To the Editor:

First, thank you to the Plainsman for publicizing the meeting with the hearing examiner. We attended that meeting and had some good conversations with High Plains Beef people.

Although they seem like genuinely good people, we are left with questions and concerns.

Increased traffic — Custer Avenue is a terrible two-lane, no-shoulder road. The intersection of Highway 14 and Custer Avenue, where semis and workers will be turning, has a speed limit of 55 mph and one short turning lane.. The proposed plant entrance on Custer is even worse: 55 mph, with no turning lane at all. Custer Avenue was not part of HPB’s traffic study, and although according to HPB there are plans to redo Custer, if there are, the public hasn’t been informed of them.

Bad precedent - HPB said their preferred location is the original west-side location. They said it works better and the infrastructure is already in place. In addition, the move to the east side is going to cost them $24 million more.
High Plains Beef said on the record that the only reason they pulled the permit from their preferred west-side location — the best location, “the $24 million less” location — and applied for the east side, was because the people on the west side were opposed.

People on the east side are also opposed.

If High Plains Beef wants to be an attractive choice for potential investors, they shouldn’t waste $24 million trying to appease the side of town that complained the loudest.

Please, go back to the hearing examiner.

Re-apply for the west-side permit — the original choice, the cheaper choice, the smarter choice — and build your facility where you and GHDC intended it to be all along.

Jason and Sarah Rubish
Huron