While the community got overwhelmingly excited by the news about Farmland’s decision to come back to Albert Lea, city officials still want to be cautious about the future.

Thursday, April 04, 2002

While the community got overwhelmingly excited by the news about Farmland’s decision to come back to Albert Lea, city officials still want to be cautious about the future.

&uot;The announcement just confirmed what we already understood,&uot; said City Manager Paul Sparks.

Farmland stressed that the reopening would be contingent upon insurance settlements and economic incentives being discussed in the state legislature, which are beyond control of the city.

&uot;The decision made it clear that everything else is resolved. And I hope it would put pressure on the insurance firms,&uot; Sparks said.

The city will proceed with a demolition order on the old plant, he said. Farmland still has 270 days to comply by starting the demolition. But the city may sign an agreement with the company to let the city start a partial demolition, allowing the city to complete an environmental assessment sooner, if it can find a funding source.

The insurers have not filed an appeal against the district court’s ruling last week that denied their claim to freeze the demolition order. The order has been legally in effect since Tuesday, and the city says the insurers would have had to appeal by then.

According to Sparks, the insurance firms have already paid around $8 million for clean up and a part of the company’s product losses. The negotiations have been stalling because of disagreements about an assessment on structural damage.

Lawyers for the insurers could not be reached on Wednesday. But Dennis D. Fitzpatrick, a Chicago-based attorney, denied last Tuesday that the negotiations would end up in court.

Fitzpatrick asserted that the damage inflicted by the fire destroyed only 58,074 square feet out of a total 611,211 square-foot floor area.

However, Sparks pointed out that about a half of the plant was not used at the time of fire. Compounded with smoke and water damage, the fire made it economically infeasible to restore the plant, he said.

The fire on July 8 started from sparks from a cutting torch in a box-storage building on the north side of the complex, according to Fire Chief Richard Sydnes.

A contractor was working on cutting a sprinkler pipe on the ceiling. The three-inch diameter pipe was inserted in a four-inch cylinder that penetrates an inner wall to introduce the pipe. The sparks went through the slack between the pipe and the cylinder and ignited a flame on plastic cases piled up behind the wall.

The fire spread to the four-story center plant through an corridor connectiong the storage structure and the plant. About a third of the center complex collapsed, from the second floor to the top ceiling.

&uot;It is my understanding that the plant had a total loss,&uot; Sydnes emphasized.

Farmland spokeswoman Sherlyn Manson said it is still unknown when the company could reach a settlement with the insurers. Farmland Foods President George Richter said in the statement Wednesday, &uot;We want to break ground and get our employees back to work as soon as possible. To that end, we hope the insurance companies will make an effort to settle our claims immediately.&uot;