Omaha Forums

A lot of news outlets yesterday started to cover a possible chicken processing plant that is in the works at some level near Fremont.

Sounds like a pretty big investment and there is a contract in place to purchase the ground needed. That fact is from the current land owner.

Some stats that I have read,

1200 employees
350000 chickens processed a day.
300 million investment
No known state incentives are involved. If they are they are not public yet.


Some of the comments that I have read on the news articles on line and on Fecebook news posts are really short sighted and naive. There may be bases for some of the concerns but there is no where near enough info to jump to the conclusions that are made. Not a suppose but makes you shake your head.

This will be interesting to follow.

OWN story
http://www.omaha.com/money/mystery-comp ... b6458.html

WOWT
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Neig ... 39741.html


Brownfield

http://brownfieldagnews.com/2016/03/30/ ... ska-plant/

http://www.omaha.com/money/fremont-area ... ce17d.html

Opponents of a proposed chicken processing plant packed the fire hall and spilled onto the street of this small town north of Fremont on Monday, railing against the facility and the elected officials considering it.

The plant will bring heavy traffic, disease, bad smells and an influx of immigrant workers and their children, opponents told officials in Nickerson, a town about 8 miles north of Fremont.

Members of the Nickerson Village Board voted 5-0 against a plan that would rezone the land where the plant would be built. The crowd erupted into cheers in the wake of the vote.

And some of the comments...

And John Wiegert, who has opposed illegal immigration in Fremont, said the plant would bring the issue to Nickerson.

"Being a Christian, I don't want Somalis in here," he said of who he expected to be plant workers. "They're of Muslim descent. I'm worried about the type of people this is going to attract."

Robert Mulliken said he once toured a chicken plant in California and was dismayed at the lack of "Caucasians." "I'm not prejudiced at all but that was the one time in my life I really got scared," he said.

iamjacobm wrote:http://www.omaha.com/money/fremont-area ... ce17d.html

Opponents of a proposed chicken processing plant packed the fire hall and spilled onto the street of this small town north of Fremont on Monday, railing against the facility and the elected officials considering it.

The plant will bring heavy traffic, disease, bad smells and an influx of immigrant workers and their children, opponents told officials in Nickerson, a town about 8 miles north of Fremont.

Members of the Nickerson Village Board voted 5-0 against a plan that would rezone the land where the plant would be built. The crowd erupted into cheers in the wake of the vote.

And some of the comments...

And John Wiegert, who has opposed illegal immigration in Fremont, said the plant would bring the issue to Nickerson.

"Being a Christian, I don't want Somalis in here," he said of who he expected to be plant workers. "They're of Muslim descent. I'm worried about the type of people this is going to attract."

Robert Mulliken said he once toured a chicken plant in California and was dismayed at the lack of "Caucasians." "I'm not prejudiced at all but that was the one time in my life I really got scared," he said.

Wow. I'm kind of at a loss for words.

And so Nickerson continues to die a slow, racist death because economic growth that includes bringing in people different than them is scary. Good riddance.

Is it really that scary to accept different races and religions? The fearful right really needs to get past the fact that there are other cultures out there.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that statement about immigrants, Somalis and Muslims. This county was built on immigrants and freedom of religion. It blows my mind.

I wish I could say I was surprised by the comments but with everything that has gone on politically in Fremont I can't say I am.

That being said, are we convinced this is a good thing for that area? Are all jobs and such good? They have some similar plants in Schuyler and it would be interesting to see if the end result was more positive. I'm talking crime, strain on the schools, housing, quality of jobs, overall quality of life.

Greg

Greg S wrote:I wish I could say I was surprised by the comments but with everything that has gone on politically in Fremont I can't say I am.

That being said, are we convinced this is a good thing for that area? Are all jobs and such good? They have some similar plants in Schuyler and it would be interesting to see if the end result was more positive. I'm talking crime, strain on the schools, housing, quality of jobs, overall quality of life.

Greg

Totally valid concerns that need to be addressed. Just didn't seem like the ones people really cared about.

Greg S wrote:I wish I could say I was surprised by the comments but with everything that has gone on politically in Fremont I can't say I am.

That being said, are we convinced this is a good thing for that area? Are all jobs and such good? They have some similar plants in Schuyler and it would be interesting to see if the end result was more positive. I'm talking crime, strain on the schools, housing, quality of jobs, overall quality of life.

Greg

Those plants destroyed Schuyler. Schuyler was a Norman Rockwell picture in the 70s and early 80s. Now it sucks. Now you might get knifed walking around town at night. They sell illegal IDs to the illegals in the bars there as is well documented by news investigations. Beautiful peaceful friendly Schulyer is now a hole. Shame on those folks in Nickerson for not wanting that to happen to them.

First mention of another location near Fremont. This one on the other side of town.



http://www.ketv.com/news/chicken-plant- ... sWatch%207

If you read the story as it currently is written they are going to process TURKEY from the Chickens. Wonder how long before that is fixed.

Sounds like they found a new site next to the Hormel plant on the south side of Fremont.

Dodge County Board OKs move toward Fremont land annexation

Barbara Soderlin - World-Herald staff writer wrote:Annexing the properties would clear the way for Fremont to annex the plant site itself, necessary to offer tax-increment financing for development.

From a Grow Omaha Episode a few weeks past, they were saying this would have a $1B economic impact on our MSA. $300M investment with 1100 jobs starting at a very competitive $15-16/hr. Not only would a state of the art, totally enclosed processing facility be built, but they would need around 400 local chicken farmers. When a questionnaire went out, there were 1300 responses from local farmers.

I hope this works out for Fremont. I know Nickerson cried that their rural lifestyle would be threatened, so I am glad that Fremont stepped up to the plate. I know this may bring in those horrible non native Nebraskans, but it will also spur on housing developments in the MSA, generate more secondary retail, tax revenue, both income and corporate...

I am surprised that this isn't getting the press it deserves, maybe I haven't seen it, but this will be a huge boost the our MSAs economy.

Fremont City Council approves reimbursement cost for Costco plan

KMTV wrote:The Fremont city council has unanimously approved reimbursement of almost $200,000 for engineering services if Costco comes to the town.

They will probably get TIF too.

Now Bold Nebraska is suing to block the study needed regarding utility improvements for the site.

bigredmed wrote:Now Bold Nebraska is suing to block the study needed regarding utility improvements for the site.

Keystone XL is on hold for the time being, so Jane Kleeb and her gang of environmentalists have to find something else to fight over.

jessep28 wrote:

bigredmed wrote:Now Bold Nebraska is suing to block the study needed regarding utility improvements for the site.

Keystone XL is on hold for the time being, so Jane Kleeb and her gang of environmentalists have to find something else to fight over.

Gotta bring home those legal fees.

bigredmed wrote:

jessep28 wrote:

bigredmed wrote:Now Bold Nebraska is suing to block the study needed regarding utility improvements for the site.

Keystone XL is on hold for the time being, so Jane Kleeb and her gang of environmentalists have to find something else to fight over.

Gotta bring home those legal fees.

I think the concerns are completely legitimate. Many large poultry plants contain thousands of animals which produce lots of waste. It makes sense that the primary polluter (the owner of the plant) should pay for any environmental impact study--especially when there are obvious pollution concerns.

I think Bold Nebraska is a tremendously beneficial organization which used grassroots activism to stand up to powerful oil lobbyists to prevent the construction Keystone pipeline. Furthermore they helped unite many farmers and Native people together in the common interest of responsible stewardship of the land.

Council unanimously votes to expand Costco Poultry Complex
http://fremonttribune.com/news/local/go ... 2e943.html

Thankfully this is moving forward ahead full steam.

Work has begun. There is heavy equipment out there now.

Waste lagoons will be consolidated in the industrial area for methane collection, which will then be sold.

http://fremonttribune.com/news/local/la ... 074a3.html

Slate has a long article about this plant and the impacts on Fremont and communities like it.

https://slate.com/business/2017/12/lati ... raska.html

This is going to be a huge facility, drove by yesterday and there is a 196 foot tall tower portion(maybe a feed tower? this area isn't an area I know a ton about). Anyways it really towers above everything in the area.

iamjacobm wrote:This is going to be a huge facility, drove by yesterday and there is a 196 foot tall tower portion(maybe a feed tower? this area isn't an area I know a ton about). Anyways it really towers above everything in the area.

I can assure you they will not be feeding many chickens there.

Here it is six or seven years later, and there are still signs on the highway north of Fremont saying “Costco not welcome“ and also “Costco go home“..

I haven’t heard of a single issue since they’ve opened or did I miss something?

Brad wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:43 pm Here it is six or seven years later, and there are still signs on the highway north of Fremont saying “Costco not welcome“ and also “Costco go home“..

I haven’t heard of a single issue since they’ve opened or did I miss something?

Did they put the signs up years ago and just forget about them?

Brad wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:43 pm Here it is six or seven years later, and there are still signs on the highway north of Fremont saying “Costco not welcome“ and also “Costco go home“..

I haven’t heard of a single issue since they’ve opened or did I miss something?

The signs N of Fremont have been up since before the plant was built. One of the two went down a little over a year ago in a wind storm and they put it back up.

As far as I know, they are operating issue-free or as much issue-free as any other facility.