Sparboe Foods saw plans for a new egg-laying plant blocked by public and government opposition in the Clear Lake area. But this week the company announced it’ll expand instead, at a facility it already operates in Wright County near Eagle Grove. Garth Sparboe says local officials have welcomed the 45-million-dollar expansion plan.The plant will hold two-and-a-half million laying hens in a facility that will sell the eggs to Mason City’s Cargill Sunny-Fresh egg plant. Sparboe says managers met this week with officials and residents in Eagle Grove. He says they gave citizens information about the plant and how Sparboe’s managers will run it. Sparboe human resources director John Mueller says the new expansion will mean full-time jobs for 50 to 60 people. He says they’ll draw from Eagle Grove, Fort Dodge, Humboldt and Clarion, and he doesn’t anticipate any trouble hiring enough people. The plant will sit on five acres about five miles southwest of Eagle Grove. Sparboe says several Iowa contractors will be hired to do the building, which should take two years, starting early next year. Managers say the new expansion will pay property taxes of 120-thousand dollars a year, with Wright County schools getting about half of that. Critics vow to fight the proposed facility and say they were kept out of this week’s meeting in Eagle Grove.
