While deadlines have proved to be flexible in waiting for decisions from large companies, officials both in Albert Lea and St. Joseph, Mo. are confident that they could find out who wins the Premium Pork sweepstakes by the end of June.

&uot;I’d guess we’ll hear within the next two weeks,&uot; said Paul Sparks, Albert Lea city manager.

St. Joseph Mayor David Jones said he expects the decision within the next week.

Discrepancies in information about the company have been commonplace during the past few months, as both St. Joseph and Albert Lea have dealt with the start-up cooperative.

The company originally told the city it wanted to move as quickly as possible, and the city council rushed to approve an initial agreement with the company in mid-April, but there has been no word on a decision yet.

And a few major questions have not been cleared up. While all the information Albert Lea has received says there would be one plant and corporate headquarters which could grow to 2,000 employees, St. Joseph officials have said they’ve been told there will be two plants, with 1,000 employees.

Sparks said he is unsure of the reasons for discrepancies, but said that Rick Hoffman, the CEO of Premium Pork, hasn’t told him anything about two plants. Jones, on the other hand, has said Hoffman told him about the second plant.

Neither Jones nor Sparks was sure if the company had been considering two different plans for the different cities.

Attempts to reach Hoffman have been unsuccessful. A number of messages have been left for many of the company’s directors, but no phone calls have been returned.

The cooperative is made up of producers from throughout the Midwest, ranging from Sleepy Eye, Minn. to Franklin, Ken. to Jansen, Neb. to Lenexa, Kan.

The company formed in early January in Wyoming. Its reasons for forming in that state are unknown, as they would take most of their hogs from Midwestern producers.

According to Sparks, the board of the cooperative is meeting this week and may discuss a location decision. He said there are likely to be other issues, such as transportation distance for each hog producer for the different locations, that will be also be discussed.

&uot;They have to resolve that or (some producers) won’t want to be part of the deal,&uot; Sparks said.

With what is sounding like a final decision coming soon, Sparks and Jones said they were confident about their proposals, and had done everything in their abilities to put the right proposal on the table.

The proposal from Albert Lea is known to have $5.5 million in incentives, including tax increment financing, free land, and a flexible utility plan. Sparks also said the package is ready to go and that the city is ready to work with the company on any other details if needed.

Sparks said the city has secured a land deal if Albert Lea is picked.

&uot;That’s all under control,&uot; he said. &uot;We can buy it if we need to, and there’s no question of having to negotiate.&uot;

Sparks said the land deal has been ready for the past month. He did not say who owned the land, but did say it is in the southwest quadrant of the city.

Other than the incentives that have already been named, Sparks said the city has other incentives it is ready to toss in, but would not disclose what they were due to the competition of the process.

&uot;There are other pieces of this deal that will evolve with further discussion,&uot; he said.

The city council has authorized Sparks and Mayor Jean Eaton to negotiate with the company. The city has said it will only offer incentives if the plant includes a corporate headquarters, which is expected to bring up to 300 white-collar jobs in addition to the jobs in slaughtering and processing.

Jones has said that St. Joseph will have incentives with their land, but hasn’t said how much the incentives would be worth.

Jones said that the company is considering &uot;a couple of other communities,&uot; but refused to disclose their names.

The company &045; known as Premium Pork, LLC to Albert Lea officials, and as Premium Pork Allied Producers to St. Joseph &045; has told Albert Lea that it wants to build a 600,000-square-foot packinghouse and corporate headquarters that would process 4 million hogs a year and have an annual payroll of $100 million.