Mason City make? It is so bad they count on your tips as income! Then you have the motel workers what do you think they make? How come you don’t bring that up? The min. wage for wait staff in Iowa is $4.35 slightly lower than the jobs you are putting down.
I’m rolling on the floor with this possibility. If it happens then at least Worth county understands what “The smell of money” is all about.
Why would prestage want to come to North Iowa. Ron prestage called all of us racist and kooks. I guess that only applies when we don’t give him his way and millions in corporate welfare.
if the leaders in Mason City would have given us all the facts up front instead of shoving this down our throat, that vote would have gone differently. Booky, Hickey and Solberg need to understand this. The terms of the agreement needed to be presented up front and not after the fact. We could have reached an agreement and it would have been a good thing for Mason City and the surrounding communities.
Exactly, John. If this had been handled better than the mayor’s usual “I want it, so you rubes just give it to me RIGHT NOW and shut up” approach, it might just have passed. This is several things he’s bungled with his arrogance, and Mason Cityans are the ones who pay, every time.
Prestage is spamming news outlets with BS leads about what location will be LUCKY enough to have them next. This guy needs a lawsuit, thinks he might be getting one, and is trying to forestall it with a bunch of bad press about us.