Local economic development officials spent 13 months asking questions and researching Pilgrim’s Pride plans for a new pet-food ingredient plant near Carnesville before last week’s announcement of the proposal.
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Local economic development officials spent 13 months asking questions and researching Pilgrim’s Pride plans for a new pet-food ingredient plant near Carnesville before last week’s announcement of the proposal.
CARNESVILLE – Local economic development officials spent 13 months asking questions and researching Pilgrim’s Pride plans for a new pet-food ingredient plant near Carnesville before last week’s announcement of the proposal.
Tonya Powers, executive director of the Franklin County Industrial Building Authority, said it is important to share the information she and others learned about the company’s plans and for the community to get to ask its own questions.
Pilgrim’s Pride announced last week plans to build a plant that will taken in chicken byproducts from other plants and turn them into pet food ingredients.
The company promises “90 permanent, good-paying jobs” and state-of-the-art technology to keep odors inside the facility.
The new plant is planned for 110 acres off of Highway 320 near its intersection with I-85.
On most days, an average of between two and three truckloads of byproducts will arrive each hour at the plant, information from the company says.
There will be no little to no traffic on other days, including Sundays, the company said.
(The number of trucks delivering at the plant was incorrectly reported in last week’s paper. The error was one in reporting and was pointed out by Pilgrim’s Pride officials.)
Pilgrim’s has applied to Franklin County to rezone the two pieces of property that will make up the facility’s site for commercial industrial use.
One of the parcels is currently zoned agriculture intensive and the other commercial general.
The company has also applied for a conditional use permit to develop the plant.
The first of two public hearings on those requests will be held by the Franklin County Planning and Zoning Commission on March 18 at 5 p.m. at the Franklin County Justice Center.
Following the March 18 hearing, the planning board will make a recommendation to Franklin County commissioners on the zoning requests.
Franklin County Commission Chairman Jason Macomson said that both meetings will include a Zoom link so that those who cannot attend in person can watch and listen. Those watching via Zoom will not be able to speak, he said.
The April 5 hearing will be held at 5 p.m. at the Franklin County High School Auditorium to accommodate what is expected to be a large crowd safely, Macomson said.
Speakers on April 5 will be given a five-minute time limit.
After the hearing on April 5, commissioners will consider the plant’s requests and the planning board’s recommendation on whether or not to rezone the property and grant a conditional use permit.
The hearings are expected to give Pilgrim’s Pride the opportunity to present their plans and to answer questions from officials and citizens, who will also be given a chance to give their opinions on the plant’s proposals.
Powers said that she was contacted both by state economic developers and Pilgrim’s Pride officials about the new plant about 13 months ago.
Franklin County was identified as one of the areas where Pilgrim’s could build such a plant, she said, and had sites listed on a state database that fit the company’s needs.
When first told what kind of plant the company wished to build, Powers said her initial reaction was that it might not be the right fit for the community.
Pilgrim’s outlined that the company would use new technology in the rendering plant.
Powers said that she asked the company to explain exactly what that meant and that she and other officials wanted to see what the company planned in person.
“We want to see, hear, smell and touch what you’re referring to,” she told Pilgrim’s officials.
Powers, some members of the IBA and county officials visited sites in Iowa and South Carolina to see plants that use the technology that Pilgrim’s plans for the Carnesville facility.
In Iowa, the visitors from Franklin County went inside the plant – which was not owned by Pilgrim’s but used the same technology.
In South Carolina, the visitors did not go into a plant but walked outside the plant.
The visits included seeing sealed trucks that will be used to transport the chicken parts, she said.
There was no odor outside the plants on the days of the visits, Powers said. When the door opened to the plants, a smell of pet food could be detected near the door, she said.
A second pet-food plant not owned by Pilgrim’s located five to 10 miles from the facility in South Carolina did have an odor, she said.
Powers said the local legislation creating the IBA lists its purposes as “encouragement and promotion of the expansion and development of commercial and industrial facilities in Franklin County.”
Tons of background work with Pilgrim’s was done before last week’s announcement, she said.
“Basically the IBA helps a potential project when it explores Franklin County as a site,” Powers said. “I would hate for it to appear that the IBA just works with any project.”.
The IBA’s working relationship has been limited with the Pilgrim’s Pride project because the company has not asked for any tax incentives, nor are they buying property from the IBA.
Pilgrim’s Director of Corporate Affairs Cameron Bruett said that because the land the company is interested in is privately owned, there was no need for written agreements with the IBA.
“The location of the proposed plant was owned by a private individual, and the land is under contract pending all necessary local approvals, he said. “Because the land is privately held, a contract with the county was not necessary.”
Powers said that if Pilgrim’s fulfills its promises and stands behind the technology that she and others have seen, “I think the project could be beneficial and positive for jobs and economic development.”
Still, Powers anticipates a lot of questions from the public that the company needs to answer.
“I understand that they’re going to respond to the questions from the public,” she said. “Pilgrim’s wants to talk to the community. They want to answer those questions so the community can feel comfortable.”
The Planning and Zoning as well as the Board of Commissioners’ hearings are the primary opportunities to do so as well as provide the public with assurances of the company’s intentions, she said.