Rantoul Mayor Welcomes Efforts to Reopen Shuttered Pork Plant

The mayor of Rantoul hopes that plans to reopen a shuttered pork processing plant on the west side of town come to fruition.

Mayor Neal Williams says the reopening of the 6-year-old Meadowbrook Farms plant on the west end of Rantoul would be a welcome boost. The plant had employed more than 600 people at its height. Williams says when it closed early last year, Rantoul lost the positive ripple effect that work force had sent through the local economy.

"When the plant closed, obviously all those people were no longer here", says Williams. "And it created something of a void. There was no employment for 600 people, and those 600 people weren't buying goods and products in Rantoul."

Trim-Rite Food Corporation, which runs a pork facility in Carpentersville, has made an offer for the Rantoul plant to Stearns Bank, which took it over when Meadowbrook Farms went bankrupt. Construction Manager Kurt Irelan says their plans for Rantoul include both pork processing and hog slaughtering operations. He says the Meadowbrook Farms plant is the best site they've considered, after dropping plans for sites in Rockford and Freeport, and the old Cavel horse slaughtering plant in DeKalb.