LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. —Perdue announced it's closing its Lebanon County plant and it’s not renewing the lease on its Lancaster County distribution center.
“It’s like Chicken USA here,” said Deb Heberling, who runs Gubba’s Pizza Shop.
Fredericksburg, Lebanon County, even has a festival celebrating the bird. It’s home to three chicken-processing plants, but Perdue just announced its closing BC Natural Chicken, cutting about 600 workers.
“I guess the rumors were true,” said Heberling.
Heberling delivers pizzas to the plant every Friday. She said, “It’s going to hurt a lot of people around here. Some of the workers have worked there 20 years or more.”
BC Natural Chicken has been there since 1948. It’s changed hands a number of times, with Perdue buying it in 2011.
A company official explained the closing in a statement: “When we looked at our long term needs, it became clear that BC plant would require significant and costly upgrades, even then we would not overcome the age and physical condition of the facility.”
“The loss of jobs and people being affected is going to hurt,” said Bev Martel, Bethel Township supervisor.
Martel said the township gets about $1,200 a year in property taxes from the plant, but she’s worried about what’s going to happen to the building.
“I’m concerned we have a dinosaur sitting here and what’s going to happen to it,” said Martel.
A large wind turbine has collapsed in Fayette County, but no injuries were reported.
NextEra Energy Resources said crews went to the site in Springfield Township late Wednesday and discovered the wreckage.
“I heard a loud bang, like a gunshot,” Ron Sollosi said.
Laura Steyer said she rushed outside after she heard what sounded like thunder.
“Whenever we came out, we noticed this big mound up there. Then we noticed one of the windmills was missing,” Steyer said.
According to the company, the Mill Run Wind farm consisted of 10 1.5-megawatt turbines. The distance from the ground to the hub in the center of the blades is about 210 feet. The wind farm began operation in 2001.
“Last night our technicians discovered a wind turbine had failed and fallen over. No one was hurt,” said Steve Stengel, the director of communication for NextEra Energy Resources. “Cause of the failure is currently under investigation.”
The company said the other nine turbines are currently offline and the cause of the accident is being investigated.
You may think that the high cost of living in New York or California would mean that those states are the most generous when it comes to calculating unemployment insurance.
You’d be wrong.
Matt Vasilogambros at the National Journal has crunched the numbers provided by the Department of Labor to show which states use the highest and lowest percentage of income to calculate unemployment benefits.
Vasilogambros points out that Rhode Island’s jobless rate, 9%, ties for the highest in the country. Hmmm.
Nevada is the other state at 9%; the national unemployment rate is officially 6.7%.
What’s interesting is that Pennsylvania is so generous even though the cost of living, especially in our region, is so low.
• 90% more for housing, 20% more for groceries and 35% more for heath care if we lived in Anchorage, whose state has the least generous benefits.
• 70% more for housing, 7% more for groceries, but 4% less for health care if we lived in Chicago. Illinois is the second stingiest.
His chart, as he notes, does not look at the average weekly benefit or the maximum benefit by state. If you use those numbers, Massachusetts looks the most bountiful, with an average benefit of $490 per week, and a max of $674. Pennsylvania has an average of $357 and a max of $573.
Here’s how much money the states are handing out in unemployment insurance:
The chart comes from a report by the Obama administration as it attempts to make the case to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed.
