The city of Artesia, N.M., could get more than it
asked for when NUCHIK Inc. builds one of the biggest chicken
processing plants in the West in the year 2000. The plant will
slaughter 1.25 million chickens a week and create 900 new jobs in
the town of 12,000.
NUCHIK supporters hope the
chicken plant and its $7.50-an-hour starting wages will end rising
unemployment and keep young people from moving away. “We need to
diversify,” says Artesia councilman Raul
Rodriguez.
But the ensuing population growth
could transform this sleepy oil town on the plains of southeast New
Mexico. Some say NUCHIK will bring transients, Mexican immigrants
and crime. As many as 900 new students could crowd the schools. And
the city will have to spring for additional sewage treatment,
medical facilities and police protection to accommodate the new
workers.
“I worry about whether the jobs will be
good ones people can enjoy working at,” says Royce Pearson, the
only city councilman to vote against offering the corporation a
$210 million bond.
The Albuquerque Journal
reports that company officials are new to the chicken business and
that some have a history of failed business
ventures.
Residents in favor of NUCHIK call it
the city’s best hope of finding new industry, but if the plant
fails, Pearson says, NUCHIK’s tax breaks could leave the city
holding a big bill.
* Taffeta
Elliott
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Ordering chicken for a whole town.
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