Turkey Plant Starts

VINCENNES, IND. (WTHI) -      A major industrial project in southern Indiana takes another step forward.

     Last month, FarBest Foods began construction on a new $20-million grain mill at Bruceville.

     Now, work is underway on the big part of the project, the long awaited turkey processing plant.

      The long months of talk and planning for a new turkey processing plant by FarBest Foods in the Vincennes Industrial Park are over.

     The heavy equipment has moved in, dirt is flying and the $70-million project is right on target.

     "The mill is on schedule at Bruceville,” said Gary Gentry with the Knox County Development Corporation.  “Of course that schedule is coordinated closely with this schedule and they're on schedule here as well."

     The completion of the project will be a big deal, but it also is going to provide some short term benefits to the economy.

     "To our farmers, to the potential jobs that there, but most of all to our hotels, our restaurants and our gas stations, they love it as well," said Marc McNeece with the Knox County Chamber of Commerce.

     Officials have been talking about the project since last December when Farbest announced they would be putting a processing plant in the Industrial Park, so seeing the construction begin is exciting.
     "Glad to see it moving, the building part is the fun part, you know,” said Gentry, “and we're finally here so I'm pretty excited."  
   
     The project also provides a ray hope to an agriculture economy that has been battered by the summer drought.

     "Farmers need all of the good news they can get and having a turkey processing facility mean a number of things, the people who are going to grow those turkeys also who is going to grow the grain that's going to go to the grain mill," said McNeece.

     Now that the project is going the anticipation can begin to grow toward the opening in early 2014 and the 300 jobs that will come with it.

     Even though the work has begun the company is still planning a ceremony to mark the construction project next month in Vincennes.