After months of being considered as a prospective site for a proposed Cargill livestock feed manufacturing plant, Scotland County officials announced last week that Memphis no longer is in the running for the new facility.
Presiding Commissioner Chipper Harris indicated that representatives of the agri-business corporation had contacted the county at the end of the week to make the announcement.
Harris stated the company had purchased an existing facility in central Missouri that will serve the area’s needs, leading Cargill to look further north for a site for the proposed plant.
The county had been working with the City of Memphis, the local utility companies, Missouri Offices of Economic Development and Finance and the Missouri Department of Transportation in an effort to be selected as the site for the proposed feed mill.
Sources familiar with the plan, indicated the facility would have employed approximately 10 plant operators as well as a similar number of truck drivers to transport the estimated 7 million bushels of corn to the site for processing into pelletized feed.
Local officials reacted to the news with disappointment, but noted efforts made on behalf of the project have built a positive working relationship between local and state officials that could be used in future economic development endeavors for the region.
