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2% of Lincoln County Voters Stop East Dakota Beef from Building Slaughterhouse Near Worthing

Where’s the beef? Not near Worthing, at least not in the immediate future. According to unofficial results from yesterday’s Lincoln County referendum on a proposed slaughterhouse near the I-29/US 18 intersection, 69.3% of voters rejected the county’s rezoning of the land in question.

The unofficial vote tally was 382 for, 861 against. That’s only 1,243 ballots cast out of 42,154 registered Lincoln County voters, a pathetic turnout of 2.95%. So it only took 2.04% of Lincoln County voters to kill this plan

East Dakota Beef was playing a little coy before the vote, saying that even if the voters approved the rezoning, they were still only considering negotiating with the landowner to acquire the land and build the slaughterhouse. The company also indicated it would fit with Governor Kristi Noem’s small-meatpacker promotion program, which has included corporate welfare checks to her favored packers. But the rezoning nixed by voters, East Dakota Beef will likely have to seek another location for its project.

6 Comments

  1. Porter Lansing

    Perfect spot about a mile south of Kone’s Korner on Hwy. 81 between WadTown and MadTown. :)

  2. WillyNilly

    Be careful folks, East Dakota Beef may be coming to your town soon. They have learned a lot about how to work under the radar to get approvals before the general population is aware of what’s going on. Eventually they’ll find a spot (maybe next to you) where no one acted quick enough and they’ll be able to build. Remember that the commercial interests in the state are mesmerized by development, regardless of the consequences, and they’ll sell out their mothers for a piece of the action.

  3. Where would all the Hispanic workers live? It is close to the regional livestock place, so they could move to Lennox or Canton, one of those towns will hold their nose and take it.

  4. Jake

    Wave a potential $100 bill in front of the average SD politician and you come up with Thune, Rounds, Dusty, Noem and the like. Money, greed, power; love of all three!
    (or should one say lust after?)

  5. Richard Schriever

    Lincoln County is extremely NIMBYish.

  6. Richard, everyone is Nimby, its always the poor without political power who get the slaughterhouses of the world.

Comments are closed.