The installation of a new natural gas pipeline will not delay construction of a new Sanderson Farms facility in Lenoir County, North Carolina, according to the Free Press, a Kinston, N.C., newspaper. The walls of the processing plant were erected on January 19 and construction of a feed mill and hatchery are in progress. The processing plant is set to begin production in January 2011.
According to the newspaper, Lenoir County officials have been scrambling for funds to build a new natural gas pipeline to the site since Piedmont Natural Gas Company told them eleven months ago that the lines supplying the plant site lacked sufficient capacity. County officials claim that the utility previously said that the existing infrastructure was sufficient.
The economic boon provided by the plant will offset the $3.4M price tag for the pipeline, a county official said. The county will secure $1M in funding for the line from a Community Development Block Grant and $1M from a N.C. Rural Development grant. It is seeking $1.4M for the project through a Tobacco Trust Fund grant.
A county official said the $121M facility will generate 2,285 jobs, including 1,650 positions at the plant, 130 poultry farmer contracts and 505 additional vending positions.
