Some farmers happy to sell; others say land is irreplaceable
`Gorilla' spawns `anti-Gorilla' movement
By Michele Linck Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, May 06, 2007
ELK POINT, S.D. -- It was a difficult decision for Ron and Maxine Bird.
In the end they decided to sell options on 700 acres of their land to -- well, they're not quite sure who, except that it is a company they believe is putting together about 12,000 acres for what Gov. Mike Rounds characterizes as a "large manufacturing facility."
The sale was arranged through three Realtors, two from Canton and one from Flandreau, S.D., Ron Bird said. The only thing he agreed not to discuss is the price. The options expire Aug. 31, but are renewable for three one-year terms.
Most of the acreage has been in Maxine Albin Bird's family since 1868. "But they made us such a good offer it was hard for us to refuse it," Bird said. He and Maxine are about to retire. Their son Reid, 47, is a fifth-generation farmer and the only one of their three sons to farm. They'll find some land for him elsewhere.
"(The Realtors) are also telling me they're not going to use all of this land for the footprint," Bird said. " They tell me they want a lot of buffer. They'll use maybe 2,000 acres, then the farmers who are farming it today can continue." And, he said, they told him they believe there is plenty of water in the aquifer below the land.
"What their plan is, I don't know," Bird said.
He said the Realtors also told him it will employ at least 2,000 people and would take 10,000 people three years to build. "That almost seems unreal to me." Whatever it is Bird said he knows for a fact they have signed many more properties than just the eight registered at the courthouse.
Craig and Marie Eidem said they were among the first to sell options, on 240 acres. It wasn't hard, Marie Eidem said. It helped that they don't live on that land. John and Barb Bernard said they also optioned land, 160 acres.
"Nobody has approached me," Norrell Quam, 83, said. "Maybe they don't want me." His land is a mile south and a bit east of the Eidems', perhaps indicating the project's eastern boundary.
Union County Register of Deeds Jana Foltz said this week that the agents recently began contacting people with small acreages.
Doesn't care
Burdette Hanson, 84, has grown up on the land just a mile south of Quam. He doesn't know what the project is, and he doesn't care.
"I'm 100 percent against it," he said Friday. "I don't want all those people moving in, tearing up our roads, raising my taxes ... more crime. This is my home." He said the money for options holds no appeal. It's about the land. His sons farm it and he still works it, too.
"I don't want this thing tearing out our land, tearing out our trees," he said. "If the thing went broke, what would they do with all (the buildings)? It should be next to a town where they can still salvage some of the buildings," he said, citing the case of Gateway Inc. in nearby North Sioux City. After the operation there shrank 80 percent, other companies gradually filled the vacant buildings.
Hanson said Spink and Brule townships, where the targeted land lies, is the richest cropland in the state. "They've got plenty of places with poor land that maybe would like something like this."
Two-term county commissioner Dale Harkness is among those organized recently as Citizens for Union County Committee to actively oppose the project. He said 20 people had joined by Friday, mostly via its Web site, saveunioncounty.com.
The group is urging everyone who hasn't already signed options to "resist and reject any and all offers." Like Hanson, the committee is concerned for the farmland, but also cites "this major change to the way of life."
"If you ruin a good place to live, how do you replace it? You don't," Harkness said. "I just don't think jobs are worth quality of life or destroying good farmland."
He called on officials to answer questions. The committee is advocating the project be relocated. Harkness said there is plenty of less desirable ranchland available in South Dakota and retiring ranchers who would sell.
In addition, Harkness questioned where the "2,500" workers would come from and what would happen if, like Gateway Inc., in North Sioux City, the company's presence shrank 80 percent in the future.
Some people just want certainty. Reid Jensen, who stopped out in the field to adjust the planter Wednesday, said he and his stepson are trying to get a feedlot permitted on some land that may fall within the project. But they're are skittish about investing in manure management and other infrastructure.
"We're hoping if they buy this land we'll have an opportunity to rent," he said.
'...it offers hope'
"There's nothing wrong with it if it's a good clean industry," Bird said.
"I think people here are putting trust in the governor; The people in Elk Point who know abut it I think are very reputable. I think they would send a red flag up if it wasn't something suitable for the area."
Gateway and Tyson, two other big corporations, didn't ruin southern Union County, he notes. Bird said he thinks the governor sees such projects as the trade-off for having no corporate or personal income taxes.
"I think young people are gonna be for it because it offers hope," he said. "It offers change. That's what makes this country the way it is, is change."
Despite what anyone thinks of the project or confidential methods, the company will eventually have to negotiate local rezoning and building permits, and various state and federal permitting processes. If the project continues to proceed, those processes will allow for public input. Yea and nay.
Oh, Gorilla, wherefore art thou?
A rose by any other name....no one appears to know just where the "Gorilla" moniker came from for the still-unidentified project buying up land options in southern Union County. A spokesman for Gov. Mike Rounds said it did not originate in that office. Here are a few thoughts....
* It could be the "500 pound gorilla," of the standard joke formula: it sleeps -- or develops a manufacturing facility -- wherever it wants.
* Residents, stressed out by months of wondering and unanswered questions, may have started calling it that because the issue felt like a 500 pound gorilla sitting on their chests.
* One woman said her mother, playing on the idea the Gorilla could be a Toyota plant, checked out a few Japanese words online to find that "Corolla," the name of a popular Toyota model, means "Gorilla" in Japanese
* Namesake of the giant concrete gorillas displayed along Interstate 29 near Elk Point.
* It's fun to have a code word for a secret project; why not Gorilla?
In the end they decided to sell options on 700 acres of their land to -- well, they're not quite sure who, except that it is a company they believe is putting together about 12,000 acres for what Gov. Mike Rounds characterizes as a "large manufacturing facility."
The sale was arranged through three Realtors, two from Canton and one from Flandreau, S.D., Ron Bird said. The only thing he agreed not to discuss is the price. The options expire Aug. 31, but are renewable for three one-year terms.
Most of the acreage has been in Maxine Albin Bird's family since 1868. "But they made us such a good offer it was hard for us to refuse it," Bird said. He and Maxine are about to retire. Their son Reid, 47, is a fifth-generation farmer and the only one of their three sons to farm. They'll find some land for him elsewhere.
"(The Realtors) are also telling me they're not going to use all of this land for the footprint," Bird said. " They tell me they want a lot of buffer. They'll use maybe 2,000 acres, then the farmers who are farming it today can continue." And, he said, they told him they believe there is plenty of water in the aquifer below the land.
"What their plan is, I don't know," Bird said.
He said the Realtors also told him it will employ at least 2,000 people and would take 10,000 people three years to build. "That almost seems unreal to me." Whatever it is Bird said he knows for a fact they have signed many more properties than just the eight registered at the courthouse.
Craig and Marie Eidem said they were among the first to sell options, on 240 acres. It wasn't hard, Marie Eidem said. It helped that they don't live on that land. John and Barb Bernard said they also optioned land, 160 acres.
"Nobody has approached me," Norrell Quam, 83, said. "Maybe they don't want me." His land is a mile south and a bit east of the Eidems', perhaps indicating the project's eastern boundary.
Union County Register of Deeds Jana Foltz said this week that the agents recently began contacting people with small acreages.
Doesn't care
Burdette Hanson, 84, has grown up on the land just a mile south of Quam. He doesn't know what the project is, and he doesn't care.
"I'm 100 percent against it," he said Friday. "I don't want all those people moving in, tearing up our roads, raising my taxes ... more crime. This is my home." He said the money for options holds no appeal. It's about the land. His sons farm it and he still works it, too.
"I don't want this thing tearing out our land, tearing out our trees," he said. "If the thing went broke, what would they do with all (the buildings)? It should be next to a town where they can still salvage some of the buildings," he said, citing the case of Gateway Inc. in nearby North Sioux City. After the operation there shrank 80 percent, other companies gradually filled the vacant buildings.
Hanson said Spink and Brule townships, where the targeted land lies, is the richest cropland in the state. "They've got plenty of places with poor land that maybe would like something like this."
Two-term county commissioner Dale Harkness is among those organized recently as Citizens for Union County Committee to actively oppose the project. He said 20 people had joined by Friday, mostly via its Web site, saveunioncounty.com.
The group is urging everyone who hasn't already signed options to "resist and reject any and all offers." Like Hanson, the committee is concerned for the farmland, but also cites "this major change to the way of life."
"If you ruin a good place to live, how do you replace it? You don't," Harkness said. "I just don't think jobs are worth quality of life or destroying good farmland."
He called on officials to answer questions. The committee is advocating the project be relocated. Harkness said there is plenty of less desirable ranchland available in South Dakota and retiring ranchers who would sell.
In addition, Harkness questioned where the "2,500" workers would come from and what would happen if, like Gateway Inc., in North Sioux City, the company's presence shrank 80 percent in the future.
Some people just want certainty. Reid Jensen, who stopped out in the field to adjust the planter Wednesday, said he and his stepson are trying to get a feedlot permitted on some land that may fall within the project. But they're are skittish about investing in manure management and other infrastructure.
"We're hoping if they buy this land we'll have an opportunity to rent," he said.
'...it offers hope'
"There's nothing wrong with it if it's a good clean industry," Bird said.
"I think people here are putting trust in the governor; The people in Elk Point who know abut it I think are very reputable. I think they would send a red flag up if it wasn't something suitable for the area."
Gateway and Tyson, two other big corporations, didn't ruin southern Union County, he notes. Bird said he thinks the governor sees such projects as the trade-off for having no corporate or personal income taxes.
"I think young people are gonna be for it because it offers hope," he said. "It offers change. That's what makes this country the way it is, is change."
Despite what anyone thinks of the project or confidential methods, the company will eventually have to negotiate local rezoning and building permits, and various state and federal permitting processes. If the project continues to proceed, those processes will allow for public input. Yea and nay.
Oh, Gorilla, wherefore art thou?
A rose by any other name....no one appears to know just where the "Gorilla" moniker came from for the still-unidentified project buying up land options in southern Union County. A spokesman for Gov. Mike Rounds said it did not originate in that office. Here are a few thoughts....
* It could be the "500 pound gorilla," of the standard joke formula: it sleeps -- or develops a manufacturing facility -- wherever it wants.
* Residents, stressed out by months of wondering and unanswered questions, may have started calling it that because the issue felt like a 500 pound gorilla sitting on their chests.
* One woman said her mother, playing on the idea the Gorilla could be a Toyota plant, checked out a few Japanese words online to find that "Corolla," the name of a popular Toyota model, means "Gorilla" in Japanese
* Namesake of the giant concrete gorillas displayed along Interstate 29 near Elk Point.
* It's fun to have a code word for a secret project; why not Gorilla?
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