Chamber Helping Prepare For Plant Closure

The Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce is working to help Perdue, its employees, and the region to prepare for the Monterey plant closure.

President and CEO Amy New said the chamber has put together a task force with the state to help manage the process. New said the task force plans to help Perdue employees with resume building, housing, and mental healthcare. New said the chamber is also planning a job fair so those employees can find new positions throughout the local area.

“There are many jobs in the region available for those employees,” New said. “We’ve got employers like US Foods who just did an expansion in Algood who will be hiring up to forty new employees. We’ve got Portobello over in Baxter that is hiring right now, trying to get up to a little over two hundred jobs.”

New said the chamber is working with its attorney to determine how to handle the Perdue facility going forward as the site is very attractive to other companies. New said the next step is to make sure that Perdue is willing to sell the property.

“Right now we’re not pushing them too much because we want to make sure that they’re taking care of the employees that they’ll be laying off,” New said.

New said the chamber has received inquiries from people all over the southeastern United States who are interested in the site. New said she wants to make sure that whoever may end up with the facility will be help Monterey and the regional community thrive.

“We don’t want to just throw anyone into that building,” New said. “So there is a long list of things that we need to do prior to even marketing that site.”

New said part of the chamber’s goal is to be respectful and helpful of Perdue as it has been a long-standing, valued member of the community for nearly fifty years. New said the task force is making sure that Perdue has the space it needs to be able to inform its employees about what severance and benefits they will receive.

New said she will have a call with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development in the next couple days to discuss next steps from here.