Triumph Foods continues to keep its proposed hog-processing plant to be built near Barstow on hold, a company official confirmed Thursday.
But the details of what has transpired in the past few months seem to differ.
The company says the project has remained on hold for years, but an East Moline city official says the company was eager to restart the project a few months ago, only to back off those plans again.
The St. Joseph, Mo.-based company first proposed the plant in 2005 to be built near 172nd Street North and Barstow Road. Two years later, it bought the property, and the land was annexed into the city of East Moline.
But then, the company basically put the project on hold, in part because of the economy. Earlier this year, the East Moline City Council reported it must come to terms with the company on a new agreement in order for Triumph to build a facility that is expected to provide 2,500 jobs and millions in revenue for the city’s coffers.
At that time, the council voted to request that Chicago-based consulting firm Kane, McKenna and Associates Inc. provide information about what the company would charge to aid in the negotiations with Triumph.
East Moline City Attorney William Phares said at the time that he asked the council to seek help from the firm because negotiations are becoming so complicated that expert help is needed.
Then, earlier this week, City Administrator Cole O’Donnell said Triumph put the project on hold again.
Patt Lilly, Triumph’s chief administrative officer, said Thursday that it never was taken off the “hold” status.
“As the city administrator expressed, the project is on hold. I guess that would be a good description at this time,” Lilly said. “We still own the land. But we are not in position to move forward at this time. That has been our stance for a couple of years. There has been communication back and forth, and we still own the land. But there are no further activities on the project.”
Lilly said there also is no timeframe when it might move forward again...
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Source: Argentine Beef Packers S.A.
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