At Tuesday evening's Fulton City Council meeting, it appeared that city officials and owners of Central Missouri Meat and Sausage were on different pages when it came to annexation.
Co-owners Kenny Brinker and Cory Hawkins, who also is operations manager, said their plans never included bringing their business into the city limits.
"We're planning to put in our own (sewer) system," Brinker told council members and city administrator Bill Johnson. "We, as owners, never had any intention to ask for voluntary annexation."
The business, which includes a restaurant, smokehouse, butcher shop and meat-processing center, is at 5009 Pendergrad Road, just off U.S. 54. When the business really started to grow, and then became a USDA-certified facility, certain requirements had to be met.
"We were required to have a sewer system," Hawkins said.
The owners spent $5 million expanding. Per month, the business uses about 70,000 gallons of water, purchased from the county, and contracted with the city of Fulton to provide sewer services.
A contract was signed Dec. 10, 2014 with the city for provision of sewer services, Brinker said. Included in that contract was a provision stating if the business intended to continue with those services past a two-year period of time, they would voluntarily ask to be annexed into the city of Fulton.
The owners, instead, planned to construct their own closed sewer system and began negotiations with a neighbor to purchase his property for this project. However, that owner died before the sale could be completed - thus, work has not started to construct the sewer system. Work could start in May and perhaps be done by August.
Brinker asked city council members for an extension, but some city officials instead expressed disappointment. Annexation, they've said, would have brought extra tax income to the city.
Johnson said the city had three options: Disconnect Central Missouri Meat from the city system, let them stay connected but increase their rate or extend the contract.
Council member Richard Vaughan said the decision to offer the business service had previously been discussed by members of the city council in the hopes of future annexation.
"I feel like we were pretty much taken (advantage of)," he said.
Brinker said a meat-processing facility - where livestock is put to death and rendered for consumption and other uses - is better off outside of city limits.
"I don't think it's compatible," he said. "Ten years from now, we'll wish we weren't in the city limits, and 10 years from now, you'll wish we weren't, either."
No decision was made at Tuesday's meeting. The matter was tabled until the March 14 city council meeting instead.
Also attending Tuesday's meeting were state Rep. Travis Fitzwater and two MoDOT employees: Mike Schupp (area engineer) and Garrett DePue (senior traffic studies specialist), who discussed safety improvements to the intersection of Tennyson Road and state Highway C.