By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

PEKIN, Ill. — The axe fell last week on the possibility of a Swift & Co. pork processing plant locating in the Illinois River town of Pekin (Tazewell County), when Mayor Rusty Dunn issued a statement saying the city is no longer in discussions with Swift.

Several factors led to Pekin rejecting the plant, said Dunn, even though Swift & Co. officials never confirmed they were eyeing the town for a processing facility.

“As of today, we’re no longer pursuing this prospect, or looking to perform any additional due diligence as a possible location for this company to build a new plant in Pekin,” Dunn stated on Nov. 16.
“For the record, no final decisions were ever made with this prospect, no agreements signed. Any and all discussions with this company were preliminary negotiations only and as such were kept confidential for sound, legal and proper reasons.”

Dunn’s statement seemed to lay some of the blame for the decision on a tipster to the Peoria Journal Star newspaper, which broke the news of the potential plant weeks ago.

“There is concern about what impact the early and unauthorized release of information to a newspaper by someone associated with the discussions will have on Pekin’s future efforts to land new business here,” the statement read, in part.

“Despite these concerns, the future is bright for our community and we have a variety of economic tools at our disposal to continue to try and land new businesses in Pekin, especially those that would create new jobs and have a positive economic benefit for our area.”
Dunn cited other opportunities, time constraints and mixed community response as reasons for the town breaking off talks with Swift, the Peoria Journal Star reported. The plant might have brought up to 2,500 factory-level, union jobs to the area, according to previous media reports.