As Albert Lea makes aggressive moves to make a new Farmland plant a reality, other cities are taking a more muted approach regarding the company.

Wednesday, September 26, 2001

As Albert Lea makes aggressive moves to make a new Farmland plant a reality, other cities are taking a more muted approach regarding the company.

Officials in the city of Monmouth, Ill. neither confirmed nor denied any interest in attracting a planned $88 million Farmland facility, but would only say they have not presented an incentive package to Farmland executives.

&uot;At this point, nothing has been passed on to Farmland,&uot; said a city official who preferred not to be named. &uot;We know there is a lot at stake with this situation with a lot of hearsay out there. We don’t want to make it worse.&uot;

Farmland Foods owns a pork processing facility in Monmouth, which it purchased about eight years ago. The 38-year-old plant employs 900 people in the western Illinois city with less than 10,000 residents.

&uot;The city of Monmouth has a close relationship with Farmland,&uot; the city official said. &uot;But our understanding has always been that Farmland would prefer to rebuild in Albert Lea. I think the company has been upfront about that.&uot;

George Richter, Farmland pork division president, told employees of the Albert Lea plant after the July fire that Albert Lea would be given biased consideration when the company decides the location of its new plant. But Richter added that other cities may also be interested. He would not specifically identify what other cities may preparing incentive

packages for the company’s consideration.

Ed Smith, mayor of Carroll, Iowa, said Monday that his city is declining to offer an incentive package to Farmland. He said Farmland executives invited the city this summer to prepare a package. Carroll also has an existing processing plant owned by Farmland that the company temporarily reopened this summer to help compensate for the plant fire and subsequent closure in Albert Lea.