Gov. Brownback: ‘Like 29’ communities expressing interest in Tyson plant

Gov. Sam Brownback said Wednesday that more than two dozen communities have expressed interest in the Tyson Foods poultry complex that ran into a wall of opposition in Leavenworth County.

Tyson earlier this month announced plans for a $320 million poultry complex south of Tonganoxie that would have employed an estimated 1,600 people and processed 1.25 million birds a week.

But the Tyson announcement caused protest and worry from residents in the area, and Tyson placed the planned poultry complex “on hold” last week after Leavenworth’s Board of County Commissioners voted 2-1 to rescind its resolution of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds.

Brownback said Wednesday that the public pushback was surprising, but other cities are interested.

“There’s been from, Jackie McClaskey’s (Kansas secretary of agriculture) telling me, like 29 communities that have been expressing an interest and putting together packets,” Brownback said. “We’ll see where all that goes and how that moves forward.”

Doug Ramsey, Tyson poultry president, said in a letter last week that the company still has interest in Leavenworth County “but will prioritize the other locations in Kansas and other states that have expressed support.”

Brownback said he thought it was wise that Tyson backed up.

“The community that wants to do this will need to step up publicly and that’s, I think, that’s a better way to go at it,” Brownback said. “And so I think this next time around will be better. Now I don’t know that they will come to Kansas. They’ve said they’re looking here or other states.”

David Frese contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Gov. Brownback: ‘Like 29’ communities expressing interest in Tyson plant."