Foster Farms closing in Oregon
CRESWELL - Foster Farms will close its plant within the next two months and consolidate its remaining Northwest chicken processing operations to Kelso, Wash.The company is one of Creswell's largest employers. It will eliminate 53 local jobs by early October. The company said displaced workers are being offered relocation assistance or severance pay.
Another 22 employees will remain at Foster Farms' Creswell location to provide plant security and operate the company's chicken waste rendering plant, until a similar rendering facility can be built in Kelso. Then the Creswell plant will be closed.
Creswell City Administrator Mark Shrive said the processing plant's closure will directly affect city revenue by eliminating the largest municipal water customer.
"It will also have an impact ... because Foster Farms was a great community partner," Shrive said, citing the company's willingness to support local events.
California-based Foster Farms purchased the Creswell operations in 1987 from the parent company of Fircrest Poultry Farms, and in recent years has had a hot-and-cold history at the site.
Source: Longview Daily News
6 August 2006
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