NEW CITY – Rockland County Legislator Joseph Meyers wants the legislature to review the history of the County Health Department’s oversight, inspection and enforcement of the existing 5,000 square foot New Square poultry processing facility in light of recent federal action against the operation of the existing New Square facility.

Late last month, federal authorities, through the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, filed a complaint against the existing poultry plant alleging that New Square Meats had violated the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act.  Federal Judge Stephen Robinson in White Plains agreed and ordered the slaughterhouse that supplies all the poultry to the Hasidic village of New Square padlocked. Federal authorities said New Square Meats has been selling uninspected poultry since 2002.

Meyers said there appears to have been some “funny business” going on about the inspection process.

“The plant operator announced to the State of New York that it no longer had to do inspections because the plant was processing enough chickens to fall within the federal regulatory framework, so then the federal regulators would be inspecting, but then they never filed the appropriate paperwork with the federal authorities to have the federal regulators inspect. So, they got the state to sit back and the state stopped inspecting, but then didn’t file the paperwork to get the federal government to inspect them,” he said.

As a result, Meyers wants to know what the county Health Department did or didn’t do regarding the plant.

Meyers would also like the state withdraw the $1.6 million grant awarded to the project under the Empire State Development program “Restore New York”. 

According to court papers filed by federal authorities which led to the ordered closure of the plant, federal investigators said they found poultry residue on walls and light fixtures and in the manager's office. Employee restrooms had no soap or hand sanitizer. There was mold on walls and overhead areas, and rubbish and foul-smelling pools of water were found outside the plant. A chiller tank lacked running water, even though it was full of processed birds. A plant official told inspectors in 2005 that an unrefrigerated van was used to transport product.

In October of last year, Meyers introduced legislation now pending before the Legislature, objecting to the new 25,000 square foot poultry processing facility that is proposed to replace the existing facility and be built on Route 45 in the Village of New Square.