10/18/05 Marathon Cheese expands into Idaho

One of the largest natural cheese packagers in the US will build a 27 million dollar plant in Mountain Home. Marathon Cheese said at yesterday's ground breaking ceremony that it will hire 250 workers during its initial year of operation which will begin about twelve months from now when the plant is opened. The privately held company expects the payroll at its first western plant to double within five years. SWEARINGEN "Biggest economic development success Mountain Home has had since Mountain Home Air Force Base arrived. Ron Swearingen of the Impact Steering Committee in Mountain Home has been working on this project for more than a year. SWEARINGEN "Cheese is brought to them in large chunks anywhere from 40 to 640 pound blocks. This company either grinds it, grates it, slices it, chunks it, whatever the company wants them to do." Marathon officials say they looked at several sites in the West including Utah but decided on Elmore County because of a high quality work force. The city of Mountain Home will give Marathon 40 acres of build on. The state also promised to provide up to a half million dollars in rural development grants and as much as 1.65 million in state funds to train the people who will work there. Look for the construction work at Marathon Cheese to begin by the end of this month. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott