During the September 21st Monmouth City Council meeting, two representatives from Smithfield were in attendance to discuss recent events. According to Ken Helms, Monmouth’s Operation Director, condolences were offered for the family of the worker who passed away:
“They are supporting the family as much as they can during this. They are also working on the odor situation. After they had some malfunctions that occurred out at the plant, they ended up with a surplus of some of the processed material and that was sitting outside as it was waiting to be trucked out. That is one of the things that kind of generated some of the odor. They have now trucked all that off. We really appreciate them coming in, setting the record straight, and giving us quite a bit of information,” shares Helms.
Mayor Rod Davies adds that the Smithfield employees did not walk off the job, but were excused by management and paid for the day:
“There was some talk that employees walked off the job and they wanted to clarify that was not the case. Management explained that those that wanted to work could certainly stay and work and those that needed to go and grieve and take care of the family or themselves, were excused without any penalty. I believe he said they were paid for that day,” Davies informs.
Additionally, City Administrator Lou Leone states the Smithfield representatives informed engineering teams have been onsite and they are participating in the investigation by OSHA:
“They also did mention that they brought in a couple of engineering teams to go through their system and fix up various things so that they can minimize these kinds of things moving forward, which was nice to hear from them. The incident that happened, a week ago Monday, they were actually on a delayed schedule. They are participating in the OSHA investigation. That is part of the reason why they could not comment that much more as far as they actual incident,” says Leone.
For any additional questions or comments, residents are encouraged to contact City Administration at the Monmouth City Hall by calling 309-734-2141.
To hear from the Smithfield representatives in attendance at the September 21st Monmouth City Council meeting, click HERE.
