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Judge bars deportations US judge bars deportations under Trump travel ban ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A federal judge issued an emergency order Saturday night temporarily barring the U.S. from deporting people from nations subject to President Donald Trump’s travel ban. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in New York issued the emergency order after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed a court petition on behalf of people from seven pre-
dominantly Muslim nations who were detained at airports across the country as the ban took effect. As the decision was announced, cheers broke out in crowds of demonstrators who had gathered at American airports and outside the Brooklyn courthouse where the ruling was issued. The order barred U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. It also covered anyone with an approved refugee application. It was unclear how quickly the order might affect people in detention. Under Trump’s order, it had ap-
peared that an untold number of foreign-born U.S. residents now traveling outside the U.S. could be stuck overseas for at least 90 days even though they held permanent residency “green cards” or other visas. However, an official with the Department of Homeland Security said Saturday night that no green-card holders from the seven countries cited in Trump’s order had been prevented from entering the U.S. Some foreign nationals who Please see JUDGE, Page A9
Read more: More on the
effects of the travel ban on page A5.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on extreme vetting during an event at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday.
SIMPLOT CLOSURE
‘Not the American way’ Idaho refugee advocates condemn executive order NATHAN BROWN
nbrown@magicvalley.com
executive orders signed by the president Wednesday. “Everybody who advocates for immigrants is extremely worried,” said Chris Christensen, an immigration lawyer with
BOISE — There will still be plenty to do at the Idaho Office for Refugees on Monday morning, helping people who already live here. What the office won’t be doing anytime soon is greeting new refugees at the airport and helping them start their new lives in America. “We will have our hands full making the best of a bad situation,” Idaho Office for Refugees Director Jan Reeves said. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a far-reaching executive order that ends all refugee resettlement for four months while changes are made to the screening process, bans all travel from seven Middle Eastern and African countries for 90 days and suspends any resettlement of Syrian refugees indefinitely. When the four-month moratorium is lifted, only 50,000 refugees will be allowed to resettle in the fiscal year running from Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017, as opposed to the 110,000 that former President Barack Obama would have allowed. And the order says to prioritize, as much as legally possible, “refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality.” In the case of people from the Middle East, this would mean prioritizing in the future Christians and other
Please see ORDERS, Page A10
Please see IDAHO, Page A10
VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
Maria Rivera of Burley prepares for the 4 p.m. start of a swing shift at J.R. Simplot Co.’s Heyburn potato-processing plant in November 2002. Preparing to be laid off as the plant shut down, the quality-assurance lab tech struggled to keep up with college classes as her work schedule changed. Simplot’s work load increased as its staff thinned, she said that fall. ‘Things have gotten really bad. They’re expecting a lot more out of us, and it’s really stressful.’
In 2002, when J.R Simplot Co. announced it would close its Heyburn potato-processing plant and put nearly 650 people out of work, many feared Mini-Cassia would dry up like Idaho’s mining ghost towns. But as the 15th anniversary of that day approaches, Mini-Cassia’s economy is thriving. And on the site where Simplot made french fries, workers now make cheese, provide drug counseling and wash semi trucks. How did Mini-Cassia accomplish its phoenix rise? See the story on E1.
Many see problems with Trump’s immigration orders ALEX RIGGINS
ariggins@magicvalley.com NATHAN BROWN
nbrown@magicvalley.com
TWIN FALLS — Could Magic Valley police soon be roaming local neighborhoods in search of illegal immigrants to deport? If
executive orders signed by President Donald Trump are carried out to their full extent, that could be the case. While much of the attention this week was focused on Trump’s executive orders halting refugee resettlement and ordering a bor-
der wall be built along the southern border with Mexico, immigrant-rights advocates are just as troubled by the orders calling on local and state law enforcement agencies “to perform the functions of immigration officers.” That wording was used in two
If you do one thing: Pickleball is available for all ages, levels and beginners from 1 to 4 p.m. at 302 Third Ave. S. in Twin Falls. Cost is $3. $3.00
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Times-News
THE BIG STORY
Sunday, January 29, 2017 | E1
Sunday, January 29, 2017 | magicvalley.com | SECTION E
TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
Robin Hutchinson takes a photo of her shift friends on break in the J.R. Simplot Co. lunchroom on her last night of work in October 2002, as the first round of permanent layoffs hit the Heyburn processing plant. Simplot provided cake and ice cream, disposable cameras and address books to employees on their last few days of work.
Getting over Simplot How Mini-Cassia healed in 15 years since Heyburn plant closure LAURIE WELCH
lwelch@magicvalley.com
HEYBURN — When J.R Simplot Co. announced in May 2002 it would close its Heyburn potato-processing plant and put nearly 650 people out of work, many feared Mini-Cassia would dry up like Idaho’s mining ghost towns. “People were really worried, and it absolutely was a tough time,” economist Jan Roeser said. But as the 15th anniversary of that day approaches, Mini-Cassia’s economy is thriving. Minidoka and Cassia county population, which dipped after the plant’s 2003 closure, began a slow ascent by 2007 and now has grown by more than 3,000 people. Since 2009, the area has added 3,344 jobs. Unemployment dropped to a low 3.1 percent last year. And on the same site where Simplot produced french fries, workers now make cheese, provide drug counseling and wash semi trucks. How did Mini-Cassia accomplish its phoenix rise? In short, the community embraced the costs of growth. Motivated by Simplot’s departure, Burley, Rupert and Heyburn voters approved bond issues to expand and upgrade wastewater systems. That allowed Brewster Cheese Co., Dot Foods, Fabri-Kal, High Desert Milk, Gossner Foods and other companies to come to Mini-Cassia, stabilizing and diversifying the economy. “The wastewater improvements sent a strong message that we don’t want to sit on our sorrows,” said Roeser, a regional economist with the Idaho Department of Labor. “We want to make changes.” And the changes worked.
A difficult time
“People were concerned about Simplot closing,” said Mark Mitton, Burley city administrator. “It’s hard for a community to absorb hundreds of lost jobs and put that many people back to work.” The 650 workers displaced in the Heyburn plant’s phased shutdown were offered severance bonuses for staying until the end and training programs to prepare for new careers. But some workers still struggled to find jobs with similar pay and benefits as they ate up retirement savings or lost their homes and cars. And the impact rippled through the community. “It was pretty traumatic,” Roeser said. The loss of a major employer hurts the tax base, the housing market, the suppliers of goods to the business and — as the newly unemployed have less money to
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LAURIE WELCH, TIMES-NEWS
OATS Family Center founder Sally Hall folds a quilt in the sewing room Jan. 18. Clients at the drug-treatment center make quilts as community service for people in need or for hospitals. The center leases space at the Burley-Heyburn Industrial Park, the old Simplot plant site. spend — a host of support businesses such as grocers, banks and movie theaters. Farmers who contracted with Simplot, John Remsberg said, scrambled to find other stable markets for their potatoes or undergo the process of switching crops. That meant investing in different equipment and selling off potato-harvesting equipment. Remsberg, a Rupert farmer who contracted his potato crop with Simplot from 1976 until it closed the Heyburn plant, said potatoes are expensive to grow. When prices are low, farmers “can lose their rear.” And banks that loan the money to grow potatoes prefer that farmers have contracts in place, stabilizing the market price. Coming off a few good years with some money in the bank, Remsberg, now 76, retired from farming after the Heyburn plant closed. At Remsberg’s post-retirement farm sale, the market’s glut of potato-harvesting equipment meant he got little more than the price of scrap iron for his. In 2006, Mini-Cassia took another hit. Kraft closed its Rupert plant, putting another 100 people out of work. The problem was compounded by the recession that hit at the end of the decade.
Burley-Heyburn Industrial Park tenants The old J.R. Simplot Co. property is now occupied by businesses employing a total of 264 people: Gossner Foods: Cheese production plant, Magic Valley Chalet retail store, Upper Crust restaurant; 52 employees. Anderson Farms: Farming operation; nine employees. Gem State Processing: Potato dehydration plant; 179 employees. TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
Cindy Gierisch and Louis Gonzalez, photographed in October 2002, had worked together at the J.R. Simplot Co. plant in Heyburn for more than 20 years and thought of each other as family. Gierisch wanted Gonzalez to find a good job after Simplot’s closure, so she helped him with GED homework during their lunchtime and breaks. The unemployed who were able or willing to move likely regained their footing more quickly and were more likely to match their former wages. But it’s common for Idahoans to be reluctant to relocate, Roeser said, making the recapture of wages more difficult.
Declo. Curtis and Mitton began discussions with Simplot shortly after the plant’s closure on a deal that would help the community get back on its feet. The deal: one empty processing plant. “Simplot called it the $22 million gift, and the reason they said that is they were able to write it The $22 million gift off on their taxes,” Mitton said. The late Burley Councilman The deal didn’t come without Denny Curtis knew J.R. Simplot, a businessman who grew up in Please see SIMPLOT, Page E4
Warp Racing: Motocross, kart and sprint boat racetracks (at old Simplot wastewater facility); two employees. Koyle Truck Wash: Truck wash facility; two employees. Moss Farms: Potato storage; no employees on site. Americold: Freezer storage for potatoes; 12 employees OATS Family Center: Drug treatment facility; six employees. GFP Global: Storage for rumen bypass fat for dairy cattle; two employees. Idaho Water Sports: Retail store storage; no employees on site. Sources: City of Burley, GFP Global.
MORE INSIDE: Jeannette Sawyers: ‘I was devastated,’ E2 | Floyd Thomas: ‘One of the lucky ones,’ E3 | Randy Dirickson: ‘I was ready to fall apart,’ E3
THE BIG STORY
E2 | Sunday, January 29, 2017
Times-News
Timeline of Simplot’s Heyburn potato plant 1960
October 2002
April 2004
J.R. Simplot Co.’s Heyburn potato-processing plant opens.
Simplot and Heyburn reach a settlement agreement on electric rates which requires the city to sell its electrical system.
Burley signs ownership papers for the plant, incurring $52,500 in costs. The plant is appraised at $22 million. The deal includes a lease for Simplot to continue using its freezer and distribution center.
December 2000 Simplot and the city of Heyburn prepare for a legal battle over electric rates and annexation of the plant into city limits.
October 2002 The first round of Simplot layoffs hits.
August 2001
October 2003
July 2004 Burley takes possession of the old Simplot plant property.
Simplot employees who fear the legal battle may lead to the plant’s closure lead an unsuccessful attempt to recall the mayor and City Council.
The Simplot plant is shuttered.
August 2004
March 2004
Burley signs a contract with The Boyer Co. to manage and develop its new industrial park there.
May 2002 Simplot announces a phased shutdown of the plant that will leave nearly 650 people without jobs. August 2002 A $4.9 million grant is awarded to help displaced Simplot workers retrain for new jobs.
Simplot gives the empty plant to the city of Burley. Heyburn mayor George Anderson, who took office after the city settled its lawsuit with Heyburn, remarks that Simplot’s decision to give the property to Burley may have been “payback” for the animosity between the company and Heyburn. Simplot maintains it was a business decision with many factors taken into consideration.
TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
2005
When J.R. Simplot Co.’s Heyburn french fry plant ceased production in October 2003, it brought difficult partings. Here, forklift driver Cindy Gossner Foods builds a new Swiss cheese plant and store at the indus- Gierisch, right, gets a hug from co-worker Eloise Hammond, center, after Gierisch gave Hammond and Donita Johnson gifts honoring their trial park. friendship during nearly 30 years of working together. 2011 Gem State Processing begins production in a new potato dehydration plant in the industrial park.
March 2013 Simplot announces the closure of the remaining freezer and distribution center, leaving another 56 people unemployed.
Jeannette Sawyers: ‘I was devastated’
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Phlebotomist Jeannette Sawyers, right, speaks with Isabella Peters on Dec. 13 at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center. TWIN FALLS — Losing the camaraderie of her co-workers — and the pride she took in a job that required years to work up to — was only a fraction of the cost Jeannette Sawyers paid when J.R. Simplot Co. closed its Heyburn plant. “I was devastated. I remember when they made the announcement to the minute,” said Sawyers, who raised two boys as a single parent. “I was scared to death.” Sawyers worked nearly two decades at the plant, starting out at the bottom on heavyduty cleanup and working up to a certified operator position. She was also in charge of the safety committee and was on the fire brigade, tasks she took pride in. “They used to call me the Green Hornet, but not to my face,” Sawyers said, because of her no-nonsense approach and green hard hat. “They had to toe the line with me and follow the rules.” Sawyers stayed “to the bitter end” of the plant’s phased shutdown. “It was sad and awful,” she said, “walking out that door for the last time.” Although the company offered retraining for displaced employees and she received unemployment benefits, Sawyers ate through her entire retirement account. “Even with unemployment and the bonuses we got for staying to the end, it was hard to make ends meet.” She planned to take advantage
of the offer to retrain as a nurse. But she found it hard to focus on the classes. “I chalked it up to my age,” Sawyers said. Sawyers fell back on her former work as a phlebotomist, a job she performed prior to moving to Mini-Cassia, and got her Idaho certification. “The job market was flooded, and there were few jobs for a phlebotomist in Mini-Cassia,” she said. She remained unemployed for about two years. She found a job in Twin Falls and commuted from her Burley home for about six years until her house sold. “I feel like I was really lucky; if it hadn’t been for working at Simplot I don’t think I would have ever been able to buy my own home,” Sawyers said. Her home had a Federal Housing Administration loan, so her payments were reduced when she lost her factory job — a factor she credits for not losing it through foreclosure. Sawyers’ job as a phlebotomist at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center doesn’t pay as much as the $17 an hour she made at Simplot, she said, but overall life is good and she has been able to purchase a home in Twin Falls. Looking back brings back the loss and sadness and the memories of that transitional period between jobs — when depression took center stage. “It was definitely a hard point in my life.” —Laurie Welch
THE PROJECT TEAM
Now Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins guides reporters and photographers through the creation of weekly Big Story packages. For a 2002-03 special project, as business editor, she followed seven displaced workers through their final days at Simplot and the process of starting over.
Reporter Laurie Welch was already a Mini-Cassia journalist during the closure of J.R. Simplot Co.’s Heyburn plant. She helped cover a legal battle between the company and the city of Heyburn prior to the closure, then covered the closure and its devastating effects on the community.
PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS
Mary Lou Herbert, who worked for Simplot for 30 years before its Heyburn plant closed, talks about life in retirement Jan. 13 at her home in Jackson. ‘I was worried nobody would want to hire people over 55, but as it turned out it wasn’t much of a problem at all,’ she says. Herbert was out of work only six months.
Mary Lou Herbert: ‘They found work if they wanted’ JACKSON — Mary Lou Herbert worked for 30 years at J.R. Simplot Co.’s plant in Heyburn and took its closure as an opportunity to further her education in wastewater treatment. Herbert performed many jobs during those years in packaging, processing, on the cutter deck and in outside sanitation before she was transferred to the plant’s wastewater-treatment facility across the Snake River from the potato plant. “I was very interested in the environmental impact end of it,” Herbert said. When the plant closed she took the time she spent unemployed to earn the remaining credits she needed for her associate degree in water resource management. “I was too far into it to ever change careers,” she said. “And I didn’t want to change.” In her mid-50s when the plant shut down, she was concerned her age might be a factor in finding employment, but that proved unfounded. “I think I knew the plant closing was coming before it happened,” she said, adding that Simplot let several hundred workers go in the years prior to the closure announcement. “I really got into a savings mode and saved all the money I could.” As a wastewater operator she was one of the last employees to leave. And within a few months of living on unemployment checks and her savings, she went to work at Burley’s wastewater treatment facility. After that, she worked at McCain Foods and then again for the city of Burley where she spent another four years before retiring in 2013. “I didn’t hear too much in the way of nightmare stories from people I had worked with,” she said. “For most of them, they found work if they wanted it.” Many former Simplot co-workers, she said, took the opportunity to go to college. Many others, like Herbert, have since retired. “A lot of us were just kids when we went to work for them,” she said. The Simplot jobs paid well,
TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
Mary Lou Herbert draws a sample from one of the processing tanks at the Simplot waste-treatment plant in Burley, across the Snake River from the company’s Heyburn factory, in 2002. Herbert, with advanced certification in wastewater treatment, would be one of the last workers laid off.
“I was very interested in the environmental impact end of it.” Mary Lou Herbert with benefits that provided for growing families. “That was one thing that kept people there.” It rocked people to the core when the plant closed, she said. “You think you’re stable and have a job for life and then it’s gone.” A lot of good things have happened in the community since the closure, Herbert said, “but you don’t come back from those types of shutdowns immediately.” —Laurie Welch
PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS
Mary Lou Herbert, who retired three years ago, hangs out at home Jan. 13 in Jackson. ‘I haven’t really ever been without a job since I was a teenager,’ she says.
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THE BIG STORY
E3 | Sunday, January 29, 2017
Times-News
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
City employee Floyd Thomas takes a measurement on conduit he’s fitting Dec. 27 at his offices in Burley.
Floyd Thomas: ‘One of the lucky ones’ BURLEY — Electrician Floyd Thomas worked nearly 10 years at Heyburn’s J.R. Simplot Co. plant. “When I heard it was closing it was pretty scary,” Thomas said. “I had no idea what to do and had bills to pay.” He was certified in his field and knew he could get another job, but he also knew he wouldn’t start out making the money he did at the plant. “You just don’t step into that,” he said. “I took a good hit.” Along with the loss of income, Thomas said, employees lost seniority at their jobs, vacation time and other benefits. After the plant closed in 2003 he was retained for a few additional months, which helped. But his wife, Brandee, was diagnosed at the end of that year with multiple sclerosis, adding to
his stress. She had been laid off the year before. As his job ended, so did his medical insurance — forcing him to pay $800 a month for stopgap COBRA insurance. “It was insane. Medical insurance is a big deal and a major expense,” Thomas said. The couple also had opened a coffee shop in Burley that didn’t provide an income, and at that point it added extra worry for Thomas. The Simplot plant always looked big before it closed, he said, but with the equipment stripped out it was like a ghost town. And he couldn’t seem to get away from it. He immediately went to work for an independent contractor hired to decommission the plant, then was hired by the city of Burley when the city took owner-
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Floyd Thomas changes out a meter Dec. 27 at Crossroads Bible Church in Burley. ship of the plant. He knew the plant inside and out. Hired by the city, he earned almost the same as he did at Simplot. “I consider myself one of the lucky ones,” said Thomas, who never drew an unemployment check and kept both his home and vehicles. “Not everyone was able to do that.” Floyd Thomas bends a piece of conduit. —Laurie Welch
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Gilbert Banda: ‘No regrets’ HEYBURN — J.R. Simplot Co. employee Gilbert Banda seized the opportunity to turn his part-time business into full-time income when the Heyburn plant closed. “I didn’t want to be dependent on unemployment, and I knew I had to get something going for myself,” Banda said. Banda worked for Simplot — first at its Burley plant, then in Heyburn — for 15 years, starting on the sorting tables and working up to a lead position. The job carried respon-
sibility coupled with good pay. “When we first heard about the plant closing, a Banda lot of people were scared about what was going to happen,” said Banda, who had a wife and two children relying on him. When the plant closed, Banda expanded his side job as a landscaper into a career. In the summer his son and
grandson help him with the bigger jobs at Banda’s Lawn Care, such as mowing the Heyburn Cemetery lawn. He offers mowing and other lawn chores like sprinkler maintenance and shrub and tree trimming. In the winter, he removes snow for clients. “One thing Simplot taught me was to cater to the customer,” he said. That gave him the courage to invest in more and larger equipment — when the job called for it. “I’m also a jack-of-all
trades,” Banda said. If an elderly customer asks him to fix a door, he does. “I have no regrets about going full time with this business,” he said. “I liked working for Simplot when I was there, but I was also tired of being cooped up inside. When they shut down I didn’t think twice, I just did it.” Banda said there was plenty of opportunity at the time to go to work for another local plant, if he had chosen. Many of his younger
LAURIE WELCH, TIMES-NEWS
Gilbert Banda, owner of Banda’s Lawn Care, cleans up snow at a North Burley parking lot Dec. 28. co-workers moved on to community has healed the other good jobs, and many hole left by the Simplot cloof the older ones have re- sure. —Laurie Welch tired. Overall, he said, the
Randy Dirickson: ‘I was ready to fall apart’ BLACKFOOT — For more than three decades, Randy Dirickson’s life revolved around J.R. Simplot Co.’s Heyburn potato plant. He started working for the company during harvest at 17, still in high school. He worked his way up to shift superintendent and during his time at the plant performed just about every job in between. “I kind of grew up there,” he said. There was little to pre-
pare Dirickson for the changes at age 50, when the plant’s machinery ground to a halt. Dirickson “I watched the very last fry go by and into the box and into the freezer,” he said. Dirickson had planned to retire from Simplot. Instead, he was thrown into
a business venture that collapsed and a job market wary of older workers. “It was hard at my age,” he said. Dirickson and his wife, Leslie, decided a good solution would be owning a business, and they found a convenience store for sale in Salmon. As the Heyburn plant wound down production, Dirickson felt secure that they would be able to step into this new business and
make a good living. They put money down on it and put their house up for sale; the house sold in two days. The business deal fell apart right before it was to close. The couple lost a substantial amount of money and didn’t have a place to live. “I was ready to fall apart,” Dirickson said, but Leslie encouraged him. The couple found a place to rent in Blackfoot and on
Dec. 1, the worst weather day of 2003, they moved. Both figured Blackfoot would allow them access to Pocatello and Idaho Falls job markets. Leslie went to work right away. Dirickson sent out resumes but no calls came, so he signed up for an educational program for displaced workers at Idaho State University and soon was driving a snowplow for the Idaho Transportation Department.
After a couple of years, he became the maintenance supervisor for ISU’s Holt Arena, where he worked for seven years. He moved on to a building maintenance position with Southeastern Idaho Public Health District, overseeing eight buildings. “I knew it was going to be rough, but I didn’t know how rough,” Dirickson said. “But looking back, it all worked out for the best.” —Laurie Welch
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THE BIG STORY
Times-News
Sunday, January 29, 2017 | E4
Simplot From E1
effort. Mitton and Curtis drove to Boise about 15 times to discuss the deal with Simplot and spoke on the phone with him at least that many times. In March 2004, the company gave Burley the entire 278-acre parcel, which included the potato plant, the company’s wastewater facility across the Snake River, property east of U.S. 30 and property west of the plant. The city incurred $52,500 in costs to take over the property — and Burley’s industrial park was born. To manage the industrial park, Burley contracted with The Boyer Co., which pays to develop the park and gives the city 10 percent of the gross rental revenues. The city has some costs for lighting and lift stations, but last year the city received more than $118,000 in its share of rents from the property. Simplot continued leasing the freezer from the city until 2013. The structures in the industrial park are nearly all leased, Mitton said, but the park still has room for construction.
Out of the ashes
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Since the Simplot plant’s closure, Mini-Cassia has recruited employers in a variety of sectors. “I’m not saying Mini-Cassia is totally out of the woods,” Roeser said, because the area now deals with growing pains like housing shortages and wage competition. But another indicator of a vital community, she said, is the need to build new schools. After voters passed a bond issue in 2015, Cassia County School District is building schools in Burley, Declo and Raft River and upgrading many others. “That’s an indicator of a growing work force,” Roeser said. Fortunately, Roeser said, the Simplot closure came at a time when Magic Valley leaders had also begun to work together at regional economic development. And Mini-Cassia officials doubled efforts to diversify the economy — to lessen the effect of any future business closures. “Diversity is the key to a healthier community,” Roeser said. “If the baskets are split it’s easier to bear.” Yes, Burley’s industrial park is in Heyburn, so Heyburn and Minidoka County receive the taxes. Mayor Cleo Gallegos, who has lived in Heyburn for more than 50 years and was on the Heyburn City Council when the Simplot plant closed, directly felt the effects of the plant’s shuttering, as her three brothers, mother and father lost their jobs. Being on the council during the closure announcement and its aftermath, she said, was a roller coaster. Now, Gallegos says giving Burley the plant was the right thing for Simplot to do. “Looking back, I don’t know if Heyburn would have withstood the impact of having it just sit there,” Gallegos said. And Heyburn may not have had the resources to develop it like Burley did. In a battle with Simplot over electrical rates, Heyburn had shouldered huge attorney’s fees prior to the plant’s closure. The city eventually settled out of court and, as part of the agreement, sold its electrical utility to a third party. “My personal feelings are that Burley getting the property was best for the community,” Gallegos said. Heyburn received land from Simplot that was later developed as the chamber of commerce and the Heyburn Riverside RV Park, arboretum and walking path. “It was all sagebrush and tumbleweeds,” Gallegos said. The closure announcement 15 years ago was devastating when it happened, she added. “But look at what has happened in the city since then.” Heyburn hasn’t entirely recovered, though. “We use to have two grocery stores and now we don’t. We haven’t completely built it back,” Gallegos said. Across U.S. 30 from the former Simplot plant is Tony’s Service, a gas and convenience store — now the only store in Heyburn that carries groceries. It’s co-owned by Heyburn native Carolyn Gallegos, who worked at Simplot for 20 years, and her husband, Tony, a Simplot employee for 18 years. “We felt the impact of it closing a little but not a whole lot,” Carolyn Gallegos said. An old-school attitude had kept the couple relatively debt free, she said, so the dip in customers didn’t break their business. And it wasn’t long before other businesses started opening in the old Simplot complex.
VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
Tony Cuellar, center, speaks with Sherry Rust of the College of Southern Idaho while his wife, Belinda Naranjo, right, looks over materials on starting a small business at a November 2002 job fair in Burley. Cuellar and Naranjo had been laid off from J.R. Simplot Co. in Heyburn the month before.
Mini-Cassia employment Mini-Cassia employment dropped sharply as J.R. Simplot Co. shuttered its Heyburn potato-processing plant piece by piece in 2002 and 2003, and annual average employment didn’t again reach the 2001 level until 2006. Annual average unemployment reached 6.9 percent as the plant closed. Averages for 2016 weren’t yet available; October employment was 21,817, with an unemployment rate of just 2.8 percent.
Unemployment Rate 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% 0
2001
2015
Number Employed 25000
20000
15000
10000
TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
5000
0
2015
2001
Candy Sanchez, center, laid off three months earlier, talks with former coworkers at Simplot’s August 2003 company picnic in Burley. The picnic — normally only for employees, families and retirees — was opened to those laid off during Simplot’s phased shutdown.
Source: Idaho Department of Labor
Mini-Cassia population Mini-Cassia population The populations of Cassia and Minidoka counties dipped after J.R. Simplot Co. announced a phased shutdown of its Heyburn plant in 2002, but now they’re on the rise again.
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
2001 Key:
2015 Cassia County
Minidoka County
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
LAURIE WELCH, TIMES-NEWS
The comeback
When Gossner built a new Swiss cheese plant at the industrial park in 2005, Mitton said, it put Burley back on the map with site selectors. “Every time we had an announcement, it hit all the trade magazines,” he said. “You can’t buy that kind of notoriety.” Mitton said the City Council at the time and the councils since all have supported growing the economy. Burley has been careful to offer grant assistance only to companies that paid good wages with benefits, and city officials do site visits at any prospective employers that the city thinks could have an unwanted impact on the community. The city has focused on attracting smaller companies, so when a business closes it doesn’t blast a Simplot-sized crater in the economy.
A week ago, the Labor Department’s release of preliminary 2016 data painted a healthy Mini-Cassia economy: annual average unemployment of just 3.1 percent — down from 3.5 percent the year before and almost 4 points lower than the 6.9 percent high reached after the Simplot closure. The two-county region added 300 jobs to bring the number of people employed to 21,782 last year. Six-hundred and fifty families felt immediate pain and loss when Simplot closed in Heyburn, and countless others lost potato contracts or felt an indirect economic punch. But through taxpayers’ willingness to shoulder the costs of growth, and government leaders’ wisdom to know what needed to be done, the wound healed. And the resulting diversity made the community more resilient.
Nimsi Santacruz prepares the drink station for the lunch crowd Jan. 18 at Upper Crust Bistro and Grill, one of the businesses in the Burley-Heyburn Industrial Park occupying the former Simplot factory site.
TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
Louis Gonzalez, right, helps fellow students at their GED math class in a J.R. Simplot Co. conference room in November 2002. Gonzalez and others worked toward high school equivalencies with the hope that the certificates would help them find jobs after the Heyburn plant’s closure.