Kelso To Get Chicken Processing Plant

Foster Farms of Livingston, Calif., will build a 500-employee chicken-processing plant in this southwestern Washington city.

Construction is expected to begin next year, with the plant scheduled to open in May 1998.

“This is going to give people in Cowlitz County an opportunity to get off welfare rolls and get a job,” Mayor Keith Lawrence said.

The announcement was made Wednesday.

The $45 million plant will boost employment and the local tax base, Lawrence said.

Foster Farms operates three California poultry plants, plus a Fircrest Farms plant outside Eugene, Ore., and a Lynden Farms plant in Portland.

As the Kelso facility starts up, the Lynden Farms plant will be phased out, company officials said.