A large mid western based meat packing company may be looking to build in Preble. Besides Preble's excellent location and ready job market, one of the secondary reasons is Preble's water. Nitrates are used as a preservative in meat packing and using Preble's nitrate laden water is considered a major cost saving. Linda Dickerson Hartsock, Executive Director of the Cortland County BDC/IDA, refused to either confirm or deny any conversation with any company contemplating moving to Cortland County. This is a matter of policy until an official announcement is made. In questioning her about nitrates in the water being a positive factor, she did say that her job was to show the positive side of every issue and turning a negative into a positive was something she always strived towards.
A large meat packing plant would bring many jobs, but would create environmental concerns for the people of Preble.
I hope to have more information on this in the near future.
---> UPDATE!!!!!!!
April Fools Joke Hits it Big! Turns out to be TRUE!
Thu Apr 01, 6:42:23 PM
In case you haven't figured it out yet, the story about the meat packing plant coming to Preble (above) was an April Fool's joke. But I guess I did too good a job because many people, many very important people, were taken in by it. This has been one amazing day. I've gotten so many phone calls and emails about this that it reminds me of the old Flying J days. It started about 10:30 AM when I got a call from a woman who was very upset about the possibility of a meat packing plant coming to Preble and wanted to know more details than were in the story. As this woman was not one of my favorites I declined to tell her anything, citing the need to protect my sources. She further told me that she made several phone calls around the city and state and would find out on her own and get back to me. Then about 2 PM, I got a call from a state senators office, whom I will not name, who demanded that I tell them who my sources were. I refused, again asserting the need to protect my sources. The assistant to the senator told me that I was interfering with important government business and that I should be careful what I said on my site. I told him to shove it, or words to that effect and hung up. I was beginning to think there was really something to this Meat Packing Plant thing and I had just stumbled on it while making a joke. Man, what do I do now. I was starting to think I should just forget the joke part of it all and let everything die down. Then about 4 PM I got a call from Linda Hartsock's office. It seems that she was out of town today, a sheer coincidence, as I haven't talked to her in over a year. The comment about her in the April Fools story was fabricated as was everything else. In any case the person from Hartsock's office was upset because my releasing the story might interfere with their efforts to get this meat packing company to come to Cortland County. It seems that my joke was real and I didn't know it. I said in the joke it was Preble but apparently it is some other location in the county. And then there was the emails I received. Both the Cortland Standard AND the Syracuse Post Standard's reporters emailed me about the meat packing plant story. Apparently they have been following leads about it but didn't have enough to go to print. One hell of an amazing can of worms I've opened up with this joke. About 6 PM, just as I was sitting down to dinner I got the strangest call ever and it spooked me. It was from someone who inferred they were from a union and who apparently was very interested in having this meat packing plant deal go through. He said, in a gruff voice, I might add, that there were a lot of jobs, union jobs, at stake. Both for building the plant and for workers at the plant after it opened and I should consider "very carefully" what I said because it would be a "very bad thing for me" if the deal didn't go through because of something I said or did. I felt like I was in a Sopranos episode. You see things like this on TV and in the movies but it has a much different effect on you when it is you that gets that kind of call. Whew, what a hell of a day!
By this time you might be thinking that all this is one heck of a coincidence and perhaps you got my story about the meat packing plant coming to Preble as an April Fools joke but what do you think of me now? Am I clairvoyant or what? That I can make up a story about a meat packing plant and it turns out to be true!
In fact if you think that about me then I got you again because the above story is a complete fabrication on my part just like the meat packing story. Nothing I've written above has one fragment of truth in it, nothing, not one word. Not a thread of truth in any of it. It all came from my fertile mind and is a perfect example of what happens on a rainy day when I have nothing better to do. So it seems I've gotten you twice. April Fools!!!! Again!
Now my little double April Fool joke may not stack up with my all time favorite from Taco Bell. Do you remember some years ago when Taco Bell sent out a press release on April 1st saying that they had purchased the Liberty Bell and were going to rename it the "Taco Liberty Bell"! It was widely reported all over the country. It was the best April Fools joke ever and one I can only hope to aspire to. Maybe next year...
