Council members react to I-O processing plant vote
“I feel like I need to talk to some more of my constituents,” Tyler Fullenkamp said after he and his fellow members of Decatur City Council wound down an hour-long meeting Tuesday night on whether or not to give a green light to a beef processing plant within the city limits.
“I think it would be irresponsible to not see why that (a prohibition of such operations within the city limits) was decided and what has changed,” said Councilman Scott Murray.
Murray added that he has “kind of a hangup” about people who bought homes near the site under the current city rules and now face the possibility of a beef processing plant being operated there.
Murray, Fullenkamp and the other three members of city council agreed on a two-week delay, until their March 15 meeting, before deciding whether or not to allow I-O Properties of Coldwater, Ohio, to set up the processing plant in the former Dean Foods plant in Industrial Park.
Mayor Dan Rickord pointed out that council members had only recently become aware of I-O wanting to set up shop here and thus had little time to study it.
Council has three ways it can go: a) allow the section of city code that prohibits animal slaughter within the city limits to stand; b) rule it out of existence; or c) give I-O an exemption/waiver to operate here.
Some members of council talked about taking a trip to see another meat processing plant – “slaughter house,” many call it – and how it operates.
Prior to the council meeting, the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals – before a standing-room-only council that spilled outside council chambers in City Hall – conditionally approved the processing plant for operation here. Several people had spoken against allowing I-O to set up a plant here.
New company
I-O Properties is a brand-new company, although its roots go way back in the meat processing business. If the plant is approved here, it would be operated by Riggs Florence, 29, of Coldwater.
“This is something Riggs has always wanted to do,” the company attorney, Tom Trent, member of a Fort Wayne law firm, told council.
The plant here “would be a relatively small operation,” Trent said, in comparison to many meat processing plants around the country.
“Our goal here would be to work with the little guys, the ones hurt most by the pandemic,” Riggs Florence said. “We want to hit the smaller markets. The big guys take care of the big guys.”
Trent said the company “will be happy to work within the confines set by the BZA.” One requirement would be that no more than six to seven trucks a day would be allowed in and out of the plant, and all operations would have to be conducted within the plant.
Also aired at the council meeting:
* At full operation, approximately 210 head of cattle could be processed daily.
* Trent said the Dean Foods building was bought out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and that the building owners “are driving an extremely hard bargain.”
* The plant would not have a lagoon.
* Florence’s family has what he called “a gathering place” for cattle at Tocsin.
* One of his goals, Florence said, would be to some day open a retail store away from the building and prepare foods for local and area residents to purchase.
* Trent said the company, if approved, will seek tax abatements. * Councilman Matt Dyer thanked all who came out for both the BZA and council meetings for being civil and displaying good behavior.