Liberty red-meat facility update

Federal money still needed

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — “If this was a nice field in the middle of Bethel, there wouldn’t be anyone saying ‘it’s okay to put a slaughterhouse here, guys.’” That was how Walter Garigliano explained the decision to keep the planned red-meat facility on land near the Village of Liberty sewer plant in a terrain that can be described as some of the toughest in the county to build on.

Garigliano gave an update on the facility to the board of the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) at the government center on January 12. The plan has been on the drawing boards of various county officials since 2004, but it got a new breath of life in the beginning of 2009, when the IDA and Paul Hahn, Agricultural Economic Development Specialist with the Sullivan County Department of Planning and Environmental Management, became deeply involved.

The 2004 plan envisioned that the facility would be created on about 1.4 acres of land, and it was presumed that the “kill floor” would operate five or seven days a week.

It turns out, however, that idea isn’t practical, because in order to be able to be legally sold to consumers, animals must be slaughtered, or processed, in connection with an inspector from the United States Department of Agriculture. Garigliano said, “What we didn’t know at the time, which we know now, is that USDA inspectors are not free.” So now, in order to make the operation more likely to turn a profit, the plan is that the kill floor might be open a day or two per week, which would limit the amount of time inspectors would be required to spend on site, and the facility will have pens for holding animals for a period of time before they are processed.

Another change in the plans has been the method of treating the offal, or parts of the animals that are not going to be eaten by people. Garigliano said, “The technology between 2004 and now has gone 180 degrees in terms of what you do with the offal, and the current technology that Cornell has is that it be handled on site. The offal will be covered with wood chips, and, because of the biological process that happens, it becomes very quickly a topsoil.”

The plan is that there will be a market for that topsoil, or at least someone should be willing to cart it off for free.

Because of the size of vehicles that will be dropping animals at the facility, the engineers decided it couldn’t really be built on such a small lot. After first coming up with a design for a parcel of about 3.8 acres last year, the latest incarnation of the plan is for a facility to be built on 4.8 acres. The village has not yet granted approval for this, but it is expected to be easily approved because village officials have indicated they would grant the entire 29-acre parcel of village owned property to the IDA if the agency wanted it.

The plot now being considered runs between two creeks, and is quite rugged. Therefore, plans call for moving enormous amounts of earth to be usable for the intended purpose. The nature of the lot also means that there will be no room for expansion should the operator of the facility wish to do so in the future.

It also means that there will likely be no retail component of the facility. Garigliano said, “You absolutely can’t do retail here. Just drive in there. I can’t imagine the public coming in and out of there.

The planners envision when the plant is up and running, the facility will employ three workers, though that might expand, depending on the number of animals being processed, which, as Garigliano sees it, would be mostly beef cattle, but could also include other animals such as sheep and goats.

There is a small matter of money to be settled before the facility becomes a done deal. So far, the IDA has rounded up grants and commitments totaling $1 million, which includes $150,000 from the county and $150,000 from the IDA, as well as state and federal grants. But there is a final grant application of $800,000 to the U.S. Department of Commerce that has not yet been approved that is necessary to make the plan a reality. Once that happens, the IDA will seek an operator to run the facility.

Garigliano urged farmers to contact Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand or Congressman Maurice Hunchey for help in getting that accomplished.