Postville’s economy in flux
By Lynda Waddington
The Iowa Independent
9/15/08 6:44 AM
More storefronts are empty now in downtown Postville than they were four months ago when federal immigration enforcement agents raided the large Agriprocessors Inc। meatpacking plant in town. But that’s only part of the story when it comes to the town’s economy.
“It’s been tough,” said Bruce Stockman, owner of Best Place Auto Repair। His business, located just across the street from Agriprocessors human resources office and the plant gate, was frequented by many workers and supervisors at the plant. He pointed past a large multilingual metal sign on the front of the building to his three service bays. A white pickup sits in the first bay, but the other two are empty.
“I know there’s been a lot said [about Agriprocessors and the people that run the plant],” Stockman said। “But they’ve always done right by me — they’ve always treated me well, paid their bills and we’ve had a good working relationship.”
Not all business owners and managers in Postville, however, share Stockman’s assessment of the local economy। Sharon Drahn, editor of the Postville Herald-Leader, points out that economically there were two Postvilles.
“The immigrant community set up its own businesses in town,” she explained। “They were primarily patrons of those businesses. This is not to say that they didn’t buy from other businesses in town, but they didn’t make up most of the non-Hispanic business’s customer base.”
http://iowaindependent.com/5448/postvilles-economy-in-flux
