Meat processing facility opens at Belltower

Twenty-two miles south of Ekalaka, just off of Highway 323 next to Belltower Hall, sits a brand new state-of-the-art meat processing facility. Some sixteen months ago owners Ty and Sarina O'Connor started the planning process to build it. On Monday, they will be ready to start doing custom processing.

The facility is actually made up of an ecosystem of several interlocking modules, made by a company named Friesla, that came from Washington. The entire USDA-approved system includes modules for harvesting, chilling, aging, cutting, wrapping, freezing and storing meat.

O'Connors admitted that it...