The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association’s “Iowa Quality Beef Supply Network” may soon have the idle meatpacking plant in Tama back in business. The “Iowa Quality Beef Supply Network” will lease the plant for 153-thousand dollars in a deal approved by a bankruptcy judge. A portion of that will pay the outstanding wages of former plant employees; the rest will be an annual lease payment to the City of Tama, which now owns the plant. The judge rejected a bid from kosher meatpacker AgriProcessors of Postville which bid 23-thousand dollars less. Tama’s Mayor isn’t sure when the plant will re-open, and expects city officials to meet with the Iowa Quality Beef Supply Network soon to hammer out details of the lease. The plant closed August 13th when former manager Rich Stewart announced he couldn’t pay the lease and many of his bills.
