Chattanooga Pulse

Written by Editor
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 18:03

Dear Editor,

There is no question that downtown has seen significant progress in the past twenty years and that growth is headed South, towards Main Street and further. As new neighborhoods are created, old ones redeveloped and [as] residents flock to the area, it is hard to overcome the thought of how much more could be done if the property at Broad and Main Street wasn’t such a discouragement.

The property that I’m talking about is Pilgrim Pride’s Chicken Processing Plant. I believe that the City, the citizens and perhaps even the plant itself have become stagnant with how, or if at all, to move forward on taking steps on improving the plant. Almost daily I drive by the plant and have to roll up my windows to hide from the smell and the feathers that are trying to fly into my car. Just the other day, I saw a convertible with out-of-state plates stop at the red light and all four passengers scrambled to hold their noses. Is this the way that we want visitors to our “green city” to be welcomed?

I’m not saying that we need to get rid of the plant. It provides jobs and a good tax base to the City. However, I think that Pilgrim Pride should be held accountable by the City, its citizens and should even have “pride” in themselves on taking steps to improve the air quality and the surrounding area. It is hard to believe that with current technology that there aren’t better ways to handle the air coming out of the plant or to enclose certain areas of the plant to help alleviate the feather and debris problem.

I’d like to see our Mayor and City Council investigate to see what steps can be taken to improve this situation.

- Adam Kinsey, Chattanooga, TN

Editor’ note: As our palatial offices are located across the street from the plant, we can regretfully attest to the stinky truth of Mr. Kinsey’s observations.