By Dave Stafford
The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. —
A city plan to sell less than 0.6 acres of Shadyside Park to Prairie Farms faces a delay that could jeopardize the expansion of the plant intended to preserve the approximately 160 jobs at the dairy.
City and Prairie Farms officials will meet Friday to discuss the future of the proposed project. Anderson Director of Municipal Development Michael Widing said Wednesday that federal officials have indicated that a change in the process for transferring the property could result in a delay of six to nine months.
“They’re on a time line. ... Time is of the essence here,” Mayor Kris Ockomon said Wednesday. “We want them to grow here and not in another city.”
Prairie Farms plant manager Harry Carter on Wednesday said he had been apprised of a possible delay. He said that could cause the cooperative dairy’s management to reconsider whether Anderson will be the location for an expansion and could put local jobs in jeopardy.
He singled out former Judge Fredrick Spencer for criticism, saying Spencer’s outspoken objection to the deal “appears to me to be just an ego trip.” In an interview Wednesday, Carter called Spencer a disgraced judge who resigned under pressure. “He apparently is the most overturned of any judge in the state of Indiana.
“His career, at least in terms of recent years from what I have read ... indicates he has some poor judgment,” Carter said. “I don’t think he’s exercising very sound judgment and I think if you ask anybody down there (working in the dairy), they’ll tell you the same thing.”
Carter said union plant workers at Prairie Farms earn an average of more than $73,000 annually in wages and benefits and would be unable to find comparable work if the dairy were forced to relocate or alter its local operations.
Carter said Spencer’s continued criticism of the proposal to sell a portion of the Shadyside sled hill for Prairie Farms expansion “is sort of like a child with a tantrum.
“He didn’t get his way, now he’s going to put stumbling blocks going forward and to hell with the employees,” Carter said of Spencer.
Spencer has opposed the deal because he said it disrespects veterans to whom the park was dedicated, and that officials did not follow proper legal procedures in attempting to sell the property.
“He can say what he wants to say,” Spencer said Wednesday of Carter’s comments. “My focus is on the government doing things in a correct manner. It appears to me it’s Mr. Carter who’s having the tantrum.”
Spencer has contacted state and federal officials who would have authority over a transfer of park property because Shadyside has been the recipient of federal and state grants in the past. Those grants require that if park property is lost, it must be replaced by land elsewhere that is converted to park property.
Widing said the latest wrinkle is that federal officials indicate the new park property to replace that lost in Shadyside must be acquired before the Shadyside property could be transferred. Previously, officials believed based on contact with state officials that obtaining the replacement park land could take place after the Shadyside land was transferred.
“Apparently the federal government thinks I’m right,” Spencer said. “Everything I’ve said has turned out to be true. ... The people in the park department should have known about it.”
Spencer was asked about the possibility of putting local jobs in jeopardy.
“Sure, it’s a legitimate concern,” he said. “I said the first night (that he raised objections at a public meeting) that I was for economic development, I’m not opposed to economic development. My focus is on doing it right and not defiling and besmirching the memory of veterans.”
Asked if he would oppose the sale if the proper processes had been followed, Spencer declined to answer. Instead, he said, “If the property is going to be sold, I want it to be done in a correct manner.”
Bids on the Shadyside land are expected to be opened at the next regular meeting of the Anderson Board of Parks and Recreation, Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 4:15 p.m. in council chambers of the city building.
Prairie Farms and the city have been working on a deal to allow the dairy to expand its refrigeration capacity, and Carter has said the only economically viable way to do so is by gaining property on the north side of the dairy in Shadyside Park, where finished products arrive for refrigeration before shipment to stores.
Carter said the parent cooperative that runs the dairy has been impressed with the Anderson plant’s performance and chose to expand here because of the quality of work force and the local plant’s productivity. But he said he’s concerned that could change if the process is dragged out.
The delay, he said, “obviously impacts us. ... We are already trucking product at great expense to Indianapolis” into rented refrigerated storage space. “Obviously that has a financial impact ... those get rolled into business decisions.”
Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com.
