Ramen factory in Belle Fourche is the latest South Dakota boondoggle

Nothing happens in South Dakota without federal money. 

In 2015 the City of Belle Fourche applied for and received federal money to build an industrial park beside track owned by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad even though former Belle Fourche mayor Todd Keller scoffed at the boondoggle. 

Before it was ousted the Trump Organization's Department of Transportation headed by the wife of Republican former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell awarded more than $5.6 million in grants to upgrade infrastructure and enhance rail safety in the red moocher state that is South Dakota including $2.24 million for the RCPE mainline. 

The move comes after catastrophic plunges in commodities prices, numerous wrecks and water breaches on track owned by RCPE, a subsidiary of Genesee and Wyoming operating just north of the former Milwaukee line on a nearly parallel trackbed. RCPE wants $84 million of the nearly $1 billion South Dakota is getting from the feds despite nobody in the state's Republican congressional delegation voting for it.

Now, a California capitalist wants to bleed the little South Dakota town of some of its municipal water and a wad of DC supplied cash.

"I think we'll be one of the larger, if not the largest ramen producing facilities in the country," said Bill Saller, CEO of Albany Farms. "Anything that we possibly can source locally, we will." The complex would include a flour mill, production factories, and packaging areas that would produce more than 100 million packages of ramen each year, Saller said. It would eventually employ up to 900 workers earning what Saller described as "living wages." "We're not just looking at huge production," he said. "We want to lead the way as much as possible and be forward thinking as much as possible from an environmental perspective." [Bill Jankow's idea of public radio]

Yeah, no.

Kentucky, Idaho, South Dakota and Iowa reported the highest increases in the rates of workers who quit their jobs in August, according to a new glimpse of quit rates in the labor market released Friday. [Washington Post]

Anyone who believes there are 50 potential employees, let alone 900 within a hundred miles of Belle Fourche is delusional. Imagine driving from Rapid City or Gillette and back for work in a fucking ramen factory every day for $15 an hour especially during South Dakota's eight month winters! 

ip photo: Deer's Ears punctuate the Butte County high plains just north of Belle Fourche.

Learn more about rail operators' dependence on the federal government at KELO teevee.