Michael O’Donnell, a resident of Wichita, Kansas, and member of the Sedgwick County Commission, wants to make sure that the county he represents is considered for a potential Tyson Foods poultry complex.
Tyson Foods revealed on September 19 that it would start looking for other locations – both in Kansas and in other states – to build a new poultry complex that it wanted to build in Leavenworth County in northeast Kansas, so O’Donnell quickly took to Twitter to make sure the company had Sedgwick County on its radar.
O’Donnell sent a Tweet to @TysonFoods, @TysonFoodsCEO and @TysonFoodsLive, explaining that Sedgwick County would like the 1,500 jobs that could be created with the arrival of the poultry complex, which would include a poultry processing plant, feed mill and hatchery.
O’Donnell’s Tweet was made the same day that Tyson Foods sent an open letter to the Leavenworth County Community. The letter expressed regret that the Leavenworth County Commission had voted to rescind a motion of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds for the Tyson Foods project that was planned for the town of Tonganoxie, and stated that it was putting plans for Tonganoxie on hold while it examined other potential communities.
The Leavenworth County Commission made that vote just days after state legislators from the Leavenworth County area held a public forum and after hearing public outcry, stated that they did not favor a poultry plant in Tonganoxie.
Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Jackie McClaskey has stated that more than a dozen Kansas communities have expressed an interest in being considered for the Tyson Foods project, but she has not revealed which communities those were.
Tyson Foods, according to the open letter, has six facilities in Kansas, although none of those are poultry plants. Tyson does not have any facilities located in Sedgwick County, but there are two Tyson Fresh Meats facilities in operation in neighboring Reno County.
Other animal protein construction projects in Sedgwick County
Should Sedgwick County eventually land the Tyson Foods plant, it would be one of several animal agriculture-related construction projects taking place there. Cargill is in the process of building a new headquarters for its North American Protein business in Wichita.
Also, Hormel Foods is expanding its Dold Foods bacon plant in Wichita.
