Locker to remain in Flandreau

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The Flandreau Development Corporation held a second emergency meeting on Thursday, August 17, regarding the future of the Flandreau Meat Locker.

On August 8, a similar meeting was held to determine how the FDC could help the business stay in town. The business was lost to fire on June 29.

At that time, board members agreed that $25,000 was a fair price to charge for the land on the corner of Veterans St. and Broad Av., and eventually furthered that offer to give locker owner Tyler Kills-A-Hundred the land for free.

Following the August 8 meeting, Tyler had a meeting in Dell Rapids to see what options they could provide for the business.

The town, about 22 miles south of Flandreau, has a standard practice, six-year tax deferment plan in place for new businesses coming to town. Tyler would pay 0 percent of his taxes the first year, 25 percent the second, 50 the third, 75 the fourth and fifth years and the 100 percent of taxes the sixth year.

“I’ve never said ‘do this, or else’ or asked for things for free,” Tyler said at the meeting Thursday. “I never made it, ‘If Flandreau doesn’t do this for me, then I’m leaving.’ But in the timeframe we’ve had to think about this since the fire, we’ve had the opportunity to explore other places to develop this business.”

He said it just so happened that Dell Rapids seemed to be one of the best choices.

FDC President Carleen Wild said time is a big factor for the Kills-A-Hundreds and that a tax break for them would be significant.

“It weighs heavily on some of us I think because coming back into this, our very first year of being reopened this late in our season, that first year paying 0 percent [taxes] is pretty huge for us,” Tyler said.

The board voted to offer the same deal as Dell Rapids, to pay Tyler’s taxes in full the first year, 75 percent the second year, 50 percent the third year, 25 the fourth and fifth year, and 0 the sixth, out of FDC funds.

As of Monday, the Kills-A-Hundreds announced their plan to keep the Flandreau Meat Locker here.

Dan Sutton said the FDC has approximately $100,000 in uncommitted funds at this time, with the tax deferment committing around $40-$45,000.

He recommended putting the funds into a restricted account specifically for this purpose to make sure the money will be there.

The new meat locker facility would measure about 5,700 square feet on roughly a 120- by 170-foot or 22,000 square foot lot, figuring in space for trucks to drive around back and the possibility to expand down the road. This is approximately an $800,000 building.

 

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After several meetings and the ironing out of multiple details, the building on Veterans St. has been razed in preparation of construction of a new Flandreau Meat Locker building.

Claflin Excavating cleared the old Quonset building off the property owned by the FDC after the solar eclipse on Monday. Plans are to move quickly to attempt to get the new locker facility up and running as soon as possible.