{"id":35979,"date":"2026-04-23T22:27:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=35979"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:27:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:27:28","slug":"beef-processing-facility-in-decatur-doing-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/beef-processing-facility-in-decatur-doing-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Beef processing facility in Decatur doing well"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Decatur business which was the subject of a lengthy \u2013 and, occasionally nasty \u2013 controversy some three years ago is rolling along quite successfully these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I-O Properties, an umbrella corporation under which The Country Butcher operates a beef processing facility in Industrial Park, has added many jobs at good wages, city council was told at its meeting Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plant manager and co-owner Riggs Florence was on hand, along with Adams County Economic Development Director Colton Bickel, to hear council review two 10-year tax abatements the firm was afforded by council in June of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"449\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riggs-and-Colton.jpg?resize=640%2C449&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35980\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riggs-and-Colton.jpg?w=920&amp;ssl=1 920w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riggs-and-Colton.jpg?resize=300%2C211&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riggs-and-Colton.jpg?resize=768%2C539&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Riggs Florence (left) &amp; Colton Bickel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Businesses in Indiana which receive tax abatements annually must file a CF-1 form, demonstrating how they have lived up to the pledges made in order to obtain the abatement(s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time it was awarded two abatements, I-O had 103 employees; today, according to Florence, it has 144 employees \u2013 and is figuring to get up to 200 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sales have doubled in that time, Florence said, and now annually top the $200 million mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Councilman Matt Dyer pointed out that the facility is paying a utility bill of approximately $2,500 a month \u2013 $300,000 a year \u2013 to the City of Decatur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The I-O abatements are on a sliding scale. I-O will pay no taxes the first year, then 90% of its tax bill the second year, 80% the third, etc., until the abatements will provide tax savings of only 10% the final year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The processing facility, which operates in the plant once occupied by Dean Foods, was the subject of considerable opposition when it first approached the city about opening the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As opposition mounted \u2013 including protesters carrying signs near city Hall \u2013 two city council meetings had to be moved out of City Hall to Riverside Center to accommodate large crowds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com The Decatur business which was the subject of a lengthy \u2013 and, occasionally nasty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-35979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riggs-and-Colton.jpg?fit=920%2C646&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35981,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35979\/revisions\/35981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}