Albany Farms started making ramen noodles in Belle Fourche last year. As of April, the noodle plant employed 105 people; they hope to grow to 900 workers.
But if Albany Farms does expand, it may have to let employees pitch tents out back of the warehouse. A note from Butte County Commissioner Frank Walton in the Commission minutes from July 18 indicates affordable housing in sight of Crow Peak has gone poof:
Walton—attended an Economic Development meeting and a Housing committee—there is a great need for housing. Walton Mentioned that governor houses are running ~$300,000 and are no longer affordable alternatives [Butte County Commission, minutes, 2023.07.18].
The Governor’s Houses are the cheap houses Governor Bill Janklow had inmates start building back in 1996 to fill the gap in affordable and livable houses in smaller towns like Belle Fourche to bolster their efforts to recruit workers and employers. The program website says those modest houses are supposed to cost $71,400 for the two-bedroom model and $85,400 for the three-bedroom model. But that doesn’t include the lot, foundation, utility hookup, flooring, and appliances. Realtor.com currently lists four available lots of less than one acre with Belle Fourche addresses: 0.19 acre for $37,000, 0.24 acre for $40,000, 0.3 acre for $42,500, 0.44 acre for $119,000.
If Governor’s Houses are indeed adding up to $300K, the Wells Fargo mortgage calculator tells me that’s at the edge of the financing they’d approve for a family making $74,080 a year, the most a family with kids can make and still qualify to purchase a Governor’s House. And Wells Fargo would still expect a $20K down payment.
Even if noodle-makers can outbid all the developers and out-of-state cash buyers for any of those few available Belle Fourche lots, they’ll still have to live in their vans for a while. South Dakota Housing says “[D]ue to the current production capacity, new house orders will not be ready for delivery for 3+ years. Houses already on order may also be delayed.”
$300K and a three-year wait, just for a little house in Belle Fourche? The Governor’s new housing director, Chas Olson, might want to look into that, if we want more noodle-makers to have roofs over their heads.
Every ag product, meats both wild and domestic not grown organically in the United States is contaminated with atrazine, neonicotinoids, glyphosate, dicamba, DDT, mercury, lead, cadmium, PFAS, E. coli, Imazalil plus other toxins and pathogens. Now, a California capitalist wants to bleed the little South Dakota town of some of its municipal water and a wad of DC supplied cash in a state where environmental protection isn’t even a thing?
This former Fourchian sees, in Cory’s post and Lar’s response, the sum of the American Dream. And that’s if you’re of Northern European extraction.
Housing boom in Aladdin, Wyoming. Soon high rises…until the realization that workers will need $75,000.00 a year to make the house payments. Hey, I know, NOem and the rest of the Biden haters, will have to ask Thune and Rounds to get them some subsidy money for housing. More prisoners that know what end of a hammer to nail a nail with. None of these things are real hard to do for South Dakota republicans, look around and you can see subsidy programs in abundance. By the boot straps…
Know why Ramen noodles are in such demand here? If you can honestly answer that then you will know that $75,000.00 a year for a noodle worker ain’t gonna happen. These noodles are not white table cloth cusine or even cousin.
The winter wheat crop looks terrible according to the farm pages and since Russia is disrupting exports how some California outfit believes Belle Fourche can draw 900 English-speaking workers from the area while still making a profit is quite a gamble. Maybe bankruptcy was the plan all along.
Ramen noodles are a staple with low income folks and others needing a lunch for under 50 cents. I knew a graduate student who lived on them for 2 years. I don’t know what needing 900 more workers to produce these noodles portends for the national economy but it can’t be good. The lack of
subsistence housing in the Black Hills area is legendary. Can’t recall many standing houses in Hulett or Aladdin the last time I went through on my way to the Bear Lodge.
I love ramen noodles and eat them often. Chicken, Beef and Soy are my favorites. Very filling and the broth is delicious.
Use moderation, Jerry. There’s enough sodium in the low end quality ramen broth to negatively affect your health. The noodles have around 875 mg of sodium, also. Consuming too much sodium causes increased risk of heart disease, stomach cancer, and stroke.
Well, with Travis Ismay stalking county commissioners and patrolling for illegal aliens it’s a wonder Belle Fourche can protect its own residents.
If the governor’s office is burying bad news and South Dakota media outlets are just catching up to it how do voters ever know what their state even stands for unless Mrs. Noem announces it from the wet t-shirt contest at the Chip?
Ramen is loaded with saturated fat, apparently not good for us with diabetes, but my doc says I need to increase salt intake, so…,.,.
Lar, do you remember when you and grudznick used to create distractions back in the day, just for the fun of it? The fellows on the blog here would love to hear your tales of how you cooked some of those up. I was so high from just wafting the side smoke of your demon weed I don’t think I can remember it all well enough.
Was that when you suffered your most extreme bout with cranial rectitus?
I’m not sure I’d characterize it as the MOST extreme, but it was a bad one. Real bad. You do remember well, old friend.
“cranial rectitus” spit take on that one Mr. Kurtz. Made my day
Good morning, Jerry. I thought I made that up but no.