Triumph to delay building EM plant

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By Dustin Lemmon | Wednesday, October 15, 2008 7:01 PM CDT | () comments

Triumph Foods has indefinitely delayed construction of its new pork processing plant in East Moline because of the downturn in the economy.

Patt Lilly, chief administrative officer for Triumph, said the decision announced Wednesday morning was several weeks in the making.

“Certainly, we were evaluating the situation over the last 60 days,” he said. “These decisions typically aren’t made quickly.”

Lilly said the company is optimistic it will someday break ground on the new facility but would not speculate on when that may occur. Construction of the plant, which was to provide 1,000 jobs paying an estimated $11.75 per hour on average, was to start on Barstow Road east of the city in January. The company announced the starting date late last year, Lilly said.

“It’s certainly our intention to move forward with the project,” he said. “We’re certainly hopeful, as I’m sure everyone in the country is, that things will get better” for the economy.

East Moline Mayor John Thodos said he received the news from Lilly on Tuesday.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” he said. “We need the jobs right now. I’m glad he let us know sooner rather than later.”

Thodos said the city was getting ready to extend water and sewer lines to the site. He said he understands the company’s decision given the tough economic climate and the difficulty in obtaining loans for the $135 million project, but those needing work were looking forward to the plant opening.

“There are a lot of people asking when is it going to open,” Thodos said. “All I can say is they have a commitment to be here. If you’re out of work, that’s not really what you want to hear.”

The proposed factory has been controversial in East Moline and surrounding communities since it was first proposed. Several neighbors of the 116-acre site spoke out against the plant, complaining of the smell, environmental issues and traffic the plant would generate.

Those neighbors were happy to hear about Triumph’s decision Wednesday.

“This couldn’t be a better announcement for the immediate community along Barstow Road and the whole Illinois Quad-Cities,” said Doug Riel, who lives three miles east of the plant. The plant “will be nothing but a burden on the community.”

Art Norris, a spokesman for a group called Quad-Cities Citizens Against Triumph, lives on Barstow Road and has been worried about the plant’s potential to contaminate the local wetlands. He said the area where the plant is to be constructed has been flooded for much of the past year and is a haven for fish and birds.

“We’re not against industry coming into this area as long as they’re not going to pollute our environment,” he said. “If we have to destroy the environment to get jobs, we’re not for that.”

Norris hopes the announcement means Triumph will give up on the East Moline site, which Lilly said is being leased to a local farmer.

“It makes me happy that Triumph Foods is maybe thinking about relocating somewhere else and the citizens on Barstow Road’s lives won’t be destroyed,” Norris said.

Don Kepple, who also lives on Barstow Road, was surprised by the news.

“I was hopeful that something would come up, but a lot of us have been resisting this for some time,” he said. “I really can’t see them locating there because the area has flooding.”

Rick Baker, president of the Illinois Quad-City Chamber of Commerce, thinks it’s too early to assume Triumph will never build in East Moline.

“They’re still coming,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of important community projects that have sometimes taken longer than we hoped. I think we should maintain our excitement for this project in the community.”

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

Triumph’s decision could negatively affect economy

By Doug Schorpp and Dustin Lemmon

Local community and labor leaders said Triumph Foods’ decision to delay construction in East Moline could be a major blow to the Quad-City economic picture.

John Honeycutt, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 431, was shocked to hear the news Wednesday. He said most of the employees at the plant would be represented by his union.

“This is the first I have heard of it. That’s too bad,” he said. “It meant a lot of jobs to the area. They met with some resistance. I hope that did not have any impact on their decision. I knew that there had been delays.

“I think it is unfortunate. It is a big economic blow to the Quad-City area. One thousand jobs could have turned into 2,000. It would have been a major project for the building trades. When was the last time we have seen a big plant come to the Quad-Cities?”

Honeycutt said the plant would have had a ripple effect on economic growth in the area.

“It would have spurred growth all over, not just the plant, but all types of things developed from it,” he said. “It is an unfortunate thing. Just look around us. Nothing has been good now. These jobs were going to be good-paying jobs, full-time jobs with benefits.”

Rory Washburn, executive director of the Tri-City Building and Construction Trades Council, was not surprised by the announcement.

“Obviously, I am disappointed (the start) got moved back, but I understand the effects of the current financial situation,” he said. “I am hopeful that sometime in 2009, they will be able to refocus. At this time, they are not able” to offer a time frame for breaking ground.

“The only thing they told me was they are not able to proceed as currently planned. In a perfect world, they could come up with a more detailed plan of when they could start. But I am hopeful the markets stabilize enough to get the capital they need to proceed in 2009. They are very optimistic they will be part of the community up here.”

He said the delay means a slowdown in the trades industry locally. He estimated that 300 to 500 workers would have worked on its construction. Once construction begins, Washburn said, the building would take 18 to 24 months to complete.

While the decision is being blamed on the economy, Rick Baker, president of the Illinois Quad-City Chamber of Commerce, thinks the size of Triumph’s project makes it a rare case. He does not think the struggling economy will halt other economic growth locally.

“I don’t know that I would use this one particular project as a gauge for anticipating delays in the future with other projects,” he said. “It’s a large project with a much different scale.”

Baker also cautioned the community not to look at the decision as jobs lost.

“I think it’s important to keep it in perspective because these were new jobs coming into the community, not jobs that exist now,” he said.

Rock Island County Board Chairman Jim Bohnsack said he’s still optimistic about the company’s future in the Quad-Cities.

“I was a little disappointed for sure,” he said. “But Triumph is a very first-class company. We wouldn’t want them to start and then have to stop midway through the project.”

That is why he doesn’t mind if the company is taking a more cautious approach.

“I believe what they are doing is the right way of doing it,” he said. “When it goes, it will be first class. It will happen.”

Bohnsack said information he received Tuesday from the company indicated that it has no timetable when groundbreaking might commence. But he is hopeful it could occur sometime in 2009.

Doug Schorpp can be contacted

at (563) 383-2292 or dschorpp@qctimes.com.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted

at (563) 383-2493

or dlemmon@qctimes.com.