A Minnesota company is closing a facility it’s operated in northern Iowa for 39 years and offering its 23 employees in Lake Mills transfers to a plant in a Minneapolis suburb.
The Lake Mills facility will close in October. It produces gourmet meals and other food for Lunds and Byerlys, which operates 28 stores in and around the Twin Cities. Lake Mills Mayor Bruce Helgeson met with representatives of the company before the public announcement. “They were very nice,” Helgeson said. “They did what they had to do, I suppose.”
Helgeson had hoped to convince the company to keep the plant in Lake Mills operating. “They didn’t tell us why, other than just a corporate decision. I just said: ‘Is there anything we could do to change your mind?’ And they said: ‘No.’ (I said): ‘Is there anything we did wrong?’ (They said): ‘No.’ No discussion,” Helgeson said, “so I don’t know how much more a mayor could have done.”
Employees were notified Monday and the food production facility will close October 9. Lake Mills is a town of about 2000 residents. It lost a major employer four years ago when the parent company of Larson Doors closed its plant in Lake Mills, laying off about 200 people.
(By A.J. Taylor, KIOW, Forest City)