Meat plant request heard

The Lower Towamensing Township Zoning Hearing Board reconvened Tuesday evening to consider a variance for a meat processing company to be located on Hahns Dairy Road.

The request was made by Lehigh Valley Meat LLC, which is currently located near Wind Gap.

The owners of the meat processing company want to relocate their business to Carbon County because it is where they live, but the land located on Hahn’s Dairy Road is zoned rural conservation.

Just like the first meeting, the public filled the township’s municipal building and many of them stood at the beginning to be sworn in when asked if they planned to speak at the meeting.

Steward Herfurth Jr., the owner of Lehigh Valley Meat LLC, told the board his company is currently located in a leased building on Sullivan Trail in Plainfield Township. The 1-acre property is located in a residential area.

He would like to purchase 10 acres of land from Troy Johnson, who owns about 30 head of cattle, on Hahns Dairy Road and relocate his meat processing business there.

Refrigerated storage

Herfurth said he would construct a steel building between 5,000 to 10,000 square feet, but is basing his initial drawings on a 6,000-square-foot facility which would be 25 to 30 feet tall.

The building would include designated refrigerated areas to store meat and byproducts for disposal, three indoor pens to hold animals overnight for processing in the morning, harvesting area, a meat processing area and office.

The processing plant is USDA-regulated and follows the strict regulations that are required for such a facility.

Herfurth said he has an inspector on site every day he is open, which is 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and occasionally on Saturday if specifically requested by a customer.

He said, “There are stringent rules of how things have to be kept.” He has six full-time employees and would expand to 12 employees in the new location.

“We’re here to help the small farmers,” Herfurth said. “There is a lack of USDA regulated processing plants.”

The lack of USDA processing plants hinders the growth of the farmers, because they have to wait until an opening comes up at a plant to process their animals, he said. Aside from his location, the closest processing plant is in Quakertown and Mount Joy, New Jersey. These locations are already booked through this year, and Herfurth is booked through October.

“It’s part of the farm-to-fork movement. People want to buy from the farm,” Herfurth said about why plants are so busy

Processing cows and pigs

Herfurth said farmers bring their cows and pigs to his facility to have them processed, which includes harvest, processing and packaging the meat. The farmer picks up the meat and sells it to restaurants, grocery stores and their own farm-based stores. Farmers have also seen a demand for more jerky and meat sticks, so Herfurth would like to expand his ready-to-eat business to provide more products to the farmers.

“People are after salty treats,” Herfurth said.

In addition to processing farm animals, they would also offer deer processing, but at a separate time from beef and pork.

The zoning hearing board asked Herfurth many questions which included the number of trailers bringing in animals, the size of the trailers, hours of operation, the length of time animals are in pens, the number of animals in a pen, disposal of manure and other byproducts, and if the business has a retail side to the general public.

Herfurth said the animals are brought in on trailers, but not the large commercial trailers. His business is considered small in the industry and he wants to keep it at that size to service the small farmer.

A couple animals can be kept in one pen, but they are only held overnight. The USDA regulation does not allow them to hold the animal for more than 24 hours. Most animals are only held for a few hours, he said. For that reason, manure is minimal and hauled out daily to local farmers.

Byproducts such as hides, bones and blood are kept refrigerated. Blood and hides can be sold, so they are not disposed of, and the bones and scraps are collected once a week by MOPAC.

Odor control

A cleaning crew comes in every day and cleans the area with soap and water. No stringent chemicals, just soap that can be bought in the store, Herfurth said

James Nanovic, solicitor for the township’s Board of Supervisors, also asked Herfurth some questions, which included any expansion plans, other areas they considered, their consideration of the zoning ordinances and the basis for a hardship that would make a variance necessary.

Herfurth said they chose to relocate to Carbon County, because they live there.

They considered other locations, but didn’t find anything suitable that was for sale. As far as hardship, Herfurth wasn’t familiar with the term from a legal sense and didn’t know how to answer the question.

Then members of the public had their turn at questioning Herfurth. They expressed concern about property values, odors from the processing plant, the decibel level of the refrigeration compressors, the company that delivers supplies, disposal of byproducts, water usage and plans for the building if they go out of business.

As far as odor, Herfurth said it’s the same as if you take a frozen steak and put it in the garbage. It doesn’t smell.

“We make it a point to be good neighbors,” Herfurth said.

He couldn’t address property values, decibel levels or water usage or plans for the building if they leave. He did say it is his and his wife’s intention to have their sons take over the business someday.

In the end after two hours of questions and testimony, four property owners near the land told the board they didn’t support the variance. The board said it had to go into executive session and would make a ruling within 45 days.

“I just have to ask to see how it will dovetail with our community,” Chairman James Ord said.

The decision will be released at a public meeting.