By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – The village president of Gridley, in northern McLean County, received news no person in his job would want to hear.
The community of about 1,410 people is losing its largest employer.
Village President Jeff Benedict said a company representative for the Kerry food plant, formerly known as Ringger Foods, told him Tuesday the business would close down the next day.
Benedict said about 115 people worked there when the plant was at full production, but there had been some workforce reductions the past six months.
He said the entire community will feel the impact of the closure.
“You’ve got that many people affected with the loss of a job, and our local businesses that are affected. Whether they serve food, or sell gasoline, or other products. That also affects some of those entities and businesses. It’s just unfortunate,” Benedict said.
Kerry’s Gridley workers added soy to cereal like Honey Smacks, and into cereal and protein bars.
Benedict said Ireland-based Kerry, with U.S. headquarters in Beloit, Wisconsin, would like to reopen the plant someday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July tied unsanitary conditions at the Gridley plant to a salmonella outbreak.
McLean County government leaders said they were surprised by the shutdown, including Board Chairman John McIntyre and recently-elected board member Gerald Thompson, who represents Gridley in District 1.
“Your heart goes out to those people. Anytime you lose your job, then you couple that with the time of year, that’s just heart-wrenching,” said Thompson.
McIntyre said Kerry received a loan from the county’s Community Development Assistance Program about the time the company purchased the plant in 2002. McIntyre said the firm paid back the loan and was doing well.
The board chairman said it’s too soon to determine if there’s anything county government can do now.
“The county would do what we could to help, but we don’t know what that would be,” said McIntyre.
“How we would help would be just a small revolving loan, and that would be a process, and that would take a while, so we don’t know that would even help them,” McIntyre also said.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
