The Wright County Prestage Foods coming to Wright County
Monitor
147th year Number 27
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Official newspaper of Wright County
$1.00 per copy www.clarionnewsonline.com
Prestage Foods intends to build new plant in Wright County
Finding pets homes since 2003 – the Humane Society of Wright County
by Kim demory egeagle@goldfieldaccess.net Prestage Foods of Iowa announced Tuesday, July 5, that they intend to bring nearly 1,000 jobs to Wright County by the end of summer 2018. Co-owner Ron Prestage, DVM, pending state and local approval, confirmed that a $240 million hog plant will be built on a 150+ acre site located southwest of Eagle Grove. It is slated to be a 650,000 square-foot facility and bring in $2.7 million in property taxes. taxes. Prestage Foods Chief Operating Officer, Jere Null, called it a 50-year asset for both Prestage and Wright County. After a bid to build the plant in Mason City failed to gain approval from their City Council (on a 3-3 vote), Wright County Economic Development’s Bryce Davis and The Wright County Board of Supervisors got together to express an interest in showing Prestage what Wright County had to offer. According to Prestage, they were one of 19 communities and eight states after the Mason City vote to contact them and via for the new business. After several meetings to see if Wright County and Prestage were a “good
Kacey Ginn, editor wrightcomonitor@gmail.com When a stray animal is picked up by the police and dropped off at a county veterinarian’s office, the long process of finding that animal a home begins. If it’s a lost pet, owners have three days to contact the vet. If it really is a stray, the animal is spayed or neutered, vaccinated, then given over to the Humane Society of Wright County to be fostered until an owner can be found. Right now, the Humane Society has just about as many dogs as it can care for. “It just seems like all year round, there’s so many animals,” said Terri Torkelson, treasurer for the organization. Torkelson said that they operate with about 12 total volunteers, with four of them fostering animals. Don and Connie Garrett in Eagle Grove, due to space and facilities from raising animals previously, house most of them—currently 27 dogs, which is just about as many as they have space to keep. The Garretts also take care of cats that need adoption. Torkelson said there are more stray cats than can be fostered, and that most of the time, stray cats aren’t picked up and brought to vets, which can result in more stray cats over time. “It’s very hard to find a solution,” she said. The dogs the Garretts keep have pens with food, water, shelter, and plenty of space to move around in. The Garretts said they have some dedicated Humane Society volunteers who’ll come and walk dogs or let them run around a bigger space supervised. “We really appreciate them,” Connie said. They also help with chores to feed and water the animals and clean their pens, a job Don said could easily take a few hours. Despite how many dogs they keep and how many dogs they’ve seen come and go over the years, the Garretts have names for all of them and can tell the story of how each of them was found. They can even tell which stray dogs came from Spanish-speaking and Englishspeaking families, because dogs
fit” for each other, a decision was reached that indeed it was. That means Prestage could bring a payroll in excess of $43 million annually with an additional employee benefits packet of $13 million to the Wright County area. “It kind of worked out for the best...we realize now that we’re better off and recognize that smaller towns in Iowa are more familiar with agriculture,” said Prestage. He also noted that after further study, they realized there are more people (workforce) within a 20-mile radius of Eagle Grove than within a 20-mile radius of Mason City. “We think we’re going to help this county kick up the ladder... when you invest $240 million, you have to staff the plant...and there is a workforce here. You need to offer competitive wages, benefit packages, and more...and we have a history of that.” The lowest paying position at Prestage Foods of Iowa starts at $13 an hour. The average pay rate will be $15.71. For upper management levels, salaries reach into the triple digits. For all positions, they will be
Dr. Pamela Kelch practicing dentistry in Clarion for 25 years Kacey Ginn, editor wrightcomonitor@gmail.com Since about 1970, Dr. Lowell Skinner’s dental practice helped keep Clarion residents healthy and smiling. Twenty-one years later, his daughter, Dr. Pamela Kelch, joined him, and over the course of 25 years worked alongside him and took over the family business. Kelch, who grew up in Clarion, said she always knew she would go into dentistry. “As a kid growing up, we were always around the dental office,” she said. Kelch has three brothers, and two of them also went into the field as a general dentist and an oral surgeon. Back in 1970, the office was at a different Main Street location. Since Kelch joined her father in 1991, the office has been where it is now, across the street from the library. Kelch said that 25 years ago, the building was about one third its current size, and they’ve had to expand over the years. Kelch majored in chemistry at the University of San Antonio, completed her four years of dental school in Texas, then had a year as a resident at the Audie L. Murphy VW Hospital in San Antonio. At that point, she and her husband decided to move back to Clarion. Kelch joined her father’s practice and took it over when he retired in 2005. Until 2014, Kelch was the only doctor at the practice. “That’s when we were lucky enough to find Dr. Stillman,” she said. Heather Stillman graduated from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics. Since she joined the
practice, Kelch said they’ve been better able to accommodate patients. Kelch said the biggest thing that’s changing about dentistry is the use of technology. They have some form of computer in every room, and use intraoral cameras and digital scanning. After 25 years, Kelch still enjoys what she does. “I find it very gratifying to start out with young kids, with their first dental visit,” Kelch said. Some of her early patients now have children who are her patients, too. And though there’s difficulty owning a small business and keeping up with dental regulations, Kelch said, “There’s always something new. No day is the same.” Kelch also has no regrets about practicing in her home town. “I feel that we made a great choice coming back to Clarion,” she said. “Clarion’s been good for us, and I hope that we’ve been good for Clarion.”
looking to hire locally. Shifts are five days a week, 10 hours a day (paid overtime). At $13, that’s $37,000 a year plus benefits. At $15.71 that’s $47,000 per year plus benefits. Supervisor Karl Helgevold pointed out that with the Wright County per capita income at $25,964 and household income at $43,082, a pay rate like Prestage is offering is huge. “It gives young people the opportunity to have a career, not just a job,” added Null, acknowledging they like to promote from within the local company. While Prestage is a top five producer of hogs and turkeys in the United States, they are proud to say they are still independently owned and family operated. The business was founded in 1983 by Bill and Marsha Prestage. The leadership has remained in the family for three generations with sons Scott, John, and Ron now at the helm. Why Wright County Many people may not realize that Prestage is already located in 30 Iowa counties, including Wright. They have been in Iowa 12
used to hearing Spanish take longer to adjust to English intonation and commands. They can also tell you about the pets they’ve had over the years, from the terriers they’ve bred to animals more unusual. Torkelson said how many dogs are adopted depends a lot on the time of the year, with more families looking for pets in the spring. “Young, smaller dogs go faster. Older, bigger dogs go last,” Torkelson aid. It’s a pattern the Garretts have also seen. “So many people won’t adopt an old dog, and it’s too bad, because they could give the dog a nice retirement,” Connie said. “People like us that have reared pups know—we wouldn’t take a pup on a bet if we could get an old dog,” Don added. He said that frequently older dogs are calmer and will give an owner less trouble with training and chewing. Some of the Garrett’s dogs are old enough that they assume they’ll take care of them for the rest of their lives. Some of the dogs they’ve kept, however, have lived from 17 to 21 years old, which means an adopted pet might have several more years to spend with a family Another problem that contributes to the surplus of dogs are would-be pet owners who don’t know what they’re getting into. Some dogs come from active, working breeds that need space to run around in. And though it doesn’t take much equipment to take care of a dog, it
does take responsibility. If you are ready to have a pet, though, you could make a difference and consider one that’s been cared for by the Humane Society of Wright County. The Humane Society could always use more volunteers to help care for or foster animals. You can get more information about the Humane society by calling Marcia Burt, society president, at 515-5713129, Don Garrett at 515-293-2026, or Terri Torkelson at 515-293-0079. You can also find Humane Society’s booth at the Wright County Fair this week.
Bug Olympics at the library
About 40 kids came to learn about bugs when the Iowa State University Insect Zoo came to the Clarion Public Library on June 30 for the Bug Olympics. The Olympics consisted of three events demonstrating the physical capabilities of three different insect species. The Peruvian stick bug, shown being held by zoo director Jenny Mitchell, has a record jump of 41 inches. If a 50-inch tall child were to jump proportionately that far, it would be 35 feet.
Hermit crabs, like mantids, ants, butterflies, and spiders, are arthopods. The zoo brought two hermit crabs for the kids to handle.
After the events, Mitchell and fellow zoo worker Allison Witt showed off a wide variety of insects. Here, Mitchell holds an Asian leaf mantis.
The other two events were a roach race and a roach pull. Here, children see how much weight a Madagascar hissing cockroach can pull—up to 5.65 times their weight, it turns out.
The kids were allowed to touch some of the insects. Here, a girl feels what it’s like to have the 250 legs of a millipede scuttling over her hand.