GREENWOOD MAYOR "SADDENED" BUT NOT SURPRISED BY PLANT CLOSING
Thursday, February 2nd, 2006 -- 12:25 PM
Land O?Lakes, Inc. Wednesday announced plans to close its Greenwood barrel cheddar cheese manufacturing facility. The facility employs thirty people and will close on Februrary 24th.Land O?Lakes is believed to be Greenwood?s fourth-largest employer.
"We were very disappointed and saddened by the news," says Greenwood Mayor Bob Moseley. He says his community will feel the loss on a number of levels. "We lost not only thirty jobs, but we lost a business in town. That trickles down to other businesses as well."
"It's just not a good situation," Moseley says.
But Moseley says the news did not come as a complete surprise. The plant?s closing has been rumored for many years. While he said he didn?t want to ?accuse? Land O?Lakes of anything, Moseley says information about the plant?s status was hard to come by.
"I've heard those same rumors. I started doing some checking around. It was sometimes hard to get a call back from Land O' Lakes," Moesly says. "It was definitely very hard to find anything out on the story."
Land O?Lakes hopes to sell the facility and Moseley says he?s ?very optimistic? that the building will be back in operation in the future.
"I've had indicators that people in the industry think it will be used (for) some kind of dairy production," Mosely says, adding Land O' Lakes won't say if they've had interest in the facility.
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