United States-Northern Star to re build burnt out meat plant.

UNITED STATES-NORTH STAR TO RE-BUILD MEAT PLANT DESTROYED BY FIRE.

Owners and executives of North Star Foods in St. Charles, Minn., told city officials and employees Tuesday that they intend to rebuild, according to reports on the Winona Daily News newspaper’s Web site.

The company’s leadership called a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, barring the press. After the meeting, however, St. Charles Mayor Bill Spitzer indicated that the group was told of the company’s rebuilding plans.

Although North Star Foods employed only 250 at the meat processing facility, it was the biggest private employer in the town — and one of the largest in the county — before a fire last Friday destroyed the plant. The entire community was temporarily evacuated, due to the danger presented by the anhydrous ammonia the company maintained on-site.

City and state aid has been promised if the company does rebuild in St. Charles. Company executives said they will hold a press conference on Wednesday, April 22, on the subject of the company’s future.

Employee assistance

With no idea how long they’ll be out of work, North Star employees on Monday started to file for unemployment and other short-term, immediate assistance, according to the newspaper. If the employees are officially laid off from their jobs, then they likely would qualify for career counseling, job retraining and other job-hunting help.

In addition, Mayor Spitzer has signed an order declaring the city in a state of emergency, in hopes of qualifying for state or federal aid.

Finding the cause

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety indicates it will be weeks before the cause of the blaze at North Star Foods can be made public, according to the Winona newspaper.

Over the weekend, fallout from the fire caused a massive fish kill in the Whitewater River. Reportedly, runoff from the fire hoses, which was contaminated with anhydrous ammonia, pushed the local wastewater treatment plant beyond its capacity. The treatment plant then released about 500,000 gallons of the contaminated water into the river.

The incident killed fish and other water life along a two-mile stretch of the waterway. The regional Department of Natural Resources office indicated it was the largest fish kill in recent history, the Daily News reported.