If you have a kid who eats peanut butter, you've been listening to news of the peanut recalls. And when your eight year old furrows his brow when you go shopping together and is concerned about salmonella in his peanuts, you're concerned too.
The latest bit of this story is the closing of the PCA plant in Plainview, TX. I was able to grab some old news stories about the opening of the plant, and to compare those with the stories that are running now. Here's something like a narrative.
In the 1969, Jimmy Dean opened a sausage factory in Plainview, TX. It closed in 1974, sat idle for 30 years, and then was reopened as a peanut processing plant in 2004. The best local source for news coverage is the Plainview Daily Herald, and these clippings are from their online site.
From the Plainview Daily Herald, 4/15/2004:
Jim Booher, who has been involved in food processing for 20 years, is working on opening his third plant and is highly complimentary of the cooperation he´s received here as manager of the Peanut Corporation of America plant.
Renovation work is under way on the old Jimmy Dean Meat Co. plant on
the west service road of North I-27, adjacent to United Parcel Service.
The community landed PCA in December, offering an incentive package
which included $390,000 over 10 years with the Plainview-Hale County
Industrial Foundation, the City of Plainview and Hale County each
putting up $13,000 a year. In-kind work by each entity will be done as
well. The package does not include tax abatement.
High Plains Millwright of Plainview is handling the demolition work,
tearing down some walls, taking out concrete tiers and doing other
work before renovation begins. A metal building will be erected on an
existing concrete slab and will be connected to the main building.
“We hope to be open sometime in August or September, depending on
when we get our equipment installed,” said Booher, who is moving here
from Grand Prairie.
KCBD, Ch. 11, has a similar story from 4/21/04:
Plainview Peanut Plant to Open this Summer
Peanut production in West Texas is growing and
that's why local farmers are excited about the
new plant. The plant is undergoing a facelift to
make way for 80,000 square feet of peanut
processing machinery. "We're looking at
probably within the next three months of
putting equipment in and painting and getting
ready for operation," says plant manager, Jim
Booher.
The cached copy of the PCA site (since removed) has this to say about the Texas plant:
We're Ready NOW, not later!
Beginning with the first load of
peanuts ever processed at Peanut
Corporation's new Texas plant, our
most important task has been
quality. We don't request your
patience while we figure out how to
do this.
Instead, we request that you hold us
to the high standards you've always
expected from a Peanut Corporation
of America plant. We're ready.
Pride in Our Newest Plant. Pride in Texas!
There couldn't be a more perfect location than Plainview,
Texas for the newest addition to Peanut Corporation's list of
plants! Just off North Interstate 27 in Plainview, we connect
the Western and Central United States with the Texas
Peanut Industry. Texas really is the best state, y'all!
Blanchers
Product Listing
Coming soon to this spot: a comprehensive
listing of products and services brought to
you by Peanut Corporation of America in
Plainview, Texas.
Until the list is posted, please feel free to
contact Jim Booher, our Texas plant's
operations manager for a complete discussion
of how we can serve you.
How did Plainview get the plant? More from the Daily Herald, Feb 25 2007:
One day, Peanut Corporation of America President Stewart Parnell
from Lynchburg, Va., flew in for fuel and a visit and happened to
mention that he was looking to locate a peanut processing plant in this
area, and Miller directed him to Hale County State Bank President Brian
Pohlmeier, who was on the board of the Plainview-Hale County Industrial
Board.
“As it turned out,” said Miller, “Brian had
been Parnell’s loan officer for several of the planes he had bought and
it wound up with the peanut plant locating in the old Jimmy Dean plant.”
The Sept 1, 2008 Daily Herald has a brief story about the rehab of the plant:
The IDC has issued millions of dollars in revenue bonds to help
businesses in the area, including three bonds in Hale County and four
in Castro County — mainly for dairies, IDC legal representative Malcolm
Tisdel said.
The city and county work hand-in-hand with the IDC and Plainview/Hale County Industrial Foundation to bring in new industry.
Jesus
Garrocho, operations manager at Peanut Corporation of America, said the
IDC was instrumental in bringing the company to Plainview.
“The
(Peanut Corp.) facility had been empty for 30 years,” Brian Pohlmeier,
president of the IDC, said. “Now it has a business that employees
30-some people.”
Together, the Industrial Foundation and IDC
have contributed substantial economic impact to the area. The IDC helps
not only Hale County but surrounding counties as well.
There's more from the 10/29/2003 Daily Herald:
The inducement package being offered Peanut Corp. calls for the
city, county and Plainview-Hale County Industrial Foundation to
contribute $100,000 each in $10,000 increments over a 10-year span. It
also calls for paving the parking lot of the plant and installing a
special water line for firefighting purposes.
The county approved the proposal Monday and the industrial foundation board was expected to do so today.
In return for the incentives, the plant which will process shelled
and cleaned peanuts into candy and food products is expected to hire
an initial batch of 35 employees, process 256,000 pounds of nuts daily
and ultimately invest $1 million in the project.
“If they pull
out, we don´t pay the ($10,000) installments,” industrial foundation
Executive Director Grady Elder said in outlining the proposal at
Monday´s Commissioners Court meeting.
The plant closed in 1974. The building is owned by Ronald Thompson of Lubbock.
I don't know what a sausage factory that has been idle for 30 years looks like, and how much it takes to rehab it to the point where it's ready to clean peanuts for use in candy.
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